Kitchen witches
“A “kitchen witch” may also refer to a human figurine placed in kitchens for good luck. These dolls are made from materials such as fabric, corn husks, and dried fruits and may be in the form of a witch riding a broom. Such dolls traditionally protect residents and visitors to the home and also guard against cooking failures in the kitchen.”
“Good Walker” Witches
“The Benandanti claimed to travel out of their bodies while asleep to struggle against malevolent witches (streghe) in order to ensure good crops for the season to come.”
Sea witches
“Sea witches used witchcraft related to themoon, tides, and the weather, or were believed to have complete control over the seas. In some folklore, sea witches are described as phantoms or ghosts who have the power to control the fates of ships and seamen.”
Grand High witches
“Described as being “without mercy,” she travels around the world summoning all the witches of whatever country she is in, giving congratulations or punishments according to the witches’ success in their ultimate mission: destroying children. She teaches them such schemes as trapping children inside paintings, turning them into slugs so they can be “squished” or (it is rumoured) turning American children into hot dogs so that they will be eaten by their own parents. She is said to own a counterfeit machine that leaves her no problem in traveling wherever she likes.”
Loathly ladies
“The motif is that of a woman that appears unattractive but undergoes a transformation upon being approached by a man in spite of her unattractiveness, becoming extremely desirable. It is then revealed that her ugliness was the result of a curse which was broken by the hero’s action.”
Gray witches
“A gray witch, or neutral witch, is the term used to define a practitioner of magic that does not harm nor benefit others. Gray magic may also benefit and harm at the same time, creating a neutral or balanced effect.”
Island witches
“Local legend states the name “Witch Island” was given to the island in honor of the only person ever known to inhabit it. The lady, known as the “Witch of Wall Street,” had a very successful career in financial consulting in New York City. She retired to live alone on the island until she was found dead in her cabin by local residents in the late 19th century. The foundation of her residence still exists on the island along with the accompanying water pipes and kitchen sink.”
Elbow witches
“Elbow Witches are old women with awls in their elbows in the Ojibwa story of Aayaase (also known as “Aayaash” or “Iyash”), “Filcher-of-Meat”. Blinded by cooking smoke, the sisters killed each other in their attempts to kill him for their meal.”
Wikipedia is full of so many things.
Greenwitches: terrifying ancient Wild Magic spirits who live in the sea off the coast of Cornwall. Alternately, witches who focus on herbalism and the use of nature in their practice.
Hehe “seamen”
Do sea witches get to turn into seals? Because that would be jammin’.
Those are selkies. Not the same, at least not per Seanan McGuire.
::tch:: Durn it.
However, there’s nothing saying we can’t create a whole new myth of sea witches turning into seals! OR SEA LIONS. And they’re at war with the seals. This is writing itself.
Ooh! All selkie enthusiasts should read The Brides of Rollrock Island by Australian writer Margo Lanagan. Bonus, there’s a witch it it!
I did the Susan Cooper story about selkies for a storytelling section of a class in grad school!
(ok this thread is just going to be me talking about Susan Cooper, like most threads)
hello yes i would like to subscribe to your susan cooper newsletter
So you know there’s this show about a James Bond type super spy or something but it’s a woman and it’s going to be called “Susan Cooper”? I get huge dissonance every time I encounter online discussion of it.
So glad I’m not the only one!
wat WAT. Why would they call it that? THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE.
(however it sounds cool and I will probably watch it and pretend it’s a documentary of an aspect of Susan Cooper’s life we just weren’t aware of)
Anyway I’d like everyone’s opinions on King of Shadows, plz.
That is my plan as well.
Is this a good place for me to say that having a wild seal cam feed on my second monitor has greatly improved my work morale? It’s like having an aquarium, but with seals in it!
What about pocket witches?!
Apparently the Witch of Wall Street is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World’s Greatest Miser.” ” In her old age she developed a bad hernia, but refused to have an operation because it cost $150.”
And her son lost a leg because she was too miserly to pay doctors to treat it correctly!!
A good book about the Benandanti and the weirdness of early modern rural Italy is Carlo Ginzburg’s “The Night Battles”. All kinds of great stories about flying around on sorghum stalks.
I was just reading the Wikipedia entry on the Pendle witches last night!
POST ON THAT FORTHCOMING
How creepy was Daughters of the Witching Hill? VERY.
This is not good: i am binge-watching “Supernatural,” so now I’ll just have to use this as a checklist.
Bony-Legs?!?! I haven’t thought about that book in two decades, but it was one of my favorites when I was little! COOL!
My discovery of the “Alleged Witches” category on Wikipedia was the greatest thing that happened to me last week that wasn’t winning Buffy trivia.
I like the witches in Wickerman that lived on killjoy feminist island and killed Nick Cage with bees, broken bones, and fire. At the same time.
I am just here to say that that picture is the cover of a book my (sadly departed) grandmother would read to me when I was a lil tot, and oh how she would LAUGH and LAUGH at the house on chicken feet. It was her favorite thing. Good memories, thanks!
I never knew I had a kitchen-witch-shaped hole in my life until now.
I never knew I had a kitchen-witch-shaped hole in my life until now.