Horrific Witches of The Fairy Tale
Free reads and a little story about the witches we love to call our favorite villains.
The Black Aniss Witch, the Evil Queen from Snow White, the Sea Witch in The Little Mermaid, Mother Gothel from Rapunzel. These are all villains in some of our favorite stories, but do we really understand why they got the role of their lifetime in their specific tale? That is something I’ve been thinking about lately as I write my book.
Hansel & Gretel
The Black Annis.
This is a cannibal hag (a hag is an ugly woman who has devoted her life to witchcraft and who could be remnants of shadows that inhabited the earth early on). Basically, she’s a really ugly witch who wants to eat people. Especially children because, as I understand, they aren’t as tough. As far as my research goes, they have horrible eyesight and they are not very smart. They can produce devious spells on unsuspected people (especially children and animals) and have often been involved in the dreams of humans, resulting in nightmares.
Snow White
Snow White’s Evil Queen
The Evil Queen is really a queen masquerading as a witch. She is insecure, vain, sneaky, and diabolical. As long as she feels vindicated, she takes pleasure in others’ suffering. She somehow has access to serious magic from where we don’t really know. Just the fact that she has the mirror (who’s exactly on the other side of that? Lucifer?), a haunted comb, and a poison apple (that’s not really magic because she just hypodermic needles it with poison which she could have made herself. In a cauldron perhaps?) Because of her power and influence, she is able to manipulate people into performing her sinister deeds.
The Sea Witch
The Little Mermaid’s Sea Witch
From The Little Mermaid tale by Hans Christian Anderson, we find the sea witch who lives in a house with polypi, half animals and half plants all around her. They looked like serpents with a hundred heads growing out of the ground. She used the bones of shipwrecked human beings to build her house (Can you imagine her pulling the flesh off of people to build her house?). She sadistically tortured the Little Mermaid (who, by the way, in the original story is never named). Every step the Little Mermaid took, her feet bled like she was walking on knives, after she had her tongue cut out and was then transformed into a human. (Ouch, I don’t know if any man is worth that). Hans Christian Anderson’s tales don’t have as many Happily Ever Afters as the Grimms.
The Sorceress of Rapunzel (Mother Gothel)
Mother Gothel from Rapunzel.
Mother Gothel is Rapunzel’s adopted mother. Um… she’s pretty demanding and callous by locking a child alone in a tower that no one could find or even reach. From the original story, we do not know what happened to her after she cut off Rapunzel’s hair and duped the prince into climbing the tower. And really, everyone in this story failed beautiful Rapunzel from her parents to Mother Gothel, and really the prince who was upset “about vicious and angry looks.” Maybe she ended up as the Evil Queen in Snow White? There’s an opportunity for some fan fiction right here.
Here’s this month’s free Fantasy reads. Enjoy!
From my author-friend Emma Shelford
Fear and anger make the secret magic deep in eighteen-year-old Gwen’s blood spill out. She hates that uncontrollable levitation and fires are the least of her worries.
But when Gwen's best friend Ellie is kidnapped by the fae, magic might be the only thing that can save her. Now Gwen must track Ellie through wild fae forests to the queen's castle, while learning to wield magic she inherited from the mother that abandoned her.
For if Gwen can't harness her powers, Ellie will die in the Otherworld.
Download Emma’s Free Book Today!