The witch monster is a terrifying creature that appears in various folklore and mythologies around the world. It is often depicted as a woman who possesses magical powers and uses them for evil purposes. The witch monster is commonly associated with dark magic, black magic, and witchcraft. In many tales, the witch monster is known to cast spells, curses, and hexes on unsuspecting victims. She is said to have the ability to change her shape and appearance, making it difficult for others to identify her true form. Some stories describe her as having green skin, long claws, and a crooked nose, while others depict her as a beautiful seductress who lures men to their doom.
By John Putnam Demos ,
All legal records are newly transcribed, and included in this edition is a historical introduction, a legal introduction, and a linguistic introduction. The voices of ordinary people ring out from almost every page Ursula Clarke in 1667 hoping William Metcalfe would waste like the dew against the sun ; Lodowick Muggleton declaring that issuing curses did him more good than if a man had given him 40 shillings.
Some stories describe her as having green skin, long claws, and a crooked nose, while others depict her as a beautiful seductress who lures men to their doom. The witch monster is often seen as a symbol of female power and sexuality, representing both the temptress and the evil stepmother archetype. She is frequently portrayed as a jealous, vengeful figure who seeks to harm others out of her own insecurities and desires for control.
Top 10 books about witch-hunts
‘I t is easy to blame the dark,” Sylvia Plath writes in Witch Burning. Stories of witch-hunts show us how the dark is given a name; they talk to us about anxiety and belief and our hunger for scapegoats. All those pious fantasies of women suckling their familiars! Witch-hunts are just a metaphor now, we hope, but we’re drawn to them as much as we ever were.
The White House witch-finder might like to tweet that he’s the hunted, but in reality it’s the marginal, the outspoken, those who lack a voice or upset their neighbours who get pursued. Those least responsible become most at fault: the wanton, the widow, the shrew. Because most of all, witch-hunts have been about controlling women’s sexuality and their tongues. When “one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs”, Virginia Woolf wrote in A Room of One’s Own, “I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet”. Women writers, in particular, are recovering these voices.
The books take us back to earlier times of crisis and blame – the Reformation, the English civil war, Puritan New England. My new novel The Wheelwright’s Daughter was inspired by a landslip in 1571 that tore down part of Marcle Ridge in rural Herefordshire. It became famous; it’s still called The Wonder on OS maps. In 1586, William Camden wrote that the hill roused itself up as if out of a deep sleep and moved, roaring, for three days together. What a figure, I thought, for the terrifying dislocations of the Reformation. How might it have been understood, how might people have looked for a scapegoat? Writing in the Brexit era, with looming climate catastrophe and the rise of populism, the parallels with contemporary Britain were inescapable.
The books and stories below variously, wonderfully, follow the threads of the witch-hunt.
1. The Discoverie of Witches by Reginald Scot (1584)
“Truelie I denie not that there are witches,” Scot insists in his Epistle to the Readers, before spending 560 pages doing just that. He meticulously piles up the arguments of the witch-mongers and knocks them down; charmers, soothsayers, alchemists, conjurors and occultists aren’t in hock to the devil, he says, they are charlatans. Shakespeare drew on Scot for Puck in A Midsummer’s Night Dream and the witches in Macbeth. King James I had the book burned. I couldn’t resist giving Scot a walk-on part in my book.
2. The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
The Pendle witch trials of 1612 led to the deaths of 12 people, including the enigmatic Alice Nutter. My Lancashire grandmother liked to say that we were descended from her but she told a lot of tales. Winterson’s defiant Alice made me wish it was true. The book bristles with magic – there are talking heads, raining teeth and deals with the devil, but there is also a fierce analysis of power and its abuses. Winterson’s stark, poetic prose ensures this stays with you long after you’ve finished reading.
Circe Invidiosa (1892) by JW Waterhouse. Photograph: Alamy
3. Circe by Madeline Miller
I thought I knew the story of the witch who turned Odysseus’s men into pigs, but Miller’s magnificent novel gives Circe her own epic. A daughter of the sun, she is banished to Aiaia where, part-god, part-herbalist, she teaches herself magic. She needs it, for it’s not only men who threaten: the gods, too, can be witch-hunters. The writing shimmers and figures including Daedalus and Odysseus are threaded beautifully into Circe’s story as she learns not only sorcery but love, and what it might mean to be mortal.
