The term “witch” first appeared in the English written language in the year 890 and was initially used to describe a male practitioner of witchcraft (Mills, 1992:263). It would take another 110 years for it to be used to describe a woman with the same proclivities (Mills, 1992:263). For approximately 300 years witches were generally midwives, healers, and sorcerers, with some practicing white magic, while others practiced black magic (Mills, 1992:263-264; Schimmelpfennig, 2013:29). During this time they were well-respected individuals in society, but by the thirteenth century the Roman Catholic Church attempted to discredit them and labelled them as heretics (Mills, 1992:264). This culminated in the witch trials and hunts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when many people lost their lives after being accused of witchcraft (Mills, 1992:264; Zwissler, 2016:179).
Some scholars have suggested that women were accused of witchcraft during these times simply due to them challenging patriarchal norms (Jackson, 1995:72; Zwissler, 2016:183). While others have refuted this claim stating there is little evidence to support such theories (Barstow, 1994:201). Others, like Diane Purkiss, a notable academic and writer of one of the more popular books on the history of witchcraft, The Witch in History: Early History and Twentieth-Century Rrepresentations (1996) refutes the validity of empirical and historical evidence where the historical study of witches is concerned (Purkiss, 1996:71-72). Willem de Blécout, on the other hand, offers a more nuanced explanation in his study on the witch. He proposes that women were at the centre of witchcraft accusations because of women’s position in society (2000:303). He explains that due to women having different interpersonal relationships with their neighbours and their domesticity, it put them in a unique position to be more readily accused of witchcraft (De Blécout, 2000:303).
Pamela Moro (2017:1) argues that witch accusations and the resulting witch hunts are responses to social tensions. Though the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries gave birth to the Renaissance, religious reformations, and the Scientific Revolution, it was still an age marked with famine, poverty, political turmoil, and religious conflicts (Qihong, 2008:148). De Blécout (2000:303) states that witchcraft was a simple and believable scapegoat when a person was met with misfortune or something beyond their control, due to religious indoctrination of the time.
This changed dramatically in the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, and by the twentieth century the witch had become a pervasive pop culture icon and is still being shaped by the media today
(Schimmelpfennig, 2013:28). During Halloween it is not uncommon to find paraphernalia and
decorations featuring a short and stocky green-skinned witch with a wart-ridden nose, black robes and a black pointy hat. It is precisely this broom-riding, howling old hag that has become the accepted
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description of the witch (Purkiss, 1996:277). This same appearance we first find in film in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz and then in 1952’s Disney produced, Trick or Treat.
From the above it is clear that the witch is not an unchanging character type. She is constantly evolving as the society around her changes. It appears, however, that the witch generally fits a negative stereotype which originates from her being a female with supernatural abilities and having exaggerated negative attributes. One of the oldest texts in the world, the Bible (2010), is filled with tales that paint the witch, or those who practice witchcraft, as evil. I Samuel 15:23 equates witchcraft to rebellion, while Micah 3:7 calls on Christians to disgrace all those who practice witchcraft (Bible, 2010). Leviticus 19:26 and Deuteronomy 18:1-13 similarly describe witchcraft as a sin and an abomination (ibid.). The Bible goes as far as to mention in the book of Revelation 18:23 that sorcery is instrumental in setting the stage for the apocalypse.
The most well-known witch in the Bible is colloquially referred to as the Witch of Endor. In I Samuel 28:7 Saul visits a woman who conjures him the spirit of Samuel. Samuel rebukes Saul and tells him that God has abandoned him and that he and his sons will die the very next day at the hand of the Philistines (I Samuel 28:17-19). Interestingly, the witch noticed Saul’s distress and weariness and consequently took it upon herself to feed him and his servants (I Samuel 28:21, 25). She baked them bread and slaughtered a calf for them (I Samuel 28:21-25), which correlates with the idea that many witches of old were also healers.
The Bible in many instances links witchcraft to death, destruction, and the fall of man to one specific end, namely, that a true Christian follows only the word of God and should only trust God for fear of death (Isaiah 8:18-22). This was most likely an attempt to steer society away from seeking advice from something other than the church and the clergy thus reinforcing the power of Abrahamic religions.
