Witches in Fiction

If you weren't aware, Magaly over at Pagan Culture has been hosting a wickedly witchy blog party for the past few weeks, which celebrates witches in fiction. To celebrate along with her, I thought I would share with you the witches in fiction that I most relate to; unsurprisingly there are three of them. :)

Elphaba Thropp; Wicked Witch of the West, Luna Lovegood and Granny Weatherwax. I sort of got lazy with the background, so you'll have to forgive the white.

Luna Lovegood of Harry Potter fame is a light-hearted daydreamer, with a clever wit and infectious sense of humor. She is a fairly powerful witch with an open mind and a loyal friend. She is a bit quirky, a bit of an eccentric and has a sense of style that is uniquely her own. Luna holds many 'odd' beliefs, including steadfast belief in the existence of magical creatures thought only to be fantasy. Given my own wonder and belief in folk lore and mythical beasts such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, I have to tip my pointy hat to her. I relate to Luna in regards to my inner child, the light-hearted aspect of my spirit and given her later career as a naturalist, in my fascination with all creatures and plants.

Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West, is whom I most relate to in my current phase in life. She was a misunderstood teenager and given a bad rap by her peers, but she proved to be a loyal friend in spite of their shortcomings. She learned to harness her abilities later in life, and took an interest in the well being of her country and those who could not easily defend themselves. An activist, a lover, an intelligent woman; Elphaba the bookworm, the passionate. A Wicked Witch who is not afraid of defying gravity or social norms.

I can only hope to age as well and grow as witty as a lot of folks' favorite crone (but don't tell her!), Granny Weatherwax. Considered to be the greatest witch in all of the Discworld, Granny has no use for the flashy and showy magic of wizards instead preferring to know more then everyone else and using that to her advantage. She is a talented herbalist, midwife, and shapeshifter; often 'borrowing' the mind and eyes of an animal. Her tough love attitude, stern icy blue gaze, sharp tongue and temper have given people the impression that Granny may be a witch most evil, but her actions have time and again proven otherwise. Still, others, including Death himself, give Granny a wide berth and as she says (she) 'had walked nightly without fear in the bandit-haunted forests of the mountains all her life in the certain knowledge that the darkness held nothing more terrible than she was.'

Which fictional witches do you most relate to? Are there any that you connect with, whose personality you can see in yourself? How about witches you aspire to be more like?