129 Sentences With "sorceresses" | Random Sentence Generator

The game pits two teams of four players as warriors and sorceresses.

The work draws from myths of Obeah women, ocean-dwelling sorceresses in Afro-Caribbean folklore.

But, perhaps it's time we did...Women were the earliest sorceresses, muses, and practitioners of magic.

Halle Berry was playing Storm, who hails from African sorceresses and whose mutant powers include controlling the weather.

The headmaster originally wanted to establish the Garden as a precautionary measure against evil sorceresses, but lacked the funds.

The best Halloween movies are full of great sorceresses, and supernatural TV has no shortage of women cooking up spells.

The witches become all-powerful sorceresses, and the Wizard becomes a symbol of the rule of unjust men, and on and on.

Instead she took Surrealism to a place that was centred on women, not as muses or femmes enfants, but as domestic goddesses, cooks, sorceresses, witches.

And we've marveled at how this fantasy world manages to feel both comfortable, with its array of elves and sorceresses, trolls and vampires, and yet completely unique.

That her advice can contradict itself from book to book doesn't appear to distress her (she fluctuates between regarding women as all-powerful sorceresses and abjectly dependent).

Sorceresses and kings have other plans for the rich land of Aedirn, and Saskia is swept away as the region is absorbed by the greed of the surrounding kings.

It was quite sad, despite the fact she's a complete bitch, as it highlighted more of Wild Hunt's ruthless attitude toward sorceresses—or basically anyone that is deemed remotely different.

But it's quickly made clear that she'll be the secondary protagonist of the show, because she's recruited into a league of powerful sorceresses by a very stern female mage named Tissaia de Vries.

There are at least three separate sorceresses that Geralt can go to bed with in The Witcher 3, and many more strictly human partners-to-be, if you decide to role-play in such a way.

Such a show, all fucking and fantasy and furious men making eyes at even more furious women (and, like, elves, and sorceresses, and so on) makes perfect sense, in these post-Game of Thrones days of stay-in entertainment.

She undergoes the ritual by herself, enduring an excruciating magical surgery without anything for the pain, then she strides into the great hall where royals are meeting their chosen sorceresses and takes her place with the court she desired.

Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski's sprawling medieval fantasy novels involve magic, monsters, sorceresses, and lots of sword-slinging, and the franchise reached an even wider audience over the past decade with a hugely successful video game series developed by CD Projekt.

But it's the strength and depth of Yen, of Triss and a handful of other prominent female characters in The Witcher 3 (the sorceresses really do run shit) that ensures that their relationships with Geralt feel substantial, important, and surprisingly close to those we've had in our own, so-called real lives.

This war and its aftermath represent the titular game of thrones, which is played as much through court intrigue and council meetings as it is on the battlefield; where the most powerful moves involve not only the unleashing of dragons but strategic marriage proposals; where the key players include assassins, sorceresses and zombies — a game in which the most important pieces are people.

Dario Argento's Giallo masterpiece about a ballet studio serving as a front for a coven of witches is a smorgasbord of fantastic horror set pieces and bloody deaths; it features more red than Argento's movie Deep Red, and it boasts one of the best scores in horror film history, one of the best animal kills, and the most badass group of dancing sorceresses ever.

Storm's ancestry supports the use of magic and witchcraft.The Marvel Tarot Direct Edition One Shot, June 2007. Marvel Comics. Many of her ancestors were sorceresses and priestesses.

Unlike Frederick Sandys' portrayals of sorceresses, such as his 1864 Morgan le Fay and 1868 Medea, Waterhouse chose to make his witch's face intent and intriguing, as opposed to malevolent.

She has blonde hair with a tinge of green (from her mother).Ivy's twin sister is Ida. Ivy is married to Magician Grey. Their children are the triplets, Sorceresses Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm.

The Astromancers are an ancient league of mages (sorcerers and sorceresses) who have protected Gemina. They reside at the Astromancer Academy. Those of the top level have a deep purple magical aura while mid-level Astromancers have a light orange magical aura.

Triss Merigold of Maribor, a sorceress and a friend of Geralt and Yennefer. She took care of Ciri for some time and is like an older sister to her. She was a member of the Lodge of Sorceresses. Triss is in love with Geralt.

