the good witch coffee bar menu

The curse originating from Denmark dates back to the 16th century and has been the subject of much speculation and mystery. Legend has it that a powerful Danish nobleman named Lord Jorgen was deeply in love with a beautiful young woman named Astrid. However, she rejected his advances and chose to marry someone else. Enraged by this rejection, Lord Jorgen turned to dark magic and invoked a curse upon Astrid and her family. It is said that the curse would bring misfortune and tragedy upon them for generations to come. As predicted, tragedy struck the family soon after, with the sudden death of Astrid's husband and the subsequent loss of their wealth and status.

As predicted, tragedy struck the family soon after, with the sudden death of Astrid's husband and the subsequent loss of their wealth and status. From that point on, the curse seemed to follow the descendants of Astrid wherever they went. Over the years, the family faced a series of unfortunate events, including untimely deaths, financial ruin, and even mental illness.

Beneath the Witch’s Hat

It’s as essential—as elementary really—to the vintage witch as a broom or flowing skirts. No, even more so. Much more than pointy shoes or a black cat familiar, the tall, peaked hat with the big brim has come to represent magical and mysterious women, women of immense strength and a certain undeniable wisdom who connect deeply to the earth below and the stars above, harnessing the infinite energy (with cauldron or without) in the service of what we lesser mortals cannot guess. In pop culture, the witch hat is everywhere, from television’s Bewitched to Terry Prachett’s Discworld novels and, of course, beloved films like The Wizard of Oz and Practical Magic, not to mention all over Instagram. Gandalf wears one in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, proving that, yes, other humans, nonbinary or not, top their heads with them, too. But they seem much more typical of women witches.

Witches long ago may have donned hats as a way of concentrating their sacred power or simply to denote their otherness. Perhaps in some times and places, they were imposed on them by a backward and foolish society, fearful of female ferocity. The hat’s long history, tangled and wild as a spellcaster’s curls, provides no verifiable answers to its bygone use (or if it was actually used at all), but of this we can be certain: If its takeover of popular culture is any indication, the pointed witch’s hat is here to stay.

For Alassie, the Barcelona-based designer whose handmade hats grace these pages, witch hats represent an “iconic element in the classic witch’s fairy tales that inspire us.” Alassie and her team of fifteen create and market her hats, along with, as she says, “all kinds of garments and accessories that can be combined to build a lot of witchy outfits: capes, dresses, skirts, bags, headdresses, belts, and even jewelry.”

Currently, Alassie’s brand, Costurero Real (roughly translated as Royal Sewing Box), produces about a dozen different witch hats made of 100 percent wool felt. Many feature whimsical touches such as mushrooms, constellations, lights, snails, leather, little bottles, spells, and even squirrels that are crafted from materials like leather, resin, foam, and fabric.

Alassie’s creations are the latest in a long line of conical caps. The earliest known evidence of humans wearing them are the witches of Subeshi, three female mummies unearthed in China that date back to between the 4th and 2nd centuries BCE. They are wearing tall, pointed hats, though there seems to be no proof they practiced enchantment. Later, Jews and Quakers, both persecuted groups, came to be associated with similar hats, as did “alewives”—women who served beer in medieval Europe. Whether any of this actually somehow led to the enduring image of witches wearing the famed headgear, who knows—the answer has been lost to the ages.

Perhaps actual witches of old simply had been wearing them all along. In any case, it’s believed that the first artistic representation of a witch in her now emblematic pointed hat comes courtesy of a woodcut from the early 18th century. The scene depicts a hat-wearing witch riding a broom, followed by a horned, winged devil and what appears to be a wizard, also atop a broom but missing the peak on his hat. Through the centuries, the stereotype of the evil old necromancer in the tall, pointy hat would be passed down from generation to generation, culminating in Margaret Hamilton’s memorable, green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.

Today, hat or no hat, witches are more often acknowledged to be agents of good rather than evil, thanks in part to the efforts of people like Alassie. It is clearly through the tender eyes of sisterhood that she sees witches.

“From the beginning, witches were usually represented as women who live apart, who are independent and powerful, and are distanced from the traditional family role, fertility or home care,” she says. “They are always related to something wild, unknown, and uncivilized. They are also capable of breaking the rules of nature and at the same time live in harmony with it … The history of witches can be understood as one of those women who did not conform to the systems created by the men who wrote history. And I feel that they represent us, that their struggle is still our struggle in other contextual conditions. But we continue to fight, and we continue to burn.”

Find Alassie’s online shop at costureroreal.etsy.com.
Follow Jill Gleeson at gleesonreboots.com.

The curse seemed to manifest itself in strange and inexplicable ways, leaving the family in constant fear and despair. Despite attempts to break the curse, it persisted throughout the centuries. Many believed that the curse was tied to a specific location or object, but no evidence was ever found. Some claimed that the curse could only be lifted if Lord Jorgen's restless spirit was appeased, while others believed that it was simply a matter of fate. The curse gained further notoriety when it was mentioned in Shakespeare's famous play Hamlet, where the titular character discovers that his uncle Claudius, who has married his mother after the death of his father, is the one responsible for his family's curse. The curse becomes a central theme in the play, symbolizing the destructive power of revenge and the consequences of one's actions. Today, the curse originating from Denmark remains a subject of fascination and intrigue, inspiring countless stories, books, and films. While the curse may have originated from a tale of unrequited love, its enduring legacy serves as a reminder of the power of superstition and the lasting impact it can have on individuals and families..

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