Based Camp | Simone & Malcolm Collins
Based Camp | Simone & Malcolm Collins
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We Stopped Fearing Swamp Hags & Society Collapsed (A Historic Anthropology)
In this eye-opening episode of Based Camp, Simone and Malcolm Collins dive deep into the ancient archetype of the “Swamp Hag” – those deranged, liminal women from folklore who live on the edges of society, brewing potions, keening like banshees, and disrupting the peace. Drawing from European, Eurasian, and global myths (think Baba Yaga, Banshees, and even Jewish Bal Shems), we explore how these figures warned communities about real threats: spiteful mutants, mystical outsiders, and unmoored individuals who could harm society if not isolated. But are swamp hags just insults, or do they reveal timeless truths about human genetics, physiognomy, and social roles? We discuss modern manifestations – from screaming protesters (hello, banshees like Greta Thunberg) to bureaucratic “Karens” in the deep state, Wiccans on Etsy, and even Disney’s evolving witch tropes (from villains in Snow White to mentors in Owl House). Why do cultures converge on these stories? How have we lost the plot by empowering liminal people in leadership? And what can we learn to protect our kids and rebuild prejudice against dangerous mystics? Plus, a fun tangent on family life, JD Vance’s fourth kid, and mystery curries. If you’re into folklore, cultural evolution, pronatalism, and unfiltered takes Episode Notes * Asmongold: * Regularly refers to deranged women at protests as swamp hags; he and his chat sometimes also realize, while watching clips of white women losing composure, that they’re basically banshees * He has pointed out that every major culture has some sort of trope or mythology around this archetype: * He has also mused over how these women are just born in the wrong time and place; that they’d probably be just fine off in a swamp somewhere selling mushrooms * And this had me thinking he’s on to something Swamp Hags The “swamp hag” or woods-dwelling old woman selling herbs and mushrooms is a modern variation of a very old European and Eurasian hag/crone figure: an aged, liminal woman at the edge of society and of the wild, who can be healer, monster, or initiatory guide. Deep roots of the hag * The English word hag comes from Old English hægtesse, a term for a witch or night spirit, later generalized to mean a wizened old woman associated with magic and malice * Across European folklore, hags and crones are depicted as ugly, elderly women living apart from the community and engaging in witchcraft, often as figures who threaten children, twist weather, or curse travelers. * At the same time, early hag figures also preserve traces of older wise-woman roles—midwives, healers, diviners, and nature spirits—whose powers later get demonized as witchcraft. Swamp hags * Swamps and bogs have long been imagined as uncanny spaces—places of rot, spirits, and monsters—so attaching the hag figure to swamps (rather than just generic woods) taps into older associations between wetlands, death, and dangerous female beings. * Specific “old woman of the swamps” or swamp crone figures appear in Native and global folklore as spirits born from decaying tools or matter, personifying swampy decay and moisture as an aunt or old woman who haunts wet lowlands. * Contemporary fantasy and horror (RPGs, video games, TV tropes) codify all this into the recognisable swamp/forest hag: a dirty, old woman in a shack or hut amid trees and bogs, trading herbs, fungi, and curses—directly inheriting the wise-woman healer, the cannibal witch (like Baba Yaga), and the land-crone goddess, but flattened into a stock “witch in the woods” character. Mythological forest hags * In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is a classic forest hag: an ancient crone in a hut on chicken legs, deep in the woods, who may eat people or aid them, embodying both threat and rough mentorship. * Baba Yaga’s hut, bone fence, skull lanterns, and association with wild animals mark her as a guardian of the forest and of a boundary between worlds, not just a generic villain. * Scholars have linked Baba Yaga to older nature or underworld goddesses (sometimes compared to Persephone), emphasizing her role as a symbol of wild, transformative feminine power rather than pure evil. Celtic and North Atlantic crone goddesses * In Irish and Scottish tradition, the Cailleach is a hag-goddess of winter, weather, mountains, and sovereignty, imagined as an old woman who shapes the land and rules the harsh season. * Local hags such as Black Annis (a blue-faced, child-eating cave-dweller in Leicester) or the Hag of the Mist and Hag of Hell in Welsh lore are monstrous, weather-and-death-linked old women haunting marginal landscapes like caves, bogs, and foggy crossings. * These figures blur human witch, land spirit, and goddess: they can represent winter, storms, or death, while also preserving memory of powerful female beings who predate later male-dominated religious