What is a Hag Stone in Folklore? The Celtic Amulet of Second Sight | BgRemovit
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What is a Hag Stone in Folklore? The Celtic Amulet of Second Sight
Wondering what is a hag stone in folklore? Discover the Celtic origins of these naturally holed rocks used to ward off witches and see into the fairy realm.
If you have ever walked a shingle beach in Sussex or combed the shores of the Hebrides, you may have kicked aside one of the most potent artifacts in European folk magic. So, exactly what is a hag stone in folklore? Simply put, it is a rock with a naturally occurring hole running completely through it, carved by centuries of water erosion or boring mollusks. But in British and Celtic tradition, these "holey stones" are profound protective amulets. They are believed to ward off witches, prevent nightmares, cure disease, and offer a literal window through which a mortal might glimpse the fairy realm.
While modern crystal shops attempt to commodify them, authentic folk magic insists these stones cannot be bought, sold, or artificially drilled. Their power lies entirely in the violence of their creation: the relentless, unyielding force of water. Because witches and malevolent spirits were historically believed to be unable to cross running water, a stone bored through by the sea carries the ultimate elemental immunity.
What is a Hag Stone in Folklore? The Anatomy of a Witch Stone
To understand what is a hag stone in folklore, you have to look at the intersection of geology and superstition. Most commonly found along the coastal regions of the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Northern Europe, these stones are typically made of flint or limestone. The holes are created either by the mechanical grinding of smaller pebbles caught in a depression, or by the piddock—a bivalve mollusk that secretes acid to bore into soft rock.
Folklorists and cunning folk (historic village magic practitioners) cared little for marine biology. To them, the holey stone was a physical manifestation of water's triumph over earth. The core mechanical theory behind the hag stone is one of metaphysical filtration. The belief posits that the hole acts as a supernatural sieve. Good energy, healing, and fortune are fluid and can pass freely through the aperture. Conversely, malevolent magic, curses, and bad luck are "too big" or too dense, becoming trapped in the stone's matrix.
This explains their primary historical use: curing the "hag-ridden." In medieval and early modern Britain, sleep paralysis and night terrors were attributed to the "Night Hag" or a witch sitting on the victim's chest. By suspending a holed stone from the bedpost—usually on a red thread, a color globally associated with protective magic—the sleeper was shielded. The nightmare would attempt to reach the victim, only to be caught in the stone's narrow passage.
Regional Names: What is a Hag Stone in Folklore Across the Celtic Fringes?
The term "hag stone" is largely English, but the artifact appears across various Celtic and Norse-influenced territories under different names, each carrying its own distinct mythological weight.
The Adder Stone (Wales & Scotland): Known in Welsh as Glain Neidr and in Scottish Gaelic as Gloine nan Druidh (Druid's glass). Celtic myth ignores the water erosion theory entirely. Instead, folklore claims these stones are formed in the height of summer when a mass of venomous adders writhe together, their collective venom and saliva hardening into a glass-like ring. Pliny the Elder famously recorded this belief among the Druids in his Natural History, noting the stones were prized for winning lawsuits and granting access to kings.
The Odin Stone (Orkney Islands): In the Norse-influenced Northern Isles of Scotland, massive holed monoliths were used in civic and romantic magic. The most famous was the literal Odin Stone of Stenness, a megalith with a circular hole. Couples would hold hands through the hole to swear the "Odin Oath," a marriage contract considered more binding than a Christian church wedding.
The Witch Stone (Cornwall & Dorset): In the West Country, the stones were strictly utilitarian wards against witchcraft, specifically utilized by maritime and agricultural communities to protect their livelihood.
Maritime and Hearth Defenses
Far from being mere bedroom trinkets, hag stones were industrial-grade wards for the working class. In the 18th and 19th centuries, fishing fleets operating out of Weymouth and Penzance rarely set sail without a holed stone tied to the bow of the boat. The sea was unpredictable, and a poor catch or a sudden squall was frequently blamed on a local witch "overlooking" the vessel. The stone served as a localized anchor of running-water magic, neutralizing the curse before it could rot the nets.
In agricultural settings, horses were considered highly susceptible to being "hag-ridden." Farmers would occasionally wake to find their horses sweating, exhausted, and tangled in the mane—a sure sign, folklore dictated, that a witch had stolen the beast in the night to ride to a coven meeting. To prevent this, holed stones were tied to the stable keys or hung directly over the stalls. The same logic applied to dairy production; stones were placed over milk churns to prevent mischievous spirits from turning the milk sour.
The Fairy Realm: What is a Hag Stone in Folklore's "Second Sight"?
Beyond protection, the most captivating aspect of the hag stone is its role as an optical tool. In Celtic mythology, the Aos Sí (the fairy folk) exist alongside the mortal world, but are shielded from human eyes by a magical illusion known as "glamour." This glamour makes a dangerous bog look like a welcoming meadow, or a withered leaf look like a gold coin.
If you ask what is a hag stone in folklore to a practitioner of traditional second sight, they will tell you it is a lens of truth. By closing one eye and looking through the natural hole with the other, a mortal can pierce the glamour. The stone, forged by the uncompromising truth of water, strips away fairy illusions.
Folklore warns, however, that this is a dangerous practice. To see the Fae is to invite them to see you. Many Scottish and Irish tales caution against peering through a stone in known fairy territories—such as ringforts or hawthorn groves—lest you attract the attention of beings who fiercely guard their privacy.
Can you buy a hag stone?
According to strict traditional folklore, no. A hag stone must be found by the person who intends to use it, or gifted by a loved one. Buying a magical ward introduces the transactional energy of commerce, which cunning folk believed neutralized the stone's natural earth magic.
Can I drill a hole in a stone myself?
No. The entire foundation of the stone's power relies on the fact that the hole was bored by the elements (water or marine life). A mechanically drilled hole carries no elemental authority and is considered magically inert.
What does it mean if a hag stone breaks?
In European folk magic, protective amulets do not last forever. If a hag stone suddenly cracks, shatters, or falls off its string, it is not a sign of bad luck. Rather, it means the stone has successfully done its job. It absorbed a curse, a nightmare, or a malicious intent that was meant for you, breaking itself to dissipate the energy. The pieces should be respectfully returned to the earth or the sea.
Where is the best place to find one?
Shingle beaches with high tidal action, chalky cliffs, and fast-running rocky streams are the ideal environments. Coastal areas of the UK, such as the Jurassic Coast in Dorset or the beaches of Sussex, are particularly famous for yielding these naturally bored stones.
Sources
Pliny the Elder, Natural History (Book XXIX, Chapter 12 on the Druidic Anguinum).
Hole, Christina. A Dictionary of British Folk Customs. Paladin, 1978.
Pennick, Nigel. Secrets of East Anglian Magic. Robert Hale, 1995.
Marwick, Ernest W. The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland. Batsford, 1975.
