Markup View

Author: LordGro

Aug 6th 2012 at 4:31:19 AM

I think this is insufficiently different from WickedWitch. Especially the cat, flying broomsticks and "witchy attire" are part of the Wicked Witch stereotype, or "Witch Classic" if you want to drop the "wicked" part.

About the definition of "witch" plain and simple, there's two things to consider:
* The witches of European folk belief -- those hunted during the European Witch Hunts -- were not actually {{Wicked Witch}}es ''per se'', as "witches" could be of any age and of any appearance. Broomsticks were only ''one'' of their various possible means of locomotion, and they weren't all female -- men could be witches too, even if women were thought to be witches more often (because women were thought to be more susceptible to the devil, or something in that vein). The WickedWitch is an [[{{Flanderization}} stereotype]] that began with fairy tales ("Literature/HanselAndGretel") and was codified by children's books from a time when nobody took "witches" seriously any more.
* The concept of "witch" is not exclusive to Western/Christian culture. Belief in malicious sorcerers, male or female, was and is extremely widespread. It existed in Europe before it became Christian and it exists (and has existed as long as anybody can remember) elsewhere. Australian Aborigines believed in sorcerers too, for example.

Under the name "Witch", I'd expect one of the following definitions:
* A synonym for EvilSorcerer (male or female) - the oldest definition.
* A evil sorcer''ess'' (female only) - a more recent definition.
* A female magic user -- the youngest definition that appears mostly in modern fantasy literature, having liberated witches from the stigma of always being evil.