"Today when we think of witches our heads are filled with images of slightly green ugly old hags, dressed in ragged black frocks with pointy hats and pointy noses. They tend to cackle a lot. They stick out their warty chins and grin madly while stroking their black cats. They tend to live in tumbledown cottages and mix noxious potions in bubbling cauldrons and fly out of their chimneys on their broomsticks.

Our ideas about what makes an archetypal witch are filtered through centuries of folktales and superstitions, fireside songs and fairy stories. We have grown up with the wicked witches of Disney and the Wizard of Oz, Technicolor crones brought to life on the big screen, but their roots lie in the wealth of old folklore that sailed into New York harbour with America's immigrants.

In the confusion of history many writers have confused the 'real' witches with their fanciful weird sisters. Folklorists have in the past tried to prove their theories that there was a hidden underground tradition of witchcraft that was persecuted in the Burning Times. Confessions extracted under excruciating torture should not be taken at face value - if it would have spared them further pains the accused would have happily confessed to being the tooth fairy. But the details of these confessions were published in chapbooks and lived on to mix and mingle with tales of giantesses and hags till the archetypal witch was created."

Extract from Halloween-Pagan Festival to Trick or Treat (c) Mark Oxbrow 2001 Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. http://www.thehalloweenbook.com

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