Young Hag by Isabel Greenberg
Graphic novelist Isabel Greenberg's latest fantastical tale retells Arthurian legend from a female perspective
When it might seem like the Arthurian legend has already been exploited to the point of exhaustion, Isabel Greenberg presents Young Hag, a fresh and whimsical take on some of the most notable episodes of western mediaeval mythology. Readers will encounter many familiar inhabitants of Camelot, but at the heart of this story is the eponymous Young Hag, a novel introduction from Greenberg in an effort to decentralise the popular narrative from the men who consistently play protagonists.
Young Hag, a girl born at a time when magic is disappearing from Britain, is a descendant of the last witches in the human world, although her coven has long lost the ability to do magic. Hers is a story of heritage and self-determination, a heroine’s journey to reopen the paths between Britain and the Otherworld.
With a charming art style and a vibrant set of quirky characters, Young Hag is a fun and memorable tale. Its weakness is mostly structural: while it means to comment on the importance of stories, this heroine’s journey relies so heavily on flashbacks and in-narrative storytelling that it hardly feels like a journey at all. And while Young Hag can’t be found anywhere else in the Arthurian corpus, this strong female character might seem familiar to fans of other tales of female empowerment. Although admittedly, to Greenberg’s point, the abundance of feisty girls in literature is still far from that of fearless knights and wise wizards.