Witches (Discworld)
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- See also: Discworld (world)#Magic
A major subset of the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett involves the witches of Lancre. They are closely based on witches in British folklore, combined with modern Wicca and a slightly tongue-in-cheek reinterpretation of the Triple Goddess.
Witch magic is very different from the wizard magic taught in the Unseen University, and consists largely of finding the right lever that makes everything else work. Witches rarely do any magic, in fact, relying more on common sense, hard work, and a peculiar brand of psychology known as headology. This can be taken very far - a witch's way of magically setting fire to a log of wood consists of staring at the log until it burns up from pure embarrassment. As a result it is less energy intensive, which means that a witch can do more than a technically equally powerful wizard. However the same zen-like knowledge that gives them this ability generally discourages them from making a big deal about it, beyond refusing to take wizards seriously.
Unlike wizard magic, which is taught en masse, witch magic is taught on a one-to-one basis by older witches to apprentices. Although magical talent tends to run in families, witches do not teach their daughters, feeling that this would cause a sort of magical inbreeding.
Discworld Voodoo is considered to be an aspect of witch magic, combined with a sort of do-it-yourself religion, relying heavily on the power of belief described below. The most powerful Discworld voodoo-women can deliberately create moderately powerful gods for a specific purpose.
Generally speaking, witches are women and wizards are men. Despite the opinions of wizards and witches on this subject (that systemization comes easier to men and intuition comes easier to women), there appears to be no reason for this beyond cultural bias. There has only ever been one female wizard on the main discworld continent, as described in the events of Equal Rites. The island of Krull on the very Rim of the Disc does not mind female wizards, but no one from the Circle Sea would ever admit they exist.
The role of witches has been defined as "smoothing out life's humps and bumps" and "helping people when life's on the edge", and they take this obligation seriously. They also never ask for anything in return. There are ways and ways of not asking for anything in return, of course. Nanny Ogg, for instance, insists that part of her job is to take the first pint of every brewing and the first cake of every baking, to prevent occult forces using them against people. Both she and Granny Weatherwax tend to emphasize at every possible opportunity that it is considered lucky to have a witch in your house, and that it would be especially lucky if the witch was well-provided for.
The main witches in the books are the Lancre Coven: Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick and later Agnes Nitt. A sub-series of children's books has introduced a new witch character, Tiffany Aching, who has been gradually tied into the main Witch storyline as her series continues.
[edit] The Lancre Coven
The Lancre Coven is, as mentioned above, the main group of witches in the Discworld novels, and the ones featured in the novels referred to as "The Witches series".
They began as a parody of the Three Witches in Macbeth, and also as a reworking of the Maiden, Mother and Crone archetypes (the Triple Goddess). It could also be said that they each represent a different stereotype of witches: Granny is the classic fairy tale witch, Nanny the village wise woman and Magrat the modern romantic Wiccan.
It has been explained in the books that three witches are required for a coven. Two witches get on each other's nerves; the third one can get them to make up, so they can all get on the nerves of everyone else. If a coven has more than three members, they all get on each others' nerves.
[edit] Esmeralda Weatherwax
- Main article: Granny Weatherwax
[edit] Gytha Ogg
- Main article: Nanny Ogg
[edit] Magrat Garlick
Magrat Garlick (pronounced Magg-rat[1]) was the Maiden, and was best described as "a wet hen". She tends to believe in crystals, folk wisdom and cycles of nature, and is, in short, something of a gentle parody of New Age types. However, beneath this she is surprisingly practical, and is quite capable of performing real magic, although she uses it even less than the other two in the coven. She is technically a better doctor than the other two, since she actually believes in herbalism, whereas Granny tends to use whatever plant or bottle of coloured water comes to hand and headology (in this case the placebo effect). She is now Queen of Lancre, having married King Verence, and they have one daughter, Princess Esmerelda Margaret Note Spelling. This unusual name was the result of an effort to ensure the naming ceremony didn't suffer the same mistake that led to her being saddled with the name Magrat.
- ^ Concerning the pronunciation, Terry Pratchett is quoted to have said: "Magrat is pronounced Magg-rat. Doesn't matter what I think is right – everyone I've heard pronounce it has pronounced it Maggrat."
