Witches

Witches
Real Name	Wiccian, Hægtes, or Hægtesse
First Appearance	World Folklore
Created by	Unknown

Origin

Depiction of witchcraft in John William Waterhouse's painting The Magic Circle (1886)

Preparation for the Witches' Sabbath by David Teniers the Younger. It shows a witch brewing a potion overlooked by her familiar spirit or a demon; items on the floor for casting a spell; and another witch reading from a grimoire.

Witches are a person who allegedly uses supernatural powers or magic by practicing witchcraft. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic or supernatural powers to inflict harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "Witchcraft thus defined exists more in the imagination", but it "has constituted for many cultures a viable explanation of evil in the world". The belief in witches has been found throughout history in a great number of societies worldwide. Most of these societies have used protective magic or counter-magic against witchcraft, and have shunned, banished, imprisoned, physically punished or killed alleged witches. Anthropologists use the term "witchcraft" for similar beliefs about harmful occult practices in different cultures, and these societies often use the term when speaking in English.

In colloquial modern English, the word witch is particularly used for women. A male practitioner of magic or witchcraft is more commonly called a 'wizard', or sometimes, 'warlock'. When the word witch is used to refer to a member of a neo-pagan tradition or religion (such as Wicca), it can refer to a person of any gender.

Witches are commonly believed to cast curses; a spell or set of magical words and gestures intended to inflict supernatural harm. Cursing could also involve inscribing runes or sigils on an object to give that object magical powers; burning or binding a wax or clay image (a poppet) of a person to affect them magically; or using herbs, animal parts and other substances to make potions or poisons. Witchcraft has been blamed for many kinds of misfortune. In Europe, by far the most common kind of harm attributed to witchcraft was illness or death suffered by adults, their children, or their animals. "Certain ailments, like impotence in men, infertility in women, and lack of milk in cows, were particularly associated with witchcraft". Illnesses that were poorly understood were more likely to be blamed on witchcraft. Edward Bever writes: "Witchcraft was particularly likely to be suspected when a disease came on unusually swiftly, lingered unusually long, could not be diagnosed clearly, or presented some other unusual symptoms".

A common belief in cultures worldwide is that witches tend to use something from their target's body to work magic against them; for example hair, nail clippings, clothing, or bodily waste. Such beliefs are found in Europe, Africa, South Asia, Polynesia, Melanesia, and North America. Another widespread belief among Indigenous peoples in Africa and North America is that witches cause harm by introducing cursed magical objects into their victim's body; such as small bones or ashes. James George Frazer described this kind of magic as imitative.

In some cultures, witches are believed to use human body parts in magic, and they are commonly believed to murder children for this purpose. In Europe, "cases in which women did undoubtedly kill their children, because of what today would be called postpartum psychosis, were often interpreted as yielding to diabolical temptation".

Witches are believed to work in secret, sometimes alone and sometimes with other witches. Hutton writes: "Across most of the world, witches have been thought to gather at night, when normal humans are inactive, and also at their most vulnerable in sleep". In most cultures, witches at these gatherings are thought to transgress social norms by engaging in cannibalism, incest and open nudity.

Witches around the world commonly have associations with animals. Rodney Needham identified this as a defining feature of the witch archetype. In some parts of the world, it is believed witches can shapeshift into animals, or that the witch's spirit travels apart from their body and takes an animal form, an activity often associated with shamanism. Another widespread belief is that witches have an animal helper. In English these are often called "familiars", and meant an evil spirit or demon that had taken an animal form. As researchers examined traditions in other regions, they widened the term to servant spirit-animals which are described as a part of the witch's own soul.

Necromancy is the practice of conjuring the spirits of the dead for divination or prophecy, although the term has also been applied to raising the dead for other purposes. The biblical Witch of Endor performed it (1 Samuel 28th chapter), and it is among the witchcraft practices condemned by Ælfric of Eynsham: "Witches still go to cross-roads and to heathen burials with their delusive magic and call to the Devil; and he comes to them in the likeness of the man that is buried there, as if he arises from death."

Societies that believe (or believed) in witchcraft may also believe that it can be thwarted in various ways. One common way is to use protective magic or counter-magic, often with the help of magical healers such as cunning folk or witch-doctors. This includes performing rituals, reciting charms, or the use of talismans, amulets, anti-witch marks, witch bottles, witch balls, and burying objects such as horse skulls inside the walls of buildings. Another believed cure for bewitchment is to persuade or force the alleged witch to lift their spell. Often, people have attempted to thwart the witchcraft by physically punishing the alleged witch, such as by banishing, wounding, torturing or killing them. Hutton wrote that "In most societies, however, a formal and legal remedy was preferred to this sort of private action", whereby the alleged witch would be prosecuted and then formally punished if found guilty.

Witch hunts took place among Christian European settlers in colonial America and the United States, most infamously the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts. These trials led to the execution of numerous individuals accused of practicing witchcraft. Despite changes in laws and perspectives over time, accusations of witchcraft persisted into the 19th century in some regions, such as Tennessee, where prosecutions occurred as late as 1833.

Witch characters—women who work powerful evil magic—appear in ancient Roman literature from the first century BCE onward. They are typically hags who chant harmful incantations; make poisonous potions from herbs and the body parts of animals and humans; sacrifice children; raise the dead; can control the natural world; can shapeshift themselves and others into animals; and invoke underworld deities and spirits. They include Lucan's Erichtho, Horace's Canidia, Ovid's Dipsas, and Apuleius's Meroe.

In Chinese culture, the practice of Gong Tau involves black magic for purposes such as revenge and financial assistance. Japanese folklore features witch figures who employ foxes as familiars. Korean history includes instances of individuals being condemned for using spells. The Philippines has its own tradition of witches, distinct from Western portrayals, with their practices often countered by indigenous shamans.