Greek mythology also mentions three women who share characteristics with the modern-day witch, namely, Circe (The Odyssey) and Agamede/Perimede (The Iliad). Circe is described in The Odyssey as a goddess, but also as human who lives on the island Aeaea between “oak thickets and wood”
(Homer, 2003:2329-2339). The narrative describes her as having great and terrible power and having familiars (mountain lions and wolves) who she charms by use of potions (Homer, 2003:2359). In the tale she gives Eurylochus’s men potions to drink to lull them into a false sense of security and then turns them into pigs by striking them with her wand (Homer, 2003:2368). She also has the ability to heal as Odysseus discovers when she bathes him after he foils her attempt to bewitch him (Homer,
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2003:2417). Lastly, she has forbidden knowledge of the Land of Dead and dominion over the weather (Homer, 2003:2466, 2504).
In The Iliad we find Augeas’s daughter, Agamede, who can also be described as a witch. The character is only mentioned in one sentence of the entire epic, but this one sentence describes her as being world-renowned due to her potions and knowledge of herbs (Homer, 2005:3837).
In the very first act and scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth the reader is introduced to three malevolent witches. These witches conform to the western stereotype of the witch as they make reference to their animal familiars (Graymalkin, a grey cat, and Paddock, a Toad) and meeting in ill-weather (Morrow, 2000:29; Wilby, 2000:283-284). In scene 3 of the same act, one of the witches describes a plan of revenge on a woman who has refused to share her chestnuts with her. Instead of taking revenge on the woman she plans to exact her wrath on the woman’s husband, a sailor, by controlling the wind while he is at sea. Her revenge would not just harm the husband but also all the other crew members on board. Curses and amputated parts from the dead are also mentioned in this scene10 linking the characters to the stereotypical witch who surrounds herself with dead and putrid things.
The witches also predict Macbeth’s arrival before he enters as well as his ascension to king when they greet him, implying their power of foresight and prophecy. While chanting they refer to themselves as the ‘weird sisters’ implying their otherness in relation to society. In Act III, scene 5, Hecate, the queen of the witches is introduced into the play and she sheds light on the physical appearance of the
witches by referring to them as ‘bedlams’, which in this context eludes to their hag-like appearance11 (Morrow, 2000:110). The witches only appear again when Macbeth visits them in Act VI, scene 1. In this scene the witches are preparing a vile potion in a bubbling cauldron. As they chant and move around the pot one is reminded of many such similar scenes in fiction and films where witches throw body parts, toads, and entrails into a bubbling cauldron.
Shakespeare was not the only writer who described the witch along these lines. In the various fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm the witch is often portrayed as an old woman who due to her age is unable to work or to find love (Schimmelpfennig, 2013:28-29). Interestingly, many of the stories written by the brothers were in fact tales collected with the help of informants, friends, or from other books (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. 2014:xxi). Many of these informants, in turn, were young middle-
10 The scene has historical roots to when King James VI of Scotland ascended the throne to become the King James I of England (Morrow, 2000:20). It is also believed that he was a patron of Shakespeare’s acting company shortly after becoming king in 1603 which may have influenced the appearance and actions of the witches within the narrative (Morrow, 2000:20).
News from Scotland (1591), for instance, recounts a trial where a group of Scottish witches were accused of attempting to kill King James by means of scuttling his ship during a voyage to Denmark (Morrow, 2000:20).
11 Similarly, Macbeth also refers to them as hags in Act IV, Scene 1.
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class women from Kassel and Münster who would congregate in gardens or houses to tell the stories to one another (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. 2014:xxi).Most of the story elements did not originate from them, but from other women who in turn heard them from others. These women had been seduced by demons and devils and are described as wielding magical power, since Jacob Grimm himself viewed women in general as having a predisposition for magic due to them having more free time than men (Schimmelpfennig, 2013:29).
The witches in the tales by the Brothers Grimm are in some instances from different social en economic backgrounds. For instance, in Little Brother and Little Sister the witch was an evil stepmother who abused the brother and sister (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. 2014:34). In Hansel and Gretel the witch is an old decrepit woman who lures children to her isolated gingerbread house in order to fatten them up and eat them (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. 2014:47). In Little Snow White the witch is the second most beautiful woman in the world and also a queen (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W.
2014:171). In most instances however, she is portrayed and described as an old woman, most notably in Rapunzel (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. 2014:xl), The Twelve Brothers (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W.
2014:30), Hansel and Gretel (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. 2014:47), Mother Holle (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. 2014:82), The Six Swans (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. 2014:160), Briar Rose (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. 2014:163), Sweetheart Roland (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. 2014:183), to name but a few.