[edit] Agnes Nitt
Following Magrat's marriage to King Verence II, the role of maiden has been (reluctantly) taken up by Agnes Nitt, a sensible young woman who suffers from a self-induced multiple personality disorder. Tired of being seen as someone with "a nice personality and good hair", she tried to create a new, more exciting persona for herself. Unfortunately, this persona, Perdita X Dream (where the X stands for person who has a cool and interesting middle name), developed an actual existence in her mind. Perdita is even more romantic than Magrat, although more Gothic than New Age.
As a consequence, Agnes Nitt is in two minds about everything. The first mind is herself, good-natured and sensible Agnes; the second is dramatic and rebellious Perdita. Agnes is a short and chubby girl. Perdita is, of course, short and chubby as well, but doesn't think like someone who's short and chubby (it is said that inside every fat girl, there is a thin girl and a lot of chocolate - according to Perdita, she is the thin girl; Agnes is the lot of chocolate) The Perdita personality very rarely takes control, except in emergencies. Most of the time she's content to sit in the back of Agnes's mind and make sarcastic comments.
We first meet Agnes/Perdita in Lords and Ladies when she is one of the 'cool' new witches, led by Lucy "Diamanda" Tockley. Although she plays a very minor role in this book, Nanny Ogg notices her potential. Agnes is the only new witch other than Diamanda to have any real Talent.
After the coven's break-up, Agnes appears again in Maskerade when she tries to become an opera singer in Ankh-Morpork under the name of 'Perdita X Nitt'. She possesses an amazing talent for singing, partially a side effect of her refusal to face up to her magic abilities. Agnes has the vocal capacity to reach very high and very low pitches; the highest ones can shatter glass objects nearby and the lowest makes everyone in the room feel queasy. She also has the ability to sing in harmony with herself.
After joining the opera, Agnes meets a beautiful but airheaded aspiring singer named Christine, an obvious parody of Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera. Although Agnes is by far the more talented of the two, she finds herself relegated to the chorus while Christine's career benefits from the attention of the mysterious Phantom. Granny and Nanny soon arrive to complicate things further. In the end, Agnes realizes that her practical nature is unsuited the world of opera. She returns to Lancre and became the new Third Witch.
Her divided personality makes Agnes highly resistant to mental manipulation. Anyone trying to mesmerise or hypnotise Agnes will find the Perdita personality surfacing as Agnes begins to lose control, and vice versa. This ability proves highly useful when Lancre is overrun by vampires with mind-control powers in Carpe Jugulum.
[edit] Tiffany Aching
[edit] Other Witches
Other witches featured in the books include:
[edit] Sarah 'Granny' Aching
Granny Aching, née Sarah Grizzel, was Tiffany Aching's grandmother, and very good friends with the Chalk Hill clan of the Nac Mac Feegle. To them she was the hag (that is, witch) of the chalk. She died a few years before The Wee Free Men occurs, and, as such, only appears in flashbacks. She was a witch, although she didn't think of herself as one and no one but Tiffany, her granddaughter, ever suspected it. She could be described as 'salt of the earth' as well as the magma that runs beneath it. She was very important in the minds of the people of the Chalk, to the point where they called the thunder "Granny Aching cussin'", the vultures "Granny Aching's chickens", the fluffy little white clouds of summer "Granny Aching's little lambs" and said she cussed the sky blue. Although people laughed when they said these things, part of them was not joking. She was, apparently, a very skilled witch, and, as such, used almost no magic, if any. She was so good a witch that the people she took care of mostly took care of each other (Granny Aching always knew who was short a few favours, and arranged things so that they were soon owed some). She smoked Jolly Sailor tobacco, and had two sheepdogs – Thunder and Lightning.
For every inhabitant of the Chalk, Granny Aching was the Chalk; its best shepherd, its wisest woman and its memory, to the point that even the Chalk's Feegles say of her that she "[told] the hills what they are, every day. She [hold] them in her bones. She [hold] 'em in her heart". Granny Aching was "as if the green downland had a soul that walked about in old boots and a smoking apron and smoked a foul pipe and dosed sheep with turpentine."
[edit] Gammer Beavis
A witch who teaches school over the mountain from Lancre. She takes snuff and does her own shoe repairs, which makes her All Right in Nanny Ogg's book, but has a nasty habit of being reasonable when provoked. Appears in Witches Abroad and the short story "The Sea and Little Fishes."
