Witches (Discworld)
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A major subset of the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett involve 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, as described in the events of Equal Rites.
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 is mostly independent of the others, barring the odd bit of advice from Granny.
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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 much more than three members, they all get on each others' nerves.
Esmerelda Weatherwax
- Main article: Granny Weatherwax
Gytha Ogg
- Main article: Nanny Ogg
Magrat Garlick
- Main article: Magrat Garlick
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; the second is Perdita. Agnes herself is short and chubby. Perdita is, of course, physically short and chubby as well, but doesn't think like someone who's short and chubby. (She is, essentially, the "thin girl trying to get out".) Perdita 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; she is the only one other than Diamanda to have any real Talent. After the coven's break-up, she appears again in Maskerade when she tries to become an opera singer in Ankh-Morpork under the name of 'Perdita X Nitt'because of her supernatural talent for singing, a side effect of her refusal to face up to her magic abilities. She 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 (although she can go lower). However, her essential practicality can't cope with the world of opera, and then Granny and Nanny arrive to complicate things further. She therefore returned to Lancre and became the new Third Witch.
Due to her situation, Agnes is highly resistant to mental effects. Anyone trying to fascinate or hypnotise her will find the other personality surfacing when the current controlling one is feeling the effects.
Tiffany Aching
A very young witch (11 at her last appearance), who hails from the chalk downland Rimward of the Ramtops. Her grandmother, Sarah Aching, was a shepherd, and by Ramtop standards was also a witch, although witchcraft was frowned upon on the Chalk, until Tiffany's arrival. Granny Aching was a friend of the Chalk Clan of Nac Mac Feegle, and they have befriended Tiffany as the new "hag o' the chalklands".
Tiffany began her witching career at nine, when she faced down the Queen of the Elves and earned the respect of Granny Weatherwax, a not insignificant achievement in itself. She's also very good at making cheese, and has read the entire dictionary, although she sometimes has difficulty with pronunciation. Currently apprenticed to Miss Level, Tiffany is the main character in The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky.
According to The Art of Discworld Terry Pratchett has plans for another 2 novels featuring Tiffany: Wintersmith and I Shall Wear Midnight are given as possible titles. Like the Harry Potter series, Tiffany is intended to age a number of years in between each novel, and not be stuck in her youth, like the Famous Five.
Other Witches
Other witches featured in the books include:
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 practioners, 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.
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.
Sarah 'Granny' Aching
Granny Aching was Tiffany's grandmother, and very good friends with the Chalk Hill clan of the Nac Mac Feegle. 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 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. And 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."
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 Sea and Little Fishes (short story).
Aliss Demurrage
Aliss Demurrage, or Black Aliss as she became popularly 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 end up like Aliss. There is also a vague hint in the books that the two are related (Esme reveals her grandmother's name was Allison in Carpe Jugulum).
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. Appears in Witches Abroad and The Sea and Little Fishes (short story).
Mrs Lettice Earwig
The wife of a retired wizard and a natural organiser, especially of things that don't really need organising. 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). She has written a book about "Magik" (the "k" is to distinguish what she considers the True Craft from the everyday stuff Granny Weatherwax et al. do) and is the chairwoman of the Witch Trials committee. She appears in The Sea and Little Fishes and A Hat Full of Sky.
Mrs 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 the Baron (now a Zombie), she helps her daughter regain her title without having to marry the Prince.
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 things such as bacteria to people who aren't going to believe her. As Tiffany's teacher, she appears in A Hat Full of Sky.
Miss Tick
Perspicacia Tick is 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 punctuation and grammar. Since she often finds herself in areas where witches are unwelcome, she has a spring-operated hat that only points when she wants it to. She appears in The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky.
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 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.
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.
Lily Weatherwax
The sister of Granny Weatherwax, featured in Witches Abroad. When Esme was still a child she 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.
Other media
In the 1995 BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Wyrd Sisters the witches were:
- Granny Weatherwax - Sheila Hancock
- Nanny Ogg - Lynda Baron
- Magrat Garlick - Deborah Berlin
In the 1997 Cosgrove Hall animation of Wyrd Sisters the witches were:
- Granny Weatherwax - Annette Crosbie
- Nanny Ogg - June Whitfield
- Magrat Garlick - Jane Horrocks
See also
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