I just ran across your message board. I like it. I thought you might like, also, to know that while I was teaching Russian language and culture in a local elementary school my research on Russian witches turned up a few details I did not know and helped the whole witch thing make more sense.
As I understand it the label of “witch” is one that Christians put on natural healers, herbal healers and even midwives. They were often the people who had herbal healing knowledge, as well as being versed in the old religion (read pagan beliefs). So in searching for ways to force populations to “accept” Christianity, the whole witch thing, including eating Christian children (Hansel & Gretl, etc.) helped inflame popular opinion against those who clearly did not embrace the “new”, monotheistic religion.
In Russian culture there are plenty of witches but by far the most well known is Baga Yaga. The way the Russians tell about her and perpetuate the witch lore it’s quite a bit scarier than the cutsie witches you run across in Anglo-American lore. Witches in Russian literature do NOT ride on brooms, they ride IN a mortar (as in mortar and pestle, like at an apothecary), in one hand she rows or paddles her way across the sky with the pestle, sweeping away her traces behind her with HER BROOM. Hence it’s easier to see the connection between the various elements of the witch myths and the purposes of those who went to the effort to perpetuate those myths. As we know, it is the victors who write the histories.
BTW - Lest you doubt what I’ve reported, the Russian tales frequently have the heroine able to perform the impossible tasks set out for her by the witch because she has been given a gift by her dying mother. Check out “Vasilisa the Beautiful” or any of the Vasalisa tales. It’s not a very large leap to see that the special “blessing” from her mother is her faith or religion which magically helps Vasalisa to complete the impossible tasks, thus thwarting the witch’s efforts, for she cannot eat GOOD little Russian boys and girls, only the bad ones. And if you think Hansel & Gretl’s witch’s gingerbread house is sinister, read about Baba Yaga’s place in the deep, dark forest, which sits on chicken legs (tree stumps) surrounded by a fence made of human bones, topped by skulls whose eyes glow brightly at night.
I certainly appreciate your courage in explaining the broomstick thing and am not contradicting you at all. As you look across European cultures at these folk tales you can begin to make out the shape of a strategy of religious conversion that is still working, today. -Mike Russell, Seattle, WA
I can’t speak to Russia, but in Western Europe, this is a lie, made up by a bozo named Margaret Murray back in the 1920s. Unfortunately, while she was still hot, the Britannica hired her to write the article on “Witchcraft” for their new 1929 edition. The article remained in print for forty years, and the Britannica has been apologizing for it for fifty.
Here is a less convoluted , but still impossible to prove, hypothesis.
Wiches were often women living alone, and subjects of much rumour and curiosity.
1 -Picture a young boy , or several, with nothing to do … what is more fun than playing tricks on the scary old lady. She can’t fight back …well the only thing that is anything like a weapon she has is a broomstick.
2 -Picture a younger woman living alone, and defenceless, sadly cruel young men might consider her a handy target for rape. Again what weapon does she have to defend herself with? the broom
Then whack wack broomstick on your back or legs (or groin) would make a strong impression, ( and fairly loud sound) …
Neither groups of young males are going to confess what they did to cause the woman to whack them…but will probably brag about how they escaped the "wicked witch’s broom "
Not at all true. Witches were hated by - for example - the Romans long before Christianity even came along. So it’s not a Christian thing at all. And by no means were those accused of witchcraft necessarily “versed in the old religion.” In almost all cases, medieval “witches” considered themselves true and proper Christians, and knew little to nothing about the “old religion.”