[edit] Gwinifer "Old Mother" Blackcap
Witch stationed in Sidling Without and who is good with pigs, as acknowledged by Esme Weatherwax. She is mentor to Petulia Gristle, good with animals, and is apparently a pig-borer, cow-shouter and all-round veterinary witch. (The terms "pig-borer" and "cow-shouter" are plays on horse whisperer. According to The Discworld Almanak, pig-boring is a humane form of slaughter in which the animal is talked to death.)
[edit] Aliss Demurrage
Aliss Demurrage, or Black Aliss as she was known, never appears in the books, being long dead, but she is a part of why Esme Weatherwax is the way she is. Aliss was an incredibly powerful Discworld witch. She knew all the tricks a witch should know, and had mastered the use of stories; Nanny Ogg said she could be running as many as three of them at once. Unfortunately, after a while she was unable to distinguish reality from her stories and started going mad — hence the name Black Aliss. She's the wicked witch mentioned in popular fairy tales, and met her end when she was pushed into an oven (à la Hansel and Gretel). Esme is as powerful as Aliss was, if not more so, and is concerned constantly with keeping herself in check lest she ends up like Aliss. There is also a vague hint in the books that the two are related, however Esme reveals her grandmother's name was Alison in Carpe Jugulum). Her name derives from the mythical Black Annis, a cannibalistic hag from Leicestershire, who was often used as a threat to children to behave.
[edit] Old Mother Dismass
A very old witch who has been fortune telling for so long that she is no longer able to keep her mind in the present (as Granny Weatherwax puts it, she has a "detached retina in her second sight"). Her mouth frequently appears out of sync with her words, and her footsteps often sound ten minutes before she actually makes them. Appears in Witches Abroad and "The Sea and Little Fishes."
[edit] Mrs Letice Earwig
The wife of a retired wizard and a natural organiser, especially of things that don't really need organising. She (and no one else) pronounces her name "Arwidge." She wears a great deal of "occult" jewelry that doesn't actually do anything. Granny Weatherwax dislikes Mrs. Earwig, claiming that she reduces witchcraft to "shoppin'". Mrs Earwig isn't actually bad, but is extremely snobbish, has very poor people skills, and tends to assume everyone would really agree with her if they weren't so stupid (so does Granny Weatherwax, of course, but at least she doesn't blame them for being stupid). Annagramma Hawkin is her star (and in fact only) pupil. Her approach to teaching appears to be to trust the folk wisdom of the locals when it comes to practical things like birthing and medicine, and focus on such things as crystals, magic circles and soothing chants to help matters along. She is the chairwoman of the Witch Trials committee and has written a book about "Magick"; the "k" is to distinguish what she considers the True Craft from the everyday stuff Granny Weatherwax et al. do - this in turn is a comedic reference on Pratchett's part to the use of variant spellings of "Magic" from Alister Crowley's use of "magick" onwards, and of a contemporary tendency for some Wiccans to look down on those Wiccans who use such spellings as being "fluffy". She appears in "The Sea and Little Fishes", A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith.
[edit] Hilta Goatfounder
A witch who makes her money by selling medicine (says Granny) with names like Tiger Oil, Maiden's Prayer and Husband's Helper. She lives in Ohulan. She was the one who persuaded Granny to fly on a broom and gave Granny her broom. She appears briefly in the book Equal Rites.
[edit] Erzulie Gogol
A Voodoo witch from Genua and the mother of Baroness Ella Saturday. She opposed Lady Lilith, but was arguably on the very edge of being just as bad. Appears in Witches Abroad, where with the help of the Lancre coven and Baron Saturday (now a Zombie), she helps her daughter regain her title without having to marry the Prince.
[edit] Petulia Gristle
Petulia is a young witch who was apprenticed to Goodie Gwinifer "Old Mother" Blackcap, who is good with pigs. She was part of the network of peers gathered by Annagramma Hawkin and a friend of Tiffany Aching's. Generally a kind soul who is thoughtful of others' feelings, she gained new strength at the end of A Hat Full of Sky when bullied too much by Annagramma, due to her tendency of saying "Um" a lot.
By the events of Wintersmith Petulia has gained considerable respect in the Ramtops for her abilities with animals, particularly pigs, which are said to rival those of Granny Weatherwax herself, although what Granny would say on the subject is open to debate. She has become known throughout Lancre as the "pig witch", a term meant in respect except when Annagramma uses it. Despite her disagreements with Annagramma, she agreed to show her a few useful tips on dealing with livestock when Tiffany asked her to.
