It was another daughter moment twinned with some Roald Dahl that got me thinking about all things bewitching.
It's a busy week for Miss Topsy jr. She was back this afternoon from a school outing based on a Victorian theme, located at a 19th century railway station (that Beeching didn't quite manage to close completely). Her outfit for the day was a 19c maid's blouse, long skirt, shawl and pinny.
Friday is another dress-up day, this time it's book related. Of course my daughter has only really been back into books for six weeks and hasn't decided on a favourite character that she could become, so I chose for her.
The stores all have Halloween kit so a witch's dress was easy to get, now all we have to do is find a book to link it to ...
Enter one Roald Dahl, I bought her 'BFG' on Saturday and her mother returned her copy of 'The Witches' a week earlier but it was thus far unread.
So the two of us sit down to read the book, that is her reading it to me. For reasons stated elsewhere this is a slow process and I read it to her as well.
So, on page one the reader is told that witches are just ordinary women. Ordinary women. A few pages forward it suggests the reader's teacher could be a witch. This is unproven but entirely possible.
Of course this is just warming up for the main event on the 31st, but if Roald Dahl is correct then I will have no idea who is a witch, except it won't be the ones who look like a witch.
Confused? I was.
She's asleep now and I have custody of the book so I can do some research.
Topsy
Which Witch is Which?
Not that there is anything wrong with being a witch, right? :)
such a witch
in the antique a witch was nothing more, and nothing less, than a potion maker, learned in healing (and of course, many potions are lethal poisons in the right dose)
what is now called "incantations" were originally recipes in the form of poems and songs. back then few people could read and write. so that's how they were handed down to the next generation. usually from mother to daughter.
"magic wands" were nothing but wooden sticks used to stirr the potions. the legend that a witch could "kill with a wave of her wand" has it's roots in the fact that the unsealed wood would imbibe the potions they were used for. use one prepped with poison to stirr soup... you get hte picture.
so yes, witches were just ordinary women.
Indeed
No matter what particular skills a witch might have, when stripped of pejorative slurs made by members of competing religious worldviews, withcraft is simply a religion, and you can no more tell who a witch is by their looks than you can pick out Catholics and Jews. Well, unless the Catholic happens to be the Pope or an Archbishop, and is wearing the uniform. There are a number of sects or traditions within particular religious tradition whose members -- or spiritual leaders -- do tend to wear particular clothing, or follow particular dietary strictures, but by no means all adherents, even amongst these, comply.
If you see someone eating fish on Friday, they may simply like fish.
If you see someone turn down the fried pork chops, they may -- in fact -- be more worried about the grease than the pig.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Wooden Sticks
In Scotland, they're called spurtles, or spirtles, or spertles, but almost every country has them in one form or another, our earliest kitchen tool. A similar stick is used in France as a rolling pin, either tapered like a spirtle (albeit usually at both ends) or straight. In China, they're kuàizi -- chopsticks -- and in Turkey, shish, which are the wooden skewers proper shish kabob is made with.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
A friend of mine...
...makes custom turned wands out of both rare woods and common local native woods, with handles of either the same or nicely-contrasting woods for sale at local and regional SF conventions and ren-faires. They sell pretty well, too. >.< I would have bought one this last May, but one of my friends guilted me out of bidding against the girl who had bid first on the one I both liked and could afford.
-Liz
Successor to the LToC
-Liz
Successor to the LToC
Amazingly enough...
I'd never thought that there would be a marketplace in wands, but there is:
http://www.bardwood.com/wandmakers.htm
And that's just one of many.
Stonker me...
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Movie
There's a movie version of Dahl's Witches, with Anjelica Houston as the head witch. It's a decent movie, with some fun effects.