The above was gathered from a translated version of the 1812/15 edition of their collected tales, meaning that they still mirror the original voices from where they collected their stories (Grimm, J. &
Grimm, W. 2014:xx). These stories originated from popular and lesser-known folklore that was passed down through the generations orally (Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. 2014:xxi-xxii). It is reasonable to assume that many of their tales involving witches were influenced by the earlier witch hunts and the events that transpired over Europe and the Americas during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This becomes even more evident when one considers that all the witches in their original stories were either, burned, drowned, or torn apart, mirroring the execution methods used during the witch trials.
The cinematic witch was also influenced by these stereotypes created during the witch trials (Buckley, 2013:25) as we find in the very first film about witches, Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922).
The film, produced by Benjamin Christensen, resembles a documentary in many respects, but does contain shorter vignettes which can be described as short silent films. Each of the tales are fictions about witches and what they do during the night and how women were often accused of witchcraft during the Middle Ages. Many of the tales portray witches as old, lustful, and surrounded by dead things and boiling potions, while one in particular shows how an old crone who collected firewood
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and kindle for affluent households was falsely accused of witchcraft. There is also one segment about a witches Sabbath which seems more like a masturbatory fantasy with naked and pretty young women cavorting with the devil and demons under a full moon than a scene of horror.
It would take another 19 years before another witch would make an appearance in film, namely, 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. The film is based on the L. Frank Baum’s famous 1900 children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Margaret Hamilton plays the role of the Wicked Witch of the West who seeks revenge on Dorothy, the protagonist, for killing her sister and taking her ruby slippers. The film portrays her as old and having green skin, a sharp long nose and chin, black robes, and a large, rimmed, black pointy hat. This seems to have popularised this representation in the popular media and we find witches that resemble her in especially children’s cartoons. The very first of these portrayals can be found in Disney’s short film, Trick or Treat (1952), this was followed by Warner Bros.
Bewitched Bunny (1954). Both these witches also shared the same name, Witch Hazel. She makes four more appearances in Warner Bros. short films over the next 12 years, namely: Broom-Stick Bunny (1956), A Witch’s Tangled Hare (1959), Transylvania 6-5000 (1963), and A-Haunting We Will Go (1966). She also made further appearances in other Warner Bros. shows over subsequent decades with her last appearance being in the 2011 animated series The Looney Tunes Show.
Warner Bros. and Disney are not the only studios to make use of this representation of the witch.
1969’s Pink Panther episode, Pink-A-Rella, stars the same green-skinned witch, as does the 1956 Tom and Jerry episode entitled The Flying Sorceress. A blue-skinned version of this witch also makes her appearance in a 2007 episode of Tom and Jerry, Which Witch. Lastly, in the updated version of the Ducktales (2017) television series, Magica De Spell is also a green-skinned witch, though she is a duck-human hybrid. Interestingly, an IMDB (2019a) search revealed that June Foray, a popular voice actor of children’s animated shows, originally voiced Magica De Spell, and the witch’s voices in the aforementioned Trick or Treat, The Flying Sorceress, Broom-Stick Bunny, A Witch’s Tangled Hare, as well as every other appearance of Witch Hazel in Warner Bros. productions. She also did voices for the live action television series Bewitched in 1966. Ironically she would also be the voice of Dorothy Gale in all the episodes of the animated series Off to See the Wizard between 1967 and 1968. This series title seems to be based on the iconic song featured in the 1939 production of The Wizard of Oz,
"We’re Off to See the Wizard".
One should not forget Maleficent from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959), who is referred to as a fairy in the film, and who does seem to resemble this green-skinned animated archetype. The ancient fairy cults of Hungary, Croatia, and the Southern-Slavic, and Romanian territories of the Balkans describe witches as transformed fairies (Pόcs, 1989:7), while in Britain they were independent mythical
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creatures (Wilby, 2000: 289). According to Èva Pόcs (1989:7) modern witchcraft as we know it was preceded by these ancient cults; the systems and beliefs originally attributed to them were integrated into what became latter-day witchcraft. Interestingly she also mentions that whenever the fairies acted in kindness towards humans they were simply referred to as fairies, but when they acted malevolently they were called witches (Pόcs, 1989:8-9, 27; Wilby, 2000:284, 289).
