“Hag” is the short story I’m currently working on. I’ve mentioned that, but it’s possible not everyone knows what I mean by saying that my main character is a hag.
Probably the most familiar usage of “hag” is as a synonym for a witch. It can also be used to insult a woman by implying she is ill-tempered and/or appears old and wrinkly. In folklore from the British Isles, a hag was a kind of evil fairy. Peg Powler and Jenny Greenteeth are two well known hags from folk stories.
Night Hags were believed to fly around at night. They would sit on people’s chests and cause them to have terrible nightmares. When they woke up, they couldn’t move. Sleep paralysis is a real thing, and it’s thought that stories about Night Hags was an attempt to explain it.
River Hags were cannibals who lived in lakes and rivers. They were said to lurk near the shore and snatch up children who strayed too close to the bank. These folk tales are clearly cautionary, intended to warn children away from the danger of drowning.
In other cases, hags were believed to control the weather. They were blamed for causing bad storms in winter. Some others are thought to be diminished forms of ancient Celtic goddesses, who would sometimes disguise themselves as old women.
As for my story, the hags of Dolarus Swamp are River Hags. Long ago, they banded together with human wizards to defeat a demonic empire. The demons are still imprisoned beneath the waters of the swamp, and the hags are responsible for keeping them there. Like the goddesses of old, they have shape-changing powers and can impersonate any creature that lives in the swamp.
I also worked in the child-snatching thing, in a different way. Some of the humans who live near the swamp would abandon unwanted children there. They believed the hags would eat the children. Instead, the hags adopted the kids and performed a series of rituals that transformed them into new hags. So even though they did not have children, the race of hags could go on defending the Dolarus Swamp.
Working with folklore is lots of fun. When editors eventually see this story, and remember the legend of cannibal hags, I hope they will be surprised by how I used the material.
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