Original subtitles

hey there i'm mike ragnetta this is

crash course mythology and today we're

going to shift just slightly from our

discussion of monsters to talk about

monstrous humans monstrous human women

to be exact we're discussing witches and

hags many scary magical ladies you know

what's scariest about them it's their

giant gross moles just kidding it's

their habit of turning people into stone

tote no

[Music]

before we start a quick reminder that

many cultures which created these myths

are patriarchal and many of the stories

we're going to look at are more than a

little misogynistic devoting an episode

to terrifying women doesn't mean we're

endorsing the idea that women especially

older wiser women

are horrible and actually in many

stories it's not even clear whether

these women are really so horrible they

may just be trying to protect themselves

and their place in the social or

metaphysical order really one myth's

forest hag might be another's fairy

godmother after just a little shift in

perspective anyway just something to

keep in mind while we're dissing on all

these hags so when i say witch there's

almost certainly an image that comes to

mind many myths especially folk and

fairy tales feature old women described

as ugly or misshapen and with

frightening magical powers there are a

few exceptions but most witches use

their powers for evil depending upon the

tradition which is synonymous with or

akin to hag in many myths hags are

magical old women who are responsible

for giving people bad dreams some hags

even sit on the chest of their sleeping

victims sprinkling bad images into their

minds in norse mythology the hag is

called a mare or mara and they come in

the night to torment you a mayor at

night a nightmare get it that's a thing

a nightmare in celtic mythology there's

a hag called the kalakh who often

appears with a staff and likes to make

everybody cold and miserable in one

scottish tradition she comes down from

her mountain home on november 1st beats

her staff on the ground and ushers in

winter but not all kylocks manifest such

awesome power in one story the kalakh is

basically just a petty thief the story

begins long ago in the parish of kirk

lonen where the widow inay mccarron

lives with her three daughters calibreed

khalifani and calivara their father

having died years ago left behind a

leather bag full of gold coins that ine

keeps under the hearthstone in front of

the fire the gold coins are how she

provides for the family one day an old

hag comes knocking at the door spoiler

alert she's the caller and she's a

hungry cow look at that innae just sees

an old woman though and she doesn't like

to turn a beggar away so she invites the

kalak in for soup when she returns with

a shawl to comfort the shivering old

woman the kailakh is gone

and so is the mccarran stash without

their gold the family is hungry and

desperate eventually colibri the oldest

tells her mother that she's leaving to

make her fortune and that if she doesn't

return in a year they can assume that

she's made it big innae bakes her

daughter an oat cake for her journey but

before sending her off innae asks for

one piece of it in exchange for a

blessing but calibri doesn't know when

she's gonna have her next meal so she

refuses her mother early in her journey

colibri finds a house and

surprise the kylock lives there the

kalak offers calibri a job as her maid

but only on one condition

never clean the chimney calibri agrees

and goes to sleep the next day calibri

definitely looks in the chimney where lo

and behold she finds her family's lost

bag of gold without thinking twice she

sets out for home so let's see what

happens next in the thought bubble on

her way home calibri passes a horse who

asks her to rub him down calibreed

refuses later she passes a sheep who

asks her to shear him again she refuses

then she passes a goat a lime kiln a cow

and finally a mill refuses them all at

this point she's so tired that she goes

inside the mill and falls asleep in the

meantime the kallak returns home to find

that the bag of gold is missing running

outside she finds a horse have you seen

a girl pass this way i have says the

horse the same with the sheep the goat

the lime kiln the cow and the mill who

says i've got her sleeping inside me

right now the kala creeps inside and

touches cali breed's shoulder with a

hazel wand turning her into stone a year

and a day later the second daughter

khalifani decides it's her turn to go

fortune seeking and it's the same deal

oat cake no blessing made job chimney

bag grab horse sheep goat kiln cow mill

refusal falling asleep and yep turned to

stone another year and a day later it's

calivaro's turn unlike her greedy

sisters she gives a piece of the oat

cake to her mother she takes the job

steals the gold gets on her way but when

she comes across the horse she rubs it

down she shears the sheep and changes

the goat's tether cleans the lime kiln

and milks the cow she turns the mill and

after all her hard work she falls asleep

on a sack of flour presumably not

noticing the stone statues of her

sisters when the collock rushes off to

find calivara she asks the animals and

the kiln if they've seen her and each

one says no when she gets to the mill

and asks if it saw the girl the mill

catches the kalak in its cogs and grinds

her up thanks that bubble the calyx

screams wake calivara and the helpful

mill tells her to pick up the wand and

touch the stones in the corner as soon

as the wand touches them they turn back

into her very surprised sisters the mill

then tells calivaro to touch the wand to

the leather bag and it will never be

empty and then to burn the wand so it

can never harm anyone again the girls do

as they're told and return home to their

mother with the leather bag this story

contains a lot of familiar tropes of the

dangerous and devious witch she looks

like an old woman she shows up on

someone's doorstep she has a house in

the woods and she has a magic wand that

she uses for nefarious purposes and like

monsters and other mythical creatures

she's notable for her ugly wrinkly

appearance it's kind of a bummer that

old age is used as a sign of evil so

often i mean i've met a ton of old folks

and only like six of them tops were

probably magical villains another

hideous old woman who is more than she

seems is baba yaga i know this story is

not about john wick it's about the hag

of russia and eastern europe but she's

just as terrifying if you cross her with

bulging eyes that can turn people to

stone apparently stoning people is like

the go-to spell for old magical ladies

anyway she lives alone in a birch forest

in a hut that sits atop a pair of

chicken legs the hut is surrounded by

human skulls and each day the hut is

visited by three ghostly riders one

dressed in white one in red and one in

black these riders represent the passage

of time baba yaga flies through the

night sky on a giant mortar that she

rows with a giant pestle she wipes away

her tracks with a birch broom and like

the windigo she's a cannibal with a

penchant for luring princesses to her

hut for

dinner according to brenda rosen some

scholars believe that originally baba

yaga was a potent female nature spirit a

provider of healing protection and

guidance in this respect she's similar

to another terrifying female creature

from greek mythology the gorgon medusa

this snake-headed stone-making lady may

not seem to be much of a protector or a

guide but there's one myth that says

blood from the right side of a gorgon

can bring a corpse back to life while

blood from the left side is deadly

poison turns out also the name medusa is

related to the ancient greek word for

protect and can be translated as

guardian so maybe she just has a bad

reputation because of mean old perseus

and of course her petrifying visage

these three different frightening

females are from different times and

places but they have a number of things

in common they're hideous ancient and

dangerous one wrong move you get turned

to stone hags are seen as monstrous

because of their ability to transform

themselves and others and their tricky

conniving ways but perhaps they also

reflect a societal discomfort with old

age which works its own transformations

on the body in cultures that valorize

youth that old age can seem terrifying

especially when it comes to women but

old age is also very powerful especially

when you have a hazel wand or a snake

hairdo to swing around next time we

start our two two-episode wrap-up of the

whole series i know i'm gonna miss you

too tote i'm also gonna miss you guys

we're gonna talk about freud and young

and the psychological aspects of

mythology thanks for watching we'll see

you soon unless baba yaga sees you first

check out our crash course mythology

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crash course mythology is filmed in the

chad and stacy emigos studio in

indianapolis indiana and is produced

with the help of all of these very nice

people our animation team is thought

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grandparents might be old but that

annual sweat suit they gift you is not

a curse

or maybe it is