Zatanna gagged and incapacitated. Art by Sami Basri. Zatanna is one of the most powerful sorceresses in the DC universe, whose abilities are apparently genetic. As a tribute to her father and as a focal point, she usually casts spells by speaking verbal commands backwards.

The behind-the-scenes intrigues of the breeding program are illuminated in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy (1999–2001) as the program nears fruition in the time immediately prior to the novel Dune. The origins of the program are explored in the Legends of Dune prequel series. Over 10,000 years before the events of Dune, the Sorceresses of Rossak had started keeping detailed breeding records circa 400 B.G., trying to improve the potency and prevalence of their telekinetic powers. In 108 B.G., the Sorceresses begin collecting genetic samples of various human bloodlines, which were in jeopardy from a catastrophic virus genetically engineered and unleashed by the thinking machines.

Therefore, they have to be picked early in the morning before dawn. Women – sorceresses and enchantresses – go to gather herbs by themselves to cure and make charms. The herbs gathered for the winter must be 77 and a half – for all diseases and for the nameless disease.

With the collapse of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers after the Thanedd incident, Francesca Findabair gathers a group of sorceresses - including Yennefer, whom Francesca transformed into a jade statuette during the chaos on Thanedd and has kept sequestered in the three months since then - and proposes the founding of a new organization, the Lodge of Sorceresses. Francesca and Phillipa Eilhart explain their belief that, rather than act as advisors to the monarchs of the various kingdoms, their magical abilities make them best qualified to rule themselves. But the only way the nobility of the Northern Kingdoms would accept such rule is if they were all unified under a single monarch, who possesses both royal blood and magical ability - i.e., Ciri.

He lived in Palermo until the 1918, and then moved back to Petrosino . In 1883 in Rome, he yed two Pompeian scenes titled: Amphora Salesman and ...Licet?, the last acquired by the Provincial Council of Naples. In Turin, he exhibited : Le Maghe (Sorceresses) and at the 1985 Naples Promotrice, a Golgotha.

The film flashes to his vision of the story, which is set in Paris with Khan as the hero Hassan. Hassan's companion in the story is a beautiful Hindu woman. The story includes a stolen talisman, a blindfolded marriage, Egyptian sorceresses, a sect of devil worshipers, and reincarnated evil spirits.

She conceives a daughter with Suk, but remains on Rossak to continue her work as he pursues his goal to form the greatest medical school ever seen (later known as the Suk School). Raquella assumes authority over the Sorceresses and their breeding programs, and founds the Bene Gesserit school of thought.

Sorcerers and sorceresses were often slain by relatives of their supposed victims. A singular enchantment was employed to kill off a husband of a pretty woman desired by someone else. The expanded flower of a Gardenia was stuck upright—a very difficult performance—in a cup (i.e., half a large coconut shell) of water.

Collins English Dictionary, Second Edition, 1986. A boat of Morgan and other magical ladies came to take the mortally wounded King Arthur in a boat to Avalon in the French Vulgate Cycle (described there as an island of sorceresses) and in many later works, including the now-iconic portrayal from Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.Vinaver, Eugene, 1971. Malory: Works.

She lived in the capital city of Aedirn, Vengerberg. She is one of the most powerful mages on the continent and is surpassed by only a handful. She is the youngest member of the Council of Sorcerers and later she became a member of the Lodge of Sorceresses. During the Battle of Sodden Hill she was blinded by Fringilla Vigo, a Nilfgaardian sorceress.

The most common occupation for women was weaving clothes for the family, sale at market or for large textile enterprises that employed hundreds of women. Other women helped on their brothers' farms or became singers, dancers, sorceresses, respected medical physicians, and successful merchants who could afford their own silk clothes.; . Some women formed spinning collectives, aggregating the resources of several different families.

Helfenstein was appalled at the lenience in Esslingen. He executed another forty-one women from Wiesensteig. On December 2, 1562, he approved the additional execution of 20 more. This amounted to the total reported in a sensational pamphlet of 1563, which described as: the true and terrible acts and deeds of the sixty-three witches and sorceresses who were burned at Wiesensteig.