systems. Banshees * The Banshee is originally an Irish and Scottish “otherworld woman” who keens for the dead of particular families, and only later becomes a generalized screaming death‑ghost or attack monster in modern media. * The word banshee is from Irish bean sídhe or bean sí, meaning “woman of the (fairy) mounds” or “otherworldly woman,” * The banshee is part of a wider mythos of fairy beings tied to ancient hills and barrows. * Descriptions vary: in many Irish accounts she can appear as a beautiful young woman, a stately matron, or an old hag, sometimes with long unbound hair, red or green clothing, and eyes red from weeping. * Traditionally, the banshee is a familial spirit, attached to old Gaelic lineages (often O’ or Mac names), whose wail foretells the imminent death of a member of that family. * She is usually not malicious: her keening functions as mourning and warning, making her more a messenger or guardian than a killer, and some stories portray her as grieving deeply for the person who will die. * Very Greta Thunberg * Some accounts restrict banshees to a few ancient aristocratic families, while others extend them to a wider range of Irish surnames and even to diaspora descendants who claim a “family banshee.” * Reminds me of snark content creators and commentors * Historians often connect the banshee to real keeners (bean chaointe)—professional women who led funeral laments (caoineadh) in medieval and early modern Ireland. * Over time, tales arose that certain noble families had a supernatural keener, a fairy woman who would lament before a death, elevating the social role of human keeners into a mythic, otherworldly form. * In some folk explanations, a banshee is the spirit of a woman who was a keener in life and now continues her office imperfectly or as a form of penance, blending social practice with religious and supernatural imagery. How Hags, Crones, and Swamp Hags Lost Nuance and Became One Note * Outside the Celtic context, the banshee is frequently turned into a generic shrieking ghost or sonic-weapon monster whose scream harms people directly, stripping away her specific family and keening associations. * Historically, village “wise women” and herb-wives sold remedies, charms, and knowledge of plants and animals; later witchcraft accusations targeted many of these same practitioners, especially poor older women on the social margins. * Over time, the helpful herbalist/healer and the dangerous poisoner/witch merged in popular imagination, turning the solitary, aging woman in the woods from a community resource into a feared supernatural threat. * The hag/crone thus functions as an archetype of the post-reproductive woman excluded from respectable domestic roles, her age and liminality translated into both magical power and social suspicion. Common Characteristics of Historical Hags and Banshees * Often appearing in swamps or in liminal areas * Responsible only for themselves * Not moored to a husband, church, family, or children * Female * The male version of liminal, unmoored humans is: * Marauder / vagrant / outlaw / bandit * Hermit / wild man of the woods * Wizard * Trickster * Chaotic figures that, * When doing good: Provide warnings, cures, healing, medical care, and wisdom * When doing evil: Are loud and annoying, disrupt order, curse, poison, and kill Karens: The Modern Mythological Hags Karens and other forms of abrasive affluent white woman could be argued to just be modern versions of hags and banshees * Like these mythological figures, they disproportionately occupy swamps * I.e. large bureaucracies (“drain the swamp”) * Like these mythological figures, they’re disproportionately of European ancestry * One of our listeners proposed the concept of the concept of the Karen just being racism against European women * “I think the “Karen” thing is a brown people taking charge of culture thing.” * And to her point, The “Karen” as a named trope for an entitled, abrasive (usually white) woman emerged online in the 2010s and crystallized through Reddit and “Black Twitter” * She continued: Picture old German white women keeping everyone in line and making sure they obey the rules…”Karen” lets white women know they can’t be oppressive rule-enforcers anymore. * She told a story of a time when she and her husband were late for a plane in a South American country and the airline held it for them. “They made 300 people wait an extra five minutes or so for two irresponsible people. We didn’t think it was okay. We didn’t think they should wait for us. But that is the culture. “Be chill.” That’s also why they will never be rich or outcompete cultures that value not being chill....” * She also pointed out: “Studies have been done on preferences for quiet showing that the northern European genome strongly prefers quiet compared to southern.” How to Save the Karens Or Maybe the Problem is Us, Not Them? * One can imagine that in the past, if there were an abrasive woman living in town who harangued residents
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