You know, I didn't actually plan on what happened here with the unicorn. I included one on a whim when drawing the courtyard panel a couple strips ago, as one of the many victims held prisoner by the Songbirds of Rhiannon. But damned if Sharon didn't insist on rescuing the thing. She did try to warn me, so many years ago...
Now I'm not sure what to do with it. Unlikely the unicorn will play a huge role in the story to come, but you never know with these things. After all, in the original conception of Thunderstruck, Gail didn't play a huge role either. Look how that turned out.
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That you remember a single line you wrote over ten years ago and ten chapters ago and allow it to influence the story is one of the reasons why I'm such a fan of your work.
The word "hag" brings a picture of an ugly, unpleasant old woman to my mind. The context in the February page (Thrud and Sharon discuss how dangerous they can be, and Thrud says one wrestled her father to a standstill) suggests that in this mythos, it means a particular type of spirit.
Mallt-y-Nos's transformation in this page makes me wonder idly - what's the definition you're using? What are the boundaries for who is and isn't one? And what are the characteristics for them?
Hi Douglas,
I'm using "hag" as a kind of catch-all term for any powerful spirit who appears in the form like an old woman. A being who appears as a hag can also appear in other ways, given the right circumstances... so you might say a hag is not necessarily always a hag. For instance, there are some depictions of the same Celtic/Gaelic creator goddess who is the Cailleach in hag form (during winter), and Brighde in her maiden form (during summer).
Anyway, in the few myths I'm aware of about Mallt-y-Nos, she started out as a beautiful woman, but then went on to say something inauspicious along the lines of "If there's no hunting in Heaven, then I'd rather not go," and ended up running with the Wild Hunt forever as a hag, regretting her rash words.
Thunderstruck, as you know, takes a loose approach to myth... I try to use it as a foundation, but then re-interpret within the comic's own mythology. Mallt-y-Nos in this universe "rejected heaven" in the sense that she refused to side with Yahveh, and thus ended up in the Exile World unable to rescue her true love. The souring experience caused her to assume the hag form Sharon meets, but in reuniting with her beloved she reverts to her younger self.
Thus she is "un-hagged," if I may coin a term. Though no less dangerous...
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