4. The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser
In Book II, Canto XII, Sir Guyon valiantly hunts down the witch Acrasia in the “Bowre of Blisse”. Acrasia is wily; she stupefies men with sex and turns them into pigs, but her bower is all music, all delight. “Gather the Rose of love whilest yet is time,” a minstrel sings - and all the birds echo his song. Nevertheless, Acrasia gets tied up and Sir Guyon trashes her bower. What keeps me coming back to Spenser’s Elizabethan masterpiece, in all its archaic lushness, is its ambivalence – it lingers wistfully over the garden it condemns.
5. Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas
Thomas shows how belief in magic and witchcraft were woven into the way people made sense of the world in the 16th and 17th centuries. The voices of ordinary people ring out from almost every page: Ursula Clarke in 1667 hoping William Metcalfe would “waste like the dew against the sun”; Lodowick Muggleton declaring that issuing curses “did him more good than if a man had given him 40 shillings”. At 800 pages, this is a bible of a book: dip in and in again – it’s worth it.
6. The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown
“Once, I scarcely believed in the devil,” Alice Hopkins begins, before widowhood forces her to go and live with her brother Matthew Hopkins, who is collecting names. We follow Alice’s attempts not only to document but to fathom her brother’s cruelty. “Turn over the stone,” she says, “and find another history, struggling to escape.” We need more of these histories.
‘A warning of tyranny on the way’ … Samantha Colley as Abigail Williams in the Old Vic’s 2014 production of The Crucible. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
7. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
No list of witch-hunt books would be complete without Miller’s play. Through the story of the Salem witch trials of 1692-93, the play indicts 1950s McCarthyism – and Trump, and Farage, and … When the play is suddenly a hit somewhere, Miller observed, it’s “a warning of tyranny on the way or a reminder of tyranny just past”. Read or watched, the visceral clarity of Miller’s writing lingers like a catch in the breath, abolishing any reassuring sense that witch-hunts happened then, not now.
8. Lois the Witch by Elizabeth Gaskell
When orphan Lois Barclay lands in New England in 1691 she finds the ground as unsteady as the water. And well she might. Gaskell shows us a community in terrified opposition to its native forests and people. I love the way she refuses to condescend or simply condemn – she puts the reader in the middle of the panic, feeling it spread. The novella has been overshadowed by Gaskell’s novels, but it’s a small, bright gem.
9. I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé
Tituba, the “black” witch convicted in the Salem trials (she was in fact probably Arawak) tells her own story: a life that began when her mother was raped on a slave ship called Christ the King. Tituba is flawed and passionate; the Puritans denounce her, but we see her as a witch on her own terms, rejecting America: “A vast, cruel land where the spirits only beget evil!”
Trial documents and contemporary narratives are used in this discussion of the practice of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England.
In popular culture, the witch monster has been featured in numerous books, movies, and television shows. One famous example is the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz," who is known for her green skin and iconic cackle. Another well-known portrayal is Maleficent from Disney's "Sleeping Beauty," a powerful sorceress who curses the princess to eternal sleep. Overall, the witch monster serves as a captivating and fearsome character in folklore and mythology. Whether she is seen as an embodiment of fear or a representation of female power, the witch monster continues to fascinate and frighten audiences around the world..
Reviews for "The Witch Monster: A Creature of the Night"
1. Sarah - 2/5 stars -
I really didn't enjoy "The Witch Monster". The plot was incredibly confusing and hard to follow. The characters were one-dimensional and lacked depth, making it difficult to connect with them. Additionally, the pacing was too slow, and the film didn't live up to its horror genre. Overall, I was disappointed with this movie and would not recommend it.
2. Mike - 1/5 stars -
"The Witch Monster" was a complete waste of time. The acting was abysmal, and the dialogue was cringe-worthy. The special effects were laughable, and it was clear that the movie had a low budget. The story was predictable, and there were no real scares. Save your money and skip this one.
3. Jessica - 2/5 stars -
I had high hopes for "The Witch Monster" but was ultimately let down. The storyline had potential, but it was executed poorly. The movie relied too heavily on jump scares and lacked any genuine suspense or atmosphere. The dialogue felt forced, and the acting was subpar. I was disappointed with how predictable the plot twists were, and overall, it wasn't a memorable horror film.
4. Ryan - 2/5 stars -
"The Witch Monster" had an interesting concept, but it fell flat. The characters were unlikable, and their actions seemed unrealistic. The pacing was off, with long stretches of nothing happening followed by rushed and confusing scenes. The ending left me unsatisfied and confused. While the cinematography was decent, it wasn't enough to make up for the film's shortcomings. I wouldn't watch it again.