Margaret Stuart Barry (born Margaret Stuart Bell on 7 December 1927)Author profile is an English children's writer, and is best known for creating the Simon and the Witch series of books.Witches and Sorceresses She has written other series for young readers, including the Attic Toys series.Bibliography Barry is from Darlington, County Durham, and was schooled in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

He also visits Ireland outside of government territory: it is tribal and governed by sorceresses who have genuine powers of telepathy. It is mentioned in passing that England is also tribal and much weaker. While escaping home, he also visits Mob territory and finds it much more disorganised. He proposes that the Syndic becomes more like a regular government to protect itself.

He is the father of the triplet Sorceresses, Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm. On Ptero, a moon of Ida, when Grey is older, he is known as the royal consort because his wife, Ivy, is a future King of Xanth. Captain of Xanth's star-ship, the Beta, during a dream voyage to rescue centaur expedition Alpha in Board Stiff from Demoness Xornax.

During his time there, he recounts the history of Kovir, a former vassal state of Redania that seceded some time ago, declaring ongoing neutrality. It is revealed that the sorceresses of the Lodge, an organization that supports the supremacy of magic, have already begun their plan to establish Kovir as a nation sympathetic to magic, which they can then control. A number of powerful sorceresses - including the Nilfgaardians Assire var Anahid and Fringilla Vigo, and the Northern sorceress Sheala de Tancareville, under the leadership of Phillipa Eilhart - gather information on the movements and plans of various nations, and begin to set their own plans in motion. Triss Merigold, technically allied with the Lodge but privately questioning its motives, searches for information on Yennefer of Vengerberg, who is widely believed to be dead, after the events of the previous novel.

The nine sorceresses or nine sisters () are a recurring element in Arthurian legend in variants of the popular nine maidens theme from world mythologies. Their most important appearances are in Geoffrey of Monmouth's introduction of Avalon and the character that would later become Morgan le Fay, and as the central motif of Peredur's story in the Peredur son of Efrawg part of the Mabinogion.

Angitia was one of the three daughters of Aeëtes, along with Medea and Circe, two of the most famed sorceresses of Greek myth. Circe, as widely known from the Odyssey, practiced transforming spells; Medea ended up in Italy, where her son ruled over the Marsi. Angitia lived in the area around the Fucine lake and specialized in curing snakebites.Dench, From Barbarians to New Men, p. 99.

The Magicians of Xanth are a subset of fictional characters from the Xanth series of fantasy genre novels by Piers Anthony (b. 1934). The Magicians are usually humans. They possess powerful magical abilities, and so are the only humans who are able to take the role of King of Human Xanth. Magicians who are female may be called Sorceresses, but the may not become king.

She can also absorb an opponent's life force to temporarily increase her own powers. A prolonged absence from Asgard tends to diminish her powers although they never fade completely. The Enchantress has been described as one of the most powerful sorceresses in Asgard, second only to Karnilla,New Mutants Special Edition; X-Men Annual #9; Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition #4. Marvel Comics.

The Great Qing Legal Code includes one statute titled "Prohibitions Concerning Sorcerers and Sorceresses" (禁止師巫邪術). In 1811, a clause was added to it with reference to Christianity. It was modified in 1815 and 1817, settled in its final form in 1839 under the Daoguang Emperor, and abrogated in 1870 under the Tongzhi Emperor. It sentenced Europeans to death for spreading Catholicism among Han Chinese and Manchus.

WIZ-DOM members seem to be rather isolated from most of society. Since their magic is of the western variety, skilled in a wide variety of occult practices. Common WIZ-DOM archetypes include sorceresses, alchemists, priestesses, knights, spirits and ghosts, and artificial beings (such as elementals and golems) created via magic. There are also a lot of scholars, as well as people proficient in fortune-telling techniques and archaic western weaponry.

Squall rescues her and the two share another personal moment on the Ragnarok spaceship. Rinoa discovers that she now has Edea's magical powers from her time possessed by Ultimecia, making her a Sorceress as well. Fearful of sorceresses, the Esthar government imprisons her but Squall convinces himself to rescue her. During the game's ending, she reunites with Squall and kisses him on the Balamb Garden balcony for the first time.

Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants or An Herball of Large Extent. Tho. Cotes. Publisher, London, Pp 1110-1112. A description from 1869 says that four-leaf clovers were "gathered at night-time during the full moon by sorceresses, who mixed it with vervain and other ingredients, while young girls in search of a token of perfect happiness made quest of the plant by day".Masters MT. 1869.

It should be ensured that this > treatise will become known to learned and zealous men, who will then, on the > basis of it, provide various healthy and appropriate advice for the > extermination of sorceresses [...] The second part is signed by those from the first signing and in addition by professors Ulrich Kridweiss of Esslingen, Konrad Vorn of Kampen, Cornelius Pays of Breda and Dietrich of Balveren (Bummel). Signatories attest that: > 1) The Masters of Holy Theology written below commend the Inquisitors into > Heretical Depravity appointed by the authority of the Apostolic See in > conformity with the Canons, and urge that they think it right to carry out > their office zealously. > 2) The proposition that acts of sorcery can happen with God's permission > through sorcerers or sorceresses when the Devil works with them is not > contrary to the Catholic Faith, but consonant with the statements of Holy > Scripture. Indeed, according to the pronouncements of the Holy Doctors it is > necessary to admit that such acts can sometimes happen.

The darker sides of magic are usually the antagonists of the series. The demon Chernobog, for instance, is the main villain, and his magical minions are the source of Venice's troubles. In This Rough Magic, King Emeric of Hungary is a witch, and a sect of sorceresses are the most powerful antagonists (their leader is the infamous Elizabeth Bartholdy). In A Mankind Witch, it is revealed that female Trolls have powerful magic.

Morgan le Fay possesses a natural affinity for magical forces which is a result of her half-faerie genetic structure. She possesses a gifted intellect, and as a former pupil of Merlin with centuries of study, she is considered one of the greatest sorceresses in Earth's history. Her magical powers are derived from three major sources. Due to her faerie heritage she possesses innate personal powers such as the ability to control minds.

He is an acting-king during the reign of Trent. In Night Mare, when Arnolde is ninety-eight, he is for a short time, a centaur king. During his reign, he declares that Sorceresses are merely female Magicians, and therefore eligible to serve as Kings of Xanth. In Golem in the Gears, Arnolde reveals that when he carries reverse wood, he is able to create an aisle of non-magic in Xanth.

When performed in the northern parts of Italy, specifically around Venice, she is portrayed as the gossipy townsperson. Whereas when we venture down south around Naples, she makes appearances as a midwife, or the older herb woman. Another common role for la Ruffiana is a mysterious magical woman or gypsy. Most of the other characters in Commedia are not trusting or scared of sorceresses and gypsies because they are typically mischievous thieves.

Meanwhile, Zedd and Adie are back at the Wizard's Keep to defend it against Emperor Jagang's Sorceresses. However, they are overwhelmed by intruders who enter the Keep, unaffected by any of the protection spells placed. A sister enters the Keep after Zedd and Adie are tied up and Rada'Hans are placed around their necks. Richard was poisoned by Owen, a man from the Bandakar Empire, in order to force Richard to save the Bandakar people from the Order.

He uses Mord-Sith to capture wizards and sorceresses, and extract everything they know about his enemies' plans. He knows of the boxes of Orden and the Book of Counted Shadows, but is not well enough studied to use them. Instead, he grooms his son, Darken Rahl, to take and open the Boxes of Orden. At the time, the great wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander sides with the Midlands against Rahl and is able to hold Rahl's magic in check.

The witches of the Night World novels are largely based on the neo-pagan religion of Wicca as well as the Goddess Movement. They are a matriarchy which traces its lineage to the first tribe of sorceresses ruled by Hecate Witch-Queen and later her daughter, Hellewise Hearth-Woman. All witches are considered "daughters of Hellewise" by virtue of having inherited her teachings. However, the Harman family are direct descents of Hellewise through the women in their line.