The Hungarian witch, for instance, is a sub-specie of evil souls, or half-dead/half-alive creatures, generally referred to as the strigoi (Pόcs, 1989:28). If the creature was blamed for harming livestock, stealing crops, or breaking into homes, then it was referred to as a werewolf, but if it was blamed for destroying cultural values, bringing illness or infertility, then it was a witch (Pόcs, 1989:28). In most cases the witch or her supernatural abilities were blamed when they met with misfortune that could not be explained (Moro, 2018:5). Many of these same views and beliefs, as well as various
characteristics of the witch have been observed in Africa which suggests that there are notable similarities between the origins of the witch in Europe and Africa (Moro, 2018:5, 6). Some of these beliefs can still be found among many modern-day communities in Africa (Koning, 2013:158-159).
Another witch that resembles a fairy more than a witch is the popular witch, Samantha, from the Bewitched television series that aired from 1964 to 1972. Some argue that she is the most important witch in American popular culture (Baughman, Burr-Miller, Manning, 2007:104). The plot of the series revolves around a young married couple, Samantha and Darrin Stephens, played by Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York respectively. They are a normal, suburban, upper-middle-class couple.
Samantha is a typical homemaker, but with supernatural abilities, while Darrin is an advertising executive and bread-winner of the family. Even though Samantha is shown to have great power, she mostly uses it to complete her chores as housewife or to assist her husband – many times for comedic affect. One can argue that this was done as to not upset the patriarchal status quo or to convince women as a whole that even when they have more power than a man, they should still be subservient to their spouses. This is discussed in greater detail in the chapter on the sixties witch.
Others argue that the domestication of the witch in Bewitched was not necessarily problematic and that it made the witch and her powers more acceptable to western audiences by demystifying them (Baughman, Burr-Miller, Manning, 2007:104). Where previous witches were old and decrepit, Samantha was young, beautiful, and energetic. She embodied a new and playful witch who just wanted to settle down with her husband in marital bliss. Some feminists would vehemently disagree with the idea of a woman only wanting to get married and settle down as a housewife, but there are women who choose this lifestyle as is their prerogative.
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The Internet Movie Database (IMDB, 2019b) lists Bewitched as having eight seasons between 1967 and 1982, meaning that it was popular with audiences. So popular in fact that it spawned a film in 2005 starring Nicole Kidman as Samantha. Bewitched introduced to western audiences the concept of a beautiful witch who wanted to be part of society, a trend that would continue with popular television series like Charmed (1998-2011), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), and Once Upon a Time (2011-2018). The made for television witch which seems to have had the longest longevity though is Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Originally created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo for Archie’s Madhouse #22 comic book in 1962, the character has gained an immense following since her inception. The comic book series stars a white-haired teenage witch, Sabrina Spellman, who lives with her aunts, Hilda and Zelda, and Salem, the talking black cat. Sabrina is a good witch who, like Bewitched’s Samantha, is romantically involved with a mortal, Harvey Kinkle. Hilarity ensues throughout the first four volumes of comics printed between 1971 and 2019. According to another IMDB (2019c) search three animated Sabrina series were released between 1971 and 2004. A live action series also premiered in 1996 starring Melissa Joan Hart as the lead with seven seasons worth of episodes running between 1996 and 2003. Currently, a new version of the character appears in the series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (adapted from a horror comic of the same name) which departs to great extent from the light-hearted tone of the original comic books and television series.
This new series is produced exclusively for Netflix which is sure to elicit controversy due to its violent and horrific content, especially amongst the over-zealous religious communities of the West.
Similar teenage witches are also found in films, with the most noteworthy being Hermione Gringer from the Harry Potter film and book series and the four teenage witches of The Craft (1996). Young adult witches though seem to be more prominent in films and examples of young and beautiful cinematic witches are Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Susan Sarandon in The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in Practical Magic (1998), Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams in Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and the aforementioned Angelina Jolie in Maleficent (2014). With the exception of The Craft, none of these films are horror films though and the beautiful witch seems to mostly appear in productions of the fantasy and comedic genres.
Most of these witches do come across as intelligent and even though the contexts in which they appear are influenced by patriarchy, they do seem to challenge and subvert it in various ways. To undertake a study of all the witches in film and television would be folly as there are too many that fall within different genres. Sabrina the Teenage Witch warrants a study of its own, while numerous studies exist regarding the films mentioned above. Most of these studies are preoccupied with the male gaze, psychoanalysis, and how these influenced their production. Horror films are also most often analysed from these perspectives as mentioned in the previous section, but due to the enormous