I cannot help but think that it is this primal fear of strong female characters that lurks at the heart of so many misogynists – Dahl being among them. The concept of the witch reflects back our own fears – but with our changing fears, how have we changed the witch? Rosemary Ellen Guiley points out that this play, written at the very beginning of the seventeenth century, is one of the most influential literary works to help establish the negative stereotype of … The Witches of Eastwick. I did read an interesting bio “In Bed with the Tudors” a few years back which was talking about how with the reformation, common women’s remedies, typically associated with childbirth, were associated with Catholicism and outlawed, which pushed them underground and thus the stage was set for witchcraft accusations. Dorrie the Little Witch series by Patricia Coombs. Famous Witches in History. Who has never daydreamed of a life made simpler through magic? In addition, Doreen studied esoteric religions including Spiritualism. For our next terrifying witch we go back to classic literature and Homer’s Odyssey. Certain versions of the legend show Morgan and Arthur as having been close as children, others that they were strangers until adulthood. (And that one time with the troll, but she was young and the boys had thrown her off her game.) Mary is a young girl with little family, none after the witch-hunters take her grandmother and put her to death. Gone are the great black pointy hats and broomstick transport. The Wicked Witch of the West is an interesting one because although she is overshadowed by the depiction in the classic (and my personal all-time favourite) film, Elphaba has over time become rehabilitated via the medium of Wicked. Some poets described them as ‘beautiful’ or part-swan but more often the Graeae are known as unspeakably old. At Hogwarts main entrance, face the stairs. There’s Mother Bloodwort whose attempts to magic herself young again continually transform her into a coffee table, the Shouter twins who fight over each other’s hen familiars and fail to get anything done, the ghastly Madame Olympia whose necklace of teeth grows mysteriously longer with the deaths of each of her husbands and then lovely Belladonna who is beautiful but utterly hopeless at magic. And there’s an important lesson in that: even the people we cast as villains in our lives today, whether near or far, are real people with families and histories. As he had a habit of doing, Shakespeare set the standard for literary hocus-pocus with the Three Witches who drove poor, pitiful Macbeth to distraction and doom. Though John Updike’s novel is heavier and darker than its film adaptation, it’s hard to get the image of Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon, and Cher as the three eponymous Rhode Island vixens out of your head. At her own burning at the stake, she scolds the mob for being 10 minutes late and then blows them all sky high with the 80 pounds of gunpowder and 40 pounds of roofing nails she’d packed inside her dress for the occasion. Look, I know Frankenstein-ing a man out of body parts from the unwilling dead might be seen as bad-witch behavior. Mildred tries hard, means well and somehow plans still go awry. For most young girls, magical powers pass as maturity is gained and it is this balance of responsibility and rebellion that cause such chaos – who would want to give up powers once claimed? This is a small sampling of some of the most memorable, with a few real world witches mixed in :) . Over time, she acquired sidekicks in Nanny Ogg and Magrat and then later Agnes/Perdita. Unlike the later image of the witch, Hecate was traditionally associated with dogs, having the ability to transform into them. To quote Gillian and Sally Owens as they observe the desperate women beseeching their aunts’ help in romantic matters: “Yuck.”. Glinda, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum The yang to Elphaba's yin, Glinda is perhaps the most famous of all the benevolent witches. Your email address will not be published. Top Ten Favourite Non-Book-Related Stories. You’ve made a terrific selection as usual, and it is fascinating to look at how our concept of the witch has been transformed through literature. But imagine if it did not make matters simpler, but instead, much, much more complicated. Take this quiz to see how much you know about the most famous witches in TV, film and books! Yes. Circe is best known for the part she played in Homer’s The Odyssey, where Odysseus and his men land on her island. I am a crazy little Wizard of Oz fan but I haven’t ever read the source material, highly unusual for me! Probably the best known witches in literature are the three "Weird Sisters" of Shakespeare 's Macbeth. Morgan often went head to head with Merlin. It just doesn’t get any better than coming home to your cozy cave, a brewing cauldron, and the incantation that’s music to your ears: Nostradamus was a hack. Great list! Though John Updike’s novel is heavier and darker than its film adaptation, it’s hard to get the image of Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon, and Cher as the three eponymous Rhode Island vixens out of your head. I’ve been wanting to see Wicked for YEARS! PS – Did you like Rivers of London? It’s fun-ish Updike. Her brand of witchcraft is a mysterious one, but when we discover that she and her goose daemon Kaisa went through a similar separation to that of Lyra and Pantalaimon, we get a glimpse into the fact that there is greater depth and darkness to Serafina than we have thus seen. Maybe it was a game that led her to tell him to wait inside the circle and not move. She is believed to be derived from the Welsh goddess figure Modron, but developed into being the daughter of Arthur’s mother Igrayne via her first marriage. Hecate was one of those terribly busy Greek goddesses who represented a great number of things – doorways, crossroads, childbirth, herbs and … witchcraft. You know, the three categories which a woman can fall into. Famous Wizards in Literature. That does seem to be the case, in the main, whereas men who don’t ‘fit in’ get accused of inappropriate behaviour, but having said that wizards in popular culture and literature all seem to be revered. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. As Homer renders it in The Odyssey, Circe’s got a pretty sweet setup. While they’re easterly and westerly counterparts were pure evil, the good witches of the North and South are delightful helpers. The first time we truly see her is when her sleigh glides into sight when Edmund first visits Narnia. It’s the Good Witch of the North that bestows a mark of protection on Dorothy, defeater of bad witches, erstwhile savior of Munchkinkind, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The witches are a coven who must prove their talents in order to earn the right to marry Arriman the Awful, who wants an heir. He notes the markers of a witch as being related to hair, nails and shoes – all features classically associated with femininity. The Elphaba of the book is a dark character who I had trouble finding sympathetic, having an affair with a married man, getting pregnant and neglecting the child due to her depression, straight up murdering a child at one point depending on interpretation. A list in which I have actually read most of the books — some of them quite recently (Rivers of London and The Worst Witch just this year). With her ruin, all that is good and fun and beautiful is finally able to return. Please confirm you have read and agreed to our, Review: Orphans of the Carnival, Carol Birch, Review: See What I Have Done, Sarah Schmidt, Top Ten Love Stories from Fiction & Literature, Review: The Illustrated Child, Polly Crosby, Review: The House of Trelawney, Hannah Rothschild, Beg Borrow Or Steal But Make Sure You Read. Let them put a spell on you: You don’t really have to take it from me. And while there is a broad spectrum of witch stories out there, there is a through-line common to them all: witches are women whose embodiment … And why, seriously why are we all ganging up against Elphaba when the true villain is quite clearly the Wizard? And a witch so feared as the Witch of the Waste is in Howl’s Moving Castle deserves some grudging respect. Bow down to Agnes Nutter, whose Nice and Accurate Prophecies set the stage for Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s ultimate tag-team effort, Good Omens. Hecate remains a key figure within Wiccan traditions but she has changed a lot since her first appearance. L. Frank Baum: teaching directions, one witch at a time. What we’re saying is, if Hermione, Minerva McGonagall, and Molly Weasley had been calling the shots the whole time, we could’ve dispensed with Voldemort, saved Hogwarts, and efficiently completed all N.E.W.T. Not only is she always right, this 17th-century witch is also sassy as all get-out. Written accounts of women who practice magic are as old as recorded history, and continue to the present day (to this very week), with two much buzzed-about books: Alex Mar’s Witches of America and Stacy Schiff’s The Witches: Salem, 1962. For me, witches were spooky – as a child, I would jump into bed so that they could not snatch at my ankles, having a deep fear of the shadowy creatures living under the bed – but deep down I knew that they were a story. Most Famous Witches in Literature. During the grim Middle Ages, many women and children were executed for allegedly practicing witchcraft, which was actually just a term for alternative forms of worship and anything that fell outside the pale of the dominant culture of the times.At some point, however, the witch's reputation as an evil, dangerous outcast shifted to … Agnes Nutter from Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. They are the coven of witches and together they are stronger. Her first appearance in literature is in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s " The Life of Merlin," written in the first half of the twelfth century. So I got to thinking about how the concept of the witch had evolved – we did not start off with the pointy hat and the broom, so what was a witch originally and how did she end up where she is now? This is perhaps the most classic depiction of witches – hubble, bubble, toil and trouble! Plus Cher! Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West, The Wizard of Oz. It remains an insult even now when a woman speaks out of turn. Oh, and by the way, it’s Levi-oh-sa, not Levios-ah. Instead, they hide in plain sight, looking just like us (so be sure to check everyone you meet for a wig or lack of toes) and holding down respectable jobs. I hope one day that Pullman reveals more of her story. Another famous literary portrayal of witchcraft, this time by a male novelist, is John Updike’s 1984 novel The Witches of Eastwick, written in part … The whole thing is an exercise in making a character that is supposed to be one-dimensional and unsympathetic into a character with depth and emotions. Mildred Hubble is the prototype schoolgirl witch, kicking off a grand tradition. Morgan is another character who has been transformed dramatically down the centuries. How could a normal life ever be enough? She is the go-to for answers for so many of the book’s mysteries, she is the organised one and the quick-thinker – but more than anything she seems to have managed a brand-change for witches.