The Crone Is Also The Hag
A crone is not unlike the other word, “hag” which is less politically correct when used in front of crones; –for instance, one can rest assured that one’s grandmother would surely slap one if they were to call her a hag to her face, however, crone might get a better response. Crone seems to denote for lack of a better description, a sense of neutral wisdom about the world, while hag on the other hand, is more akin to, “Gretel, would you mind checking to see how hot the oven is?” And in that fashion is how the hag or crone is often referenced in many instances of folklore from cultures all over the world.
The hag is most often than not a malevolent figure in folklore. She appears as a very, very old woman, and the Old English term for witch was “hægtesse”; hence where the hag’s naughty reputation came from. In British and Anglophone North American legends and folklore, the hag was a nightmarish spirit. This legendary form of the hag is very closely related to the Anglo-Saxon “mæra”, a term for the spirit of nightmares with Germanic origins, as almost identical to the Scandinavian mara. According to the folklore surrounding the Old Hag, or just Hag, she would sit on a sleeper’s chest, and put nightmares in their heads, also making it hard for them to breathe –there is a similar legend that cats in the form of witches will steal a child’s breath in the same fashion. In the morning, they would find it hard to breathe, and in a disarray… The term for this state was “hagridden.”
In Irish mythology is the hag goddess Cailleach, who rules over storms, harvests, and sovereignty. In Scotland, the similar legend is of “The Cailleachan” who are actually three hags, that represent the destructive aspects of nature, mainly storms. The period in Scotland known as A Chailleach in spring, when storms and winds are frequent, is when the three hags are supposedly the most active. The legends of Peg Powler, Jenny Greenteeth, and Nellie Longarms are stories of wicked hags invented by British mothers to keep their children away from the water’s edge. Parents would tell their children that if they got too close to the lake/river/water’s edge, that the hag would reach out with monstrously hideous long arms, pull them in, drown them, and eat them.