[edit] Ammeline 'Goodie' Hamstring
Ammeline Hamstring, also known as 'Goodie' Hamstring was a witch from Lancre, the Ramtops. She appeared only in Mort, and was Mort's first "collection" as Death's apprentice. She had a grey cat.
As with all Discworld magical practitioners, she knew in advance when her death would be and again would be personally visited by Death (or had a right to be anyway) so she had time to prepare.
When Mort arrived she was an elderly lady with a hooked nose wearing a grey woolen dress. After Mort cut the line connecting her soul to her body, she realised it was no longer bound by the body's morphic field, and with much more control than most people her soul's form settled into the shape of her "inner self". Her hair unwound itself from its tight bun, changing colour and lengthening, her body straightened up. Wrinkles dwindled and vanished, and her dress turned into something green and clingy.
Rather than go on to an afterlife, she remained at her home, intending her spirit to get thinner and spread through the forest.
Her hourglass was carved of oak leaves and mandrake roots, and the sand inside, even by moonlight, was pale gold. By turning the glass this way and that, the name 'Ammeline Hamstring' could be seen to be etched in the faintest of lines.
[edit] Annagramma Hawkin
Annagramma Hawkin was introduced in A Hat Full of Sky and is a peer of Tiffany Aching, whom she initially disdains. Though witches have no leader, she acts as the self-appointed "boss" of the group of peer witches she gathers together for sabbats, due to her having the tallest hat and the loudest voice. Trained by Letice Earwig, she can be extremely snobbish and has strong opinions about what a witch should or should not be, much like her mentor. She follows Letice by thinking that Granny Weatherwax just 'messes around' with people's heads, and that, by doing so, makes people think she is great.
During the events of Wintersmith, Annagramma is assigned her own cottage, taking over from the late Miss Treason. Initially, she is badly unprepared for the real demands of being resident witch for a village, and it is revealed that her arrogance may in part be an overreaction to a deep insecurity about dealing with situations she cannot control.
Tiffany Aching and others from her peer group assist Annagramma, and it turns out that she is good enough at the part of witchcraft that consists of being confident, bossy and giving people a good show to pick up the rest along the way. It is revealed that the unexpected support of Granny Weatherwax for the cottage to be taken over by Annagramma rather than a more competent youngster was in fact not a ploy for Annagramma to fail, but for her to be forced to learn real witchcraft with the help of her peers.
[edit] Dimmity Hubbub
Dimmity is a young witch in apprenticed training, and a member of Anagramma's coven. She appears in A Hat Full of Sky, in which she sets fire to her own hat, and in Wintersmith, in which she makes a toothache cure explode. Her name is similar to that of Jill Murphy's character Mildred Hubble, although Pratchett says this was not intentional.
[edit] Miss Level
A witch for whom the phrase "I've only got one pair of hands" was highly inappropriate, for she had one mind and two bodies. She formerly worked in a circus reading her own mind. The phrase is now only technically accurate, following the death of one body, although she can still use it as a "phantom limb". An intelligent and well-meaning person, she spends much of her time explaining concepts such as bacteria to people who aren't going to believe her. As Tiffany's teacher, she appears in A Hat Full of Sky.
[edit] Miss Tick
Perspicacia Tick is a "witch finder", a travelling witch with the responsibility of finding young girls who have the potential to be witches. She makes a living as a teacher, a role which has given her a habit of correcting spelling, grammar and punctuation. Since she often finds herself in areas where witches are unwelcome, she has a spring-operated hat that only grows a point when she wants it to. Thanks to her time as a student at the Quirm College for Young Ladies, which views time in cold water as character-building, she has also mastered the ability to stay underwater for prolonged periods, allowing her to escape punishment from superstitious witch-hunters. To aid her in this endeavor, she is the anonymous author of Magavenatio Obtusis (Witch-hunting for Dumb People), which she generously places in the libraries of various witch-hating villages. It includes such vital information as drowning rather than burning a witch, ensuring that the witch has silver coins in her boots, and is given a nice meal of soup and tea before her ducking. Miss Tick appears in The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith.
[edit] Diamanda Tockley
Her real name is Lucy Tockley, but she thought Diamanda was more witchy. She was born in Lancre, but went away to school, and returned while the Coven were touring the Disc in Witches Abroad. She set up her own coven, insisting that the Wisdom of the Ancients was more significant than anything a lot of old people knew. How much natural witchiness/wisdom she actually had may be illustrated by her willingness to summon elves. At the end of Lords and Ladies, Granny speculated she might have a relationship with the young wizard Ponder Stibbons, but he returned to Unseen University. Still to be decided is how much of a witch she naturally was versus how much magic was given to her by the elf queen.
