![]() In Italy, for instance, it is an old woman who delivers gifts down the chimney and she is often thought to ride a broomstick. In fact, Bridwell is combining a couple of different Christmas-time legends. The cartoon below, by Norman Bridwell, is funny to those of us who grew up with the idea that Santa and his reindeer drove/pulled a sleigh. ‘Marginalia of the earliest known illustrated example of a witch on a broomstick in the 1451 manuscript, Hexenflug der Vaudoises (Flight of the Witches), authored by Martin Le France (1410-1461).’ /2DgzlFMuV9- Sardonicus June 18, 2020 witch riding a cat backwards from 1489 Witches haven’t always ridden brooms. But where did that last, weirdly specific, trope of flying on a broomstick actually come from? Oxford Book of Poetry for Children compiled by Edward Blishen, illustrated by Brian Wildsmith (1963)īrooms and Witchcraft, Part 2: Inquisitions and IniquityĬould the stereotype of witches on broomsticks actually be a drug reference? Join Ben, Noel and Casey as they continue digging through the history and folklore of witchcraft - and how it affected pop culture in the modern day. Most people are familiar with the stereotypical image of a witch: a haggard, often older individual with a peaked hat, black robes, a demonic familiar and, oddly enough, a penchant for cruising around on broomsticks. ![]() (I can’t understand why broomsticks would be needed.)īrooms and Witchcraft, Part 1: A Killer in the Rye? ![]() It is speculated that ergot was historically taken via the anal membrane, and speculated further that this was applied using broomsticks. This sounds like a post hoc explanation to me, but the hallucinogenic component of the bread mould is much less upsetting when absorbed by the skin rather than taken orally. The witch riding a broom may be a drug reference. See also the two part series on broomsticks possibly being about ergotism at the Ridiculous History podcast. (It’s not safe for work, possible paywall.) Witches broomsticks were meant to have been made out of hard and polished elm wood (to make it more aerodynamic). There is another theory about why broomsticks became connected to witchcraft. This is how broomsticks became associated with witches. There was an old woman toss’d up in a basket Ninety-nine times as high as the Moon William Wallace Denslow There was an old woman toss’d up in a basket Ninety-nine times as high as the Moon William Wallace Denslow John Martin’s Book The Child’s Magazine, art perhaps by George L Carlson (USA, 1887-1962) Not all women in the sky with broomsticks are riding said broomsticks. Honestly, this is how I’d be clinging onto a broom: Robin Jacques for A Book of Witches by Ruth Manning-Saunders (1965) This young witch, illustrated Fern Bisel Peat (1893-1971), is harnessing hers like a horse. Now take a look at this witch from about the middle of the 15th century, who sits on her broomstick with the broom part in front: Engraving by James Charles Armytage a witch of about the middle of the 15th century in from an 1868 edition of Sir Walter Scott’s “Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft” (1830) Old King Cole’s Nursery Rhymes (1901) Illustrated by Byam Shaw (1872-1919) Beware The Beautiful Witch by Power O’Malley 1913, cover for Life In case you’re wondering, Telephone Review was a magazine for employees of New York Telephone company The Witch The Belated Witch Banks, early 1900s Charms of the Witching Hour After the Sabbath, 1927, by William Mortenson Fiep Westendorp (Dutch illustrator) 1916 – 2004 The Flying Bicycle Ernst Barlach (1870-1938), ‘Walpurgisnacht – Hexenritt’, 1923 Gil Miret (1963) Janet McCaffery (1964) J.C. 1932 ‘Concerning Witches’ 1915 Maxfield Parrish The Witch, 1926 Ida Rentoul Outhwaite 1888-1960 Norman Price 1928 Bertha Lum (American, 1869-1954) C. Escher for THE TERRIBLE ADVENTURES OF SCHOLASTICA (De vreeselijke avonturen van Scholastica). Which is the correct way to sit on a broomstick? Take a look at the images below: Hilda Boswell Adrienne Adams (American,1906-2002) William Pogany illustration for The Witch’s Kitchen Dugald Stewart Walker Ida Rentoul Outhwaite (Australian, 1888-1960) Macleans Magazine halloween 1923 Rudolf Koivu (1890–1946) is a Finnish illustrator The witch riding The Lancashire Witches (1848) by William Harrison Ainsworth Chris Van Allsburg. Reese and Emily Shaw Reese, who were married). ![]() illustrator of the Toby Twirl books was the British artist Edward Jeffrey from Durham, 1898 -1978 Ipswich hosiery advertisement for The Ladies Home Journal, December, 1926. Broomsticks may keep a woman housebound, but also afford the imaginative freedom to fly. ![]() Broomsticks are useful storytelling symbols that serve double duty - they are a symbol of female oppression (tied to the house and the drudgery of housework) but also, by leap of imagination, turn into a vehicle by which to escape. ![]()
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