Hag

The Hag is a creature of the White Witch's dark army, summoned along with other horrors to witness and carry out the humiliation and execution of Aslan. She belongs to the same foul company as the Cruels, the Boggles, the Ogres, the Minotaurs, the Spectres, and the People of the Toadstools—beings so monstrous that the narrator declines to describe them fully for fear that grown-ups would forbid children to read the book. The Hag's presence marks the moral nadir of the story: she is part of the mob that jeers at the bound Lion, spits on him, and drags him to the Stone Table.

Role in Aslan's Sacrifice

When Aslan walks calmly into the midst of his enemies on the moonlit hilltop, the Hag is among the first to approach him. The narrator notes that she and her kind "grinned and leered" but also "hung back and half afraid of what they had to do"—a telling detail that reveals the Hag's cowardice: she only dares to act because Aslan offers no resistance. At the White Witch's repeated command, "Bind him, I say!," the Hag darts forward and shrieks with triumph when she finds that the great Lion makes no move to defend himself. She then joins the evil dwarfs and apes in rolling Aslan onto his back and tying his four paws together, shouting and cheering as if she had done something brave, though the narrator observes that one of Aslan's paws could have killed them all had he chosen to use it.

The Shaving and the Muzzle

After Aslan is bound, the Hag remains part of the crowd that surrounds him. An ogre with a pair of shears shaves off Aslan's golden mane, and the mob—including the Hag—surges around him, jeering with taunts like "Puss, Puss! Poor Pussy" and "How many mice have you caught to-day, Cat?" The Hag does not speak, but her presence among the mockers is enough: she is one of the faces in the ring of cruelty. When the White Witch orders, "Muzzle him!," the Hag and the others work about Aslan's face, fitting the muzzle over his mouth. The narrator emphasizes that even now, one bite from his jaws would have cost two or three of them their hands, but he never moves—and this very passivity seems to enrage the Hag and the rest of the rabble, who kick him, hit him, spit on him, and jeer at him until they have had their fill.

The Four Torch-Bearers

At the climax of the sacrifice, when Aslan has been hoisted onto the Stone Table and tied into a mass of cords, a hush falls over the crowd. Four Hags, each holding a torch, take up positions at the four corners of the Table. Their torches burn with "evil-looking red flames and black smoke," casting a lurid, hellish light on the scene. The Hag's role here is purely ceremonial: she is one of the four designated torch-bearers, a function that underscores her place as a ritual attendant to the Witch's execution. It is in this light—the gleam of the Hag's torch falling on the Witch's stone knife—that the children, watching from the bushes, see the blade for the first time. The Hag does nothing else; she simply holds her torch and watches as the White Witch whets her knife, bares her arms, and stoops to deliver the fatal blow.

Narrative Significance

The Hag appears only in this single, concentrated scene, yet she serves a crucial narrative function. She is part of the "rabble" that embodies the full spectrum of evil in Narnia—not the grand, majestic evil of the White Witch, but the petty, cowardly, gleeful cruelty of those who serve her. The Hag's willingness to torment a bound and helpless victim, her shriek of triumph when she finds he will not fight back, and her ceremonial role as torch-bearer all mark her as a creature utterly devoid of honor or courage. She is the kind of evil that only flourishes when power is absolute and resistance is absent. In the moral economy of the story, the Hag represents the lowest rung of villainy: she is not a leader, not a warrior, not even a named individual—she is simply one of the many faces of malice that gather around the Stone Table, and her anonymity makes her all the more chilling.