[edit] Eumenides Treason
A venerable witch (she claims to be 113, but is actually 111) who takes on Tiffany Aching as apprentice three months prior to the events of Wintersmith. Miss Treason uses two sticks to walk and is both deaf and blind, but manages to operate perfectly well by simply Borrowing the senses of those around her. All witches specialise in one or another field, and Miss Treason's specialty is Justice. People come to her to settle disputes, and frequently find it very difficult to lie to her. Regarded with awe and no small amount of fear by the local villagers, Miss Treason nevertheless has their great respect. Many eerie stories and rumours circulate about her, which only serve to enhance her image as a force to be reckoned with; Miss Treason started the majority of them herself for precisely that reason. Her cottage has all the hallmarks of a bad witch (skulls, spider-webs, etc.)--all of which are fake, bought from Boffo's, a joke shop in Ankh-Morpork, but which only serve to reinforce the impression that she gives others - many of her previous apprentices found the whole thing far too creepy and left, often within a day.
Miss Treason dies of old age during the events of Wintersmith, but as she, like all witches, knows the date and time of her death, was able to enjoy her funeral ceremony the day before. Mindful of her image to the end, she used the presence of many of the local residents at her actual death to give them one last show. Her cottage passed to Annagramma Hawkin, who, after a decidedly shaky start, has begun to fulfil her role properly, with assistance from Tiffany and the Boffo's catalogue.
[edit] Lucy Warbeck
Lucy is a young witch in apprenticed training, and another member of Anagramma's coven. She uses the term "like" a lot. She first appears in Hat Full of Sky, then briefly in Wintersmith, where she is training hard to become a witch-finder. Tiffany Aching asks her to assist the badly-out-of-her-depth Annagramma and she reluctantly agrees to help out. She wears a knife and fork in her hair, because witches believe in sorting out how odd they are early.
[edit] Alison Weatherwax
Esme Weatherwax's grandmother, and a very powerful witch. Weatherwaxes have strong magic lines in their genes, as evidenced by a distant cousin also being a wizard and archancellor of Unseen University. First mentioned in The Discworld Companion which says little about her except that her death has not been recorded. Alison is later mentioned in Carpe Jugulum, in which the rumours that she has "gone to the bad" prove unfounded. Not the same as Aliss Demurrage.
[edit] Fairy godmothers
Fairy godmothers are something of a cross between a witch and a wizard. A fairy godmother is a woman, likely always a witch to start with, who, probably through a bequest, acquires a magical responsiblility over the life of a single individual. This individual is usually someone with a severe case of destiny, such as an orphaned girl of royal blood. Like wizards, fairy godmothers use a magically imbued rod (in this case a wand, rather than a staff) to produce wizz-bang effects like turning pumpkins into coaches. However, fairy godmothering is probably another aspect of witchcraft, relying heavily on narrative causality.
[edit] Desiderata Hollow
A fairy godmother who appears in Witches Abroad, although she dies very early on. Her career meant she travelled a lot, although she was based in Lancre. She was friends with Magrat, since no-one else in the area liked foreign food, and bequeathed her wand to her.
[edit] Lily Weatherwax
The sister of Granny Weatherwax, featured in Witches Abroad. When Esme was still a child, Lily left Lancre, following rows with her family, and possibly some sort of scandal, and changed her name to Lady Lilith de Tempscire. She became a fairy godmother and "turned to the bad", although she remained convinced she was the good one. She became heavily involved with narrative magic and using mirrors to boost her power, eventually becoming the power behind the throne of Genua. She looks very much like Esme, only younger (she is actually older). She failed to "find herself" at the end of Witches Abroad, and has not been seen since.
[edit] Other media
In the 1995 BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Wyrd Sisters the witches were played by:
- Granny Weatherwax - Sheila Hancock
- Nanny Ogg - Lynda Baron
- Magrat Garlick - Deborah Berlin
In the 1997 Cosgrove Hall animation of Wyrd Sisters the witches were voiced by:
- Granny Weatherwax - Annette Crosbie
- Nanny Ogg - June Whitfield
- Magrat Garlick - Jane Horrocks
