Hag

Certain herbs, placed above windows and doorways, can prevent a hag from entering a building or room. These include sprigs of rowan, St. John’s wort, and four-leaf clovers. Cold iron, such as a horseshoe, placed above a door or window has the same effect. ◆ St. Merren’s School has recently welcomed its first class of boys to the idyllic Derbyshire countryside. The building was constructed near a river, where swimming and boating are encouraged – but several boys have gone missing, to the dismay of their wealthy parents and the embarrassment of the school. The authorities, including experts from Scotland Yard, are combing the area without success. No one pays any attention to local legends about a dangerous spirit inhabiting the river. ◆ The village of Amberforth is facing ruin. Spring somehow failed to come in this remote corner of England, leaving the frozen ground too hard to plow and the newborn lambs and calves freezing to death. A local hag has been angered somehow, and is punishing her mortal neighbors with an everlasting winter. ◆ The village of Broadfleet has become home to a thriving colony of artists, writers, and other bohemian types. Many are dabbling in occultism, and a small group has begun researching ancient pagan goddesses and attempting to reconstruct their worship. A local hag, diminished since the coming of Christianity twelve centuries ago, has made contact with the budding cult. She is careful to keep her true nature secret as she guides the mortals toward establishing the germ of a cult, in the hope of growing it until she regains her former power. The cailleach bheur (pronounced kall-­yach vair, approximately) from Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man is a personification of winter, with a blue face and a skinny, starveling figure. She can call up bad weather at will. They were once weather goddesses, but are now diminished by the spread of Christianity. They are ruled by a one-­eyed giantess named Beira, who claims the title Queen of Winter. Black Annis, from Leicestershire, has a blue face and iron claws in place of nails, with which she can dig a cave from solid rock to shelter in. She waits in ambush to seize and devour passing children and lambs, for their meat is the tenderest. Jenny Greenteeth from Lancashire and Peg Powler from the River Tees lurk underwater and drag careless children to their deaths in deeper water. The Fad Felen of Gwynedd in Wales was sent as a punishment for the sins of the people. She might appear anywhere on the same errand. She has gray skin and her hair, teeth, and eyes are all yellow. She walks with a hunched gait, and her hands are armed with claws as hard as iron. Her name means “yellow pestilence” and her breath carries the plague.