Public Domain Appearances

All published appearances of Witches from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.

Some notable appearances are listed below:

Public Domain Literary Appearances

• The Odyssey
• Hebrew Bible
  • 1 Samuel
• Huon de Bordeaux (1200)
• Beware the Cat (1553)
• Holinshed's Chronicles (1587)
• Macbeth (1603)
• The Tempest (1610)
• Sun, Moon, and Talia (1634-36)
• The Hind in the Wood (1697)
• The Princess Mayblossom (1697)
• The Blue Bird (1697)
• Sleeping Beauty (1697)
• Little Briar Rose (1812)
• Eventyr, fortalte for Børn, Første Samling, Tredie Hefte (1837)
• Bentley’s Miscellany (1846)
• Danish Fairy Legends and Tales (1846)
• The Ugly Duck, and Other Tales (1854)
• The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest (1854)
• She (1887)
• The Little Mermaid and Other Stories (1893)
• Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (1899)
• Teutonic Mythology: Volume I (1883)
• The Magical Monarch of Mo (1899)
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
• The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903)
• The Saint of the Dragon's Dale: A Fantastical Tale (1903)
• The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904)
• Queen Zixi of Ix (1904)
• The Woggle-Bug Book (1905)
• Ayesha (1905)
• Dulcibel: A Tale of Old Salem (1907)
• Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908)
• The Road to Oz (1909)
• Three Tales of Hans Andersen (1910)
• Sky Island (1912)
• The Return of Tarzan (1913)
• The Garden of Paradise (1914)
• John Martin's Book, June (1914)
• Demonien ruhtinatar: Kertomus (1914)
• The Green Book Magazine (1915)
• The Scarecrow of Oz (1915)
• The Travels of Timmy Toodles (1916)
• Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916)
• Popular Feasts and Legends in Italy (1916)
• The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918)
• Brood of the Witch-Queen (1918)
• Living Alone (1919)
• Glinda of Oz (1920)
• She and Allan (1921)
• Die Hexenrichter von Würzburg: Historische Novelle (1920)
• Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1922)
• The Sociable Sand Witch, by T. L. Sappington (1923)
• Wisdom's Daughter (1923)
• The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924)
• The Lost King of Oz (1925)
• Flecker's Magic (1926)
• Lolly Willowes (1926)
• The Midnight Folk (1927)
• A Mirror for Witches (1928)
• The Giant Horse of Oz (1928)
• The Dreams in the Witch House (1933)
• The Silver Bullet (1935)
• The Creeper in Darkness (1939)
• Conjure Wife (1943)
• The Magical Mimics in Oz (1946)
• The Blue Star (1952)
• Witch of the Glens (1962)

Public Domain Comic Strip Appearances

• Thimble Theater Comic Strip (December 1929)

Public Domain Comic Appearances

• Adventures into the Unknown #5, 26
• All Top Comics (unnumbered one-shot)
• All Your Comics (unnumbered one-shot)
• All Your Comics #1
• Amazing Adventures #1
• Authentic Police Cases #1-2
• Baffling Mysteries #8,10
• Blackhawk #18
• Blue Ribbon Comics #20-22
• Book Of Comics (unnumbered one-shot)
• Bulls Eye Comics #11
• Casper the Friendly Ghost #20, 25, 28, 31, 38, 43-47, 49, 51-52
• Casper's Ghostland #1, 3, 5, 8 ,10, 11-12, 14-19
• Dynamic Comics #1-3
• Fairy Tale Parade #7
• Fantastic Comics #11, 22-23
• Fantastic Fears #2-3
• Feature Comics #57-72, 100
• Forbidden Worlds #5
• Four Favorites #18
• Hand of Fate #25b
• Jack-in-the-Box Comics #1
• Jingle Jangle Comics #16
• Jungle Comics #2, 15, 29-30
• Li'l Ghost #1-3
• Moon Girl Fights Crime #8
• National Comics #13
• Operation: Peril #3
• Out of the Shadows #6
• Police Comics #20-22
• Rangers Comics #16, 26
• Red Seal Comics #17-18, 20-21
• Robin Hood and His Merry Men #29
• Scoop Comics #1-3
• Scream #2-3
• Smash Comics #66
• Spooky Spooktown #3, 6
• Spotlight Comics #3
• Stories by Famous Authors #3
• Super-Mystery Comics vol. 3 #3, 5-6, vol. 4 #1-4
• The Friendly Ghost, Casper #1, 3, 50, 55
• This Magazine is Haunted #12
• Tuff Ghosts Starring Spooky #1
• Top Notch #7, 9
• Uncle Sam Quarterly #2
• V... Comics #1-2
• Weird Adventures #10
• Weird Comics #1-20
• Wendy, the Good Little Witch #1-19
• Wendy Witch World #1-4, 6
• Zip Comics #26-30

Public Domain Animated Appearances

• Poor Little Witch Girl (1965)

Public Domain Stage Appearances

• The Wizard of Oz (1902 musical)
• The Woggle-Bug (1905)

Public Domain Film Appearances

• The Pillar of Fire (1899) by Georges Méliès
• The Fairylogue and Radio Plays (1908, lost)
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910)
• She (1911)
• His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914)
• The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914)
• Snow White (1916)
• The Grimm Brother's Snow White (1916)
• She (1917)
• The Adventures of Tarzan (1921)
• She (1925)
• Tarzan the Tiger (1929)

Public Domain Television Appearances

• Bonanza: Dark Star (April 23, 1960)
• Pak-Nit Shrinkel and Stretchel Commercial (1965)

Notes

• A list of witch characters on the wiki can be found here.

See Also

• Wikipedia
• Comicvine
• Myths in Media Wiki
• GiantBomb
• GCD