The Attacked Mystification Police Department (AMP) is a branch of the Tokyo police force formed specifically to fight the Lucifer Hawk and have the powerful pursuit aircraft the Simurgh at their disposal. ; :; Marcy Goldberg (English) :Rally is the founder and chief of the AMP. She is quite powerful because she is half-human and half-Lucifer Hawk. ; :; Caroline Savenkoff (English) :Mana is the Section Chief of the AMP who joined in 2028 and is a powerful sorceresses.

The Triplet Sorceresses are the children of Ivy and Grey. Melody has blonde hair with a tinge of green and blue eyes like her mother, Harmony has brown eyes and hair like her father, and Rhythm has red hair and green eyes like her cousin, Dawn. Their magical ability allows them to create or enable anything they envision while playing music. If two of the three play together, the power is squared and if all three play, it is cubed.

In the television version, she refers to herself in the third person. She travels to the Old World and studies with the Sisters of the Light. She also travels the Midlands and learns a great deal about her gift of magic from other sorceresses and soon learns of how rare her strength of power is. For a good part of her life, she uses a crutch, because she has to sever her own foot when a Gripper attaches itself to her.

Paranoid and feeling that the doctor might somehow usurp her power, the leader of the Sorceresses of Rossak poisons Raquella with the Rossak Drug. Rather than killing her, the ordeal awakens Other Memory within Raquella. Her body changed by her ordeal with the Scourge, she manages to internally convert the poison into a harmless substance, thus being the first to undergo what would later become the spice agony. Soon thereafter, Raquella also discovers the new ability to command others with Voice.

For example, Abdullah bin Buraydah narrated from his father, "I was sitting with the Prophet and I heard him say, 'Learn Surah ul-Baqarah, because in learning it there is blessing, in ignoring it there is sorrow, and the sorceresses cannot memorize it."'Ahmad ibn Hanbal Arab tradition, similar to other tribal cultures of that time, was to name things according to their unique characteristics. They used this same method to name Quranic chapters. Most chapter names are found in hadith.

The story begins 18 months after the destruction of the Black Cauldron. Eilonwy is the last in a line of royal sorceresses of the House of Llyr, and Dallben the enchanter has decided that Eilonwy, as a princess, needs an education that he cannot provide. He sends her to reside at a royal court on the Isle of Mona, in the west of Prydain. Taran and Gurgi escort her to Mona, on a ship "captained" by Prince Rhun, a cheerful but incompetent youth.

Peredur son of Efrawg is associated with Chrétien de Troyes' unfinished romance Perceval, the Story of the Grail, but it contains many striking differences from that work, most notably the absence of the French poem's central object, the grail. Versions of the text survive in four manuscripts from the 14th century. The tale's protagonist Peredur travels to King Arthur's court to become a knight. The young Peredur embarks on a series of adventures, culminating in his battle against the nine sorceresses.

Philippa Eilhart was King Vizimir's advisor and remained in Redania's court after his assassination which was something that she herself arranged. Philippa was a very powerful sorceress and was one of the few to have the ability to polymorph. She was a close ally to Dijkstra and would occasional sleep with him even though she was a bisexual. She was a member of the Chapter on the Conclave and was the leader of the Thanedd coup and the founder of the Lodge of Sorceresses.

The terms of the frequent references in Horace to Canidia illustrate the odium in which sorceresses were held. Under the Empire, in the third century, the punishment of burning alive was enacted by the State against witches who compassed another person's death through their enchantments.Julius Paulus, "Sent.", V, 23, 17 Nevertheless, all the while normal legislation utterly condemned witchcraft and its works, while the laws were not merely carried out to their very letter, but reinforced by such emperors as Claudius, Vitellius, and Vespasian.

Cassandra tells her son to leave the sorceresses to her and go to dispatch the gryphon, sacrificing herself in a magical strike against them. Meanwhile, Armand has captured Amelia and killed the Locklander knight champion, and demands that she become his bride. Seth and David arrive and fight with the sorcerer, but soon loses the blade of the Draconian Pike. Assembling the pike, Armand kills David and prepares to kill the Delphite Prince, but is persuaded to spare him by the surrender of Amelia.

