Hag Quotes

“I am vulnerable to superstitions and fairy tales, the pockets of weirdness smattering the land.”
― Daisy Johnson, Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold

“Inherent in retelling is – at first – destruction. Breaking down from the inside out. Suggested is respect but what is really there is vengeance, violence, retribution, the allure of denigration.”
― Daisy Johnson, Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold

“traditional tales are neither so simplistic nor so predictable. They give generous space to the subaltern voice: to the powerless, to the poor, to girls and wives, even to animals, all those creatures who need to find ways not only to survive in this difficult world, but to live well in it, despite the dark forces ranged against them. These stories compel, seizing our attention with their strangeness while at the same time speaking clearly to shared themes of human existence. They explore huge questions: of love and loss, and of the conditions under which we do our everyday work and how we might thrive in it. They patrol the shadowy borderlands between life and death and they tease out our hopes and fears for our children. They demand we consider issues such as migration, asking who belongs here, who can make a home here, who can find the strength to begin all over again in a strange new land – and who might have been here for much longer than you think. Folktales pick fights about disability and aging, about women and men, and, crucially, they hold out to us the environments in which we live – our much-loved British countryside – and show how it might slip through our fingers.”
― Daisy Johnson, Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold

“do you need me to imply she was a distant relative of mine to have your interest piqued? And should that pique then be used to encourage an emotional investment in her? And for you to be emotionally invested in the well-being of an unknown woman, must she be someone you like? You know, she might not have been but, sure, I also might not be and you might be absolutely horrific. Let’s face it, we can never know. So,”
― Daisy Johnson, Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold

“got used to not telling them these stories.”
― Daisy Johnson, Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold