13 Whimsical Witches from Literature

Happy Halloween! If you are anything like me, we'll all be binge-watching classic movies like Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Young Frankenstein, or even Rocky Horror Picture Show. But if you're looking for some binge-reading, try out the fantasy section - witches and magic may not be spooky or creepy, but they add even more fun to a holiday based on giving away free candy. Check out these 13 Whimsical Witches:

Mary Poppins from Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

Illustrated by Mary Shepard

It may be a stretch to call Mary Poppins a witch, considering her magic is subtle and she denies all magical events anyway. If anything, she's the kind of witch that tries not to use very much of their magic and that's the kind of witch we're more likely to come across in real life. We meet some of her magically inclined relatives through the series, like the giggly Uncle Albert; this only proves that she's a witch who chose to be incredibly responsible with her talents.

Matilda from Matilda by Roald Dahl

Illustrated by Quentin Blake

Another questionable witch classification, Matilda Wormwood is often included among the fictional child geniuses, of which none of us can doubt her worthy. Her telekinetic powers are largely attributed to both her voracious reading and that she uses more of her brain than the average person. Regardless, her skills are easily magical in practice, resulting in some well-deserved shananigans for the terrible Principal Trunchbull.

Glinda from The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Illustrated by William Wallace Denslow

In the books, Glinda is actually the Good Witch of the South and is not the witch that sends Dorothy off on her journey with the silver slippers (yes, silver). Instead, Glinda is the witch who informs hapless young Dorothy that the silver shoes could have taken her home at any point of the story. As a kindly and good witch, she is extremely helpful to the group and is decked out with hearts; though that is nonironic, as opposed to the hearts the Queen of Hearts uses in Alice in Wonderland.

Hermione from Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling

Illustrated by Mary Grandpre

Definitely a good and clever witch, Hermione Granger is the icon of a generation of readers. Determined, motivated, confident, and super smart, Hermione is an avid learner, an unapologetic dork, and a crusader for justice. Along with her considerable magical talents, she can also boast founding S.P.E.W. (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare), keeping the Boy Who Lived alive for seven books, punching an adolescent Draco Malfoy in the face, and using time-travel to double her schedule for her third year.

The Three Witches from Macbeth by William Shakespeare

“Macbeth and Banquo encountering the witches – Holinshed Chronicles”

Potion-makers and future-tellers, the three witches get the story moving, and keep it moving, throughout the play. Morally ambiguous, they aren't really an evil presence and were initially presented as normal, respectable women (see image). Supposedly, with King James all up in arms about witches, Shakespeare portrayed them on stage as ugly old crones thereby solidifying a particularly terrible image of witches in fiction.

Elphaba from Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Illustrated by Douglas Smith

The Wicked Witch of the West from Baum's The Wizard of Oz was wicked, and pretty much nothing else. Yet, Gregory Maguire took an entirely evil persona and brought her into a three-dimensional, relatable character. Elphaba is an outsider, protector of her sister, protector of animals, natural magic wielder, and a woman entirely unwilling to compromise who she is, even if that means she can never have the dream she's held for so long. She finds love, she finds betrayal, she finds corruption, and, most importantly, she finds her own path.

Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves by the Brothers Grimm

Carl Offterdinger, 19th Century

This is where things start getting a little more interesting. The Queen in Snow White, looking deeper than just 'pure evil,' allows her vanity and pride to suppress her conscience to the point of extinction. With her magic mirror constantly telling her that she's no longer the 'fairest in the land,' she lets herself make terrible decisions in the pursuit of regaining her title. Her magic seems to dwell in potions, transfiguration, and any kind of poisoning ability at all - corset strings, hair combs, apples...

Circe from The Odyssey by Homer

Woodcut of Circe from De claris mulieribus, ca. 1541

Circe, also kind of morally ambiguous, uses her talents to protect her island from all invaders, drugging them and transforming them into various animals. Odysseus' crew are turned to pigs, for example, until he manages to defeat her. How? By sleeping with her, on his terms. After that, she lets them stay for a year, feasting and drinking. Basically, Odysseus discovers the loopholes of her magical abilities, using them to his own ends. And we wonder why she turns all men into animals.

Gothel from Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm

Philip Grot Johann

Rapunzel's witch, not always named, is an unapologetically cruel woman. When she catches the father stealing the rapunzel herb from her garden, instead of perhaps making him pay money for his theft, she bargains for his unborn child. She then hides the child in a remote tower, wherein the child grows up into a woman and grows out her long hair. Although the original stories give little reason for this, Disney attempted to give the witch a reason for keeping the girl to herself: magical hair. That makes the situation slightly better than an old woman keeping a young girl hostage just to spite the young girl's parents for stealing a head of lettuce.

Lamia from Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Illustration by Charles Vess

These three witches, considerably more vindictive than Shakespeare's, need the heart of a star to keep their youthful looks. They conceive plot after plot to capture the star, using transfiguration, curses, and quite a bit of violence. With little to no conscience, these witches are willing to do anything to get young again. This includes sacrificing innocent bystanders, interfering with the kingdom's royal lineage, and expending a whole lot of magic.

Morgan Le Fay from Vita Merlini by Geoffrey of Monmouth

Frederick Sandys

Morgan Le Fay is a frustrated witch. She finds herself in an unhappy marriage, and takes out her unhappiness on Arthur and his people in Camelot. She becomes one of Arthur's biggest adversaries, one of the most famous sorceresses in history, and one of the most powerful sorceresses in history. Although she 'sees the error of her ways' in the end, she briefly shines as the formidable precursor to such evil witches as Maleficent.

Grand High Witch from The Witches by Roald Dahl

Illustration by Quentin Blake

Dahl's portrayal of witches caters perfectly to everyday life; for witches to survive, they should probably be able to blend in. With bald heads, claw hands, toe-less feet, purple flashes in their eyes, and a hatred of children, these witches seem appropriately abnormal. And the Grand High Witch is the most diabolical of them all. It is she who concocts the almost ridiculous plot of transforming every single child into a mouse with drugged candy from their chain of candy shops. And it is she who terrified our childhood selves any time we saw a woman with square shoes or thick gloves or eyes remotely purple.

White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

Illustration by Pauline Baynes

Jadis the White Witch, somewhat inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, is a spoiled, entitled, evil woman. She uses the most destructive spell possible just to kill her sister, which also kills every other living creature in her kingdom. Although her powers don't work in every world, like the world of the Pevensies, she finds that they do work in Narnia, prompting her to take it over almost immediately. She then works to develop her powers in Narnia even further, become a terrifying tyrannical ruler. Able to turn people into statues, vaporize them, and condemn Narnia to eternal winter (without the fun of holidays), she is also incredibly charismatic, able to seduce practically anyone, like Edmund, into furthering her own power-hungry cause.


From good to bad, responsible to power-mad, these witches boast classic and well-written stories that really could be read any time of the year. But Halloween is special - anything goes because there are infinite ways to celebrate, whether you prefer ultra-scary horror movies or the spooky adventures of Disney Channel Original Movies or anything inbetween.

Who's your favorite literary witch?