Some of the individuals who performed magical acts on a more than occasional basis came to be identified as magicians, or with related concepts like sorcerers/sorceresses, witches, or cunning folk. Identities as a magician can stem from an individual's own claims about themselves, or it can be a label placed upon them by others. In the latter case, an individual could embrace such a label, or they could reject it, sometimes vehemently. There can be economic incentives that encouraged individuals to identify as magicians.

In honor of the relocation to the new theatre, a lavish gala performance was planned for February 1886, which included the Petipa/Minkus work Les Pilules magiques (The Magic Pills). The work included three danced tableaux: the first took place in a cave inhabited by sorceresses, while the second included various card games brought to life through dance. The third and final tableau was known as The Kingdom of the Laces in which a Grand divertissement of national dances from Belgium, England, Spain and Russia was performed.

Copies of the Malleus Maleficarum contain a reproduction of a papal bull known as Summis desiderantes affectibus that is addressed to Heinrich Institoris and Jakob Sprenger. According to it, Pope Innocent VIII acknowledges that sorceresses are real and harmful through their involvement in the acts of Satan. According to the date on the document, the papal bull had been issued in 1484, two years before the Malleus Maleficarum was finished. Therefore, it is not an endorsement of a specific final text of the Malleus.

Ellone eventually escapes to Esthar, the world's technological superpower. Meanwhile, Squall confronts his personal anxieties fueled by ongoing developments, such as Headmaster Cid appointing him as SeeD's new leader and his increasing attraction to Rinoa. Squall and his comrades learn that they, along with Seifer and Ellone, were all raised (except for Rinoa) in an orphanage run by Edea; after eventual separation, they later developed amnesia due to their use of Guardian Forces. Cid and Edea had established Garden and SeeD primarily to defeat corrupt sorceresses.

Robert E. Smith, (Fort Wayne: Project Wittenberg, 2004), Small Catechism 1.2. and prescribed the Biblical penalty for it in a "table talk": > On 25 August 1538, there was much discussion about witches and sorceresses > who poisoned chicken eggs in the nests, or poisoned milk and butter. Doctor > Luther said: "One should show no mercy to these [women]; I would burn them > myself, for we read in the Law that the priests were the ones to begin the > stoning of criminals."WA Tr 4:51–52, no.

Lina and Gourry travel to the town of Acassi, known for its tasty octopus. However, the octopus meat is cursed, causing the person who eats it to only be able to speak takogo (タコ語, octopus language). Sorcerers and sorceresses cursed by this also cannot cast spells, since the spells have to be spoken in a common language in order for them to work. Gourry just happens to eat one of the cursed octopuses (after fighting for it with Lina), which causes him to speak in takogo.

Dean, Winton, "A New Source for Handel's Amadigi", Music & Letters, February 1991, 72 (1): pp. 27–37. The opera is scored for two recorders, two oboes, bassoon, trumpet, strings, and basso continuo (cello, lute, harpsichord). The singer Elisabetta Pilotti- Schiavonetti in the role of Melissa, who specialised in playing sorceresses, and for whom Handel had written the similar parts of the witch-like Armida in Rinaldo and Medea in Teseo is distinguished in Handel's music between her vengeful character and that of the other leading female part, the sweet Princess Oriana.

Connected with Norse religion, its origins are largely unknown, although it became gradually eroded following the Christianization of Scandinavia. Accounts of seiðr later made it into sagas and other literary sources, while further evidence has been unearthed by archaeologists. Various scholars have debated the nature of seiðr, some arguing that it was shamanic in context, involving visionary journeys by its practitioners. Seiðr practitioners were of both sexes, although it appears that practicing it was considered to be a feminine trait, with sorceresses being variously known as vǫlur, seiðkonur and vísendakona.

In 1811, a clause sentencing Europeans to death for spreading Catholicism had been added to the statute called "Prohibitions Concerning Sorcerers and Sorceresses" (禁止師巫邪術) in the Great Qing Legal Code. Protestants hoped that the Qing government would discriminate between Protestantism and Catholicism, since the law mentioned the latter by name, but after Protestant missionaries gave Christian books to Chinese people in 1835 and 1836, the Daoguang Emperor demanded to know who were the "traitorous natives" in Guangzhou who had supplied them with books.

He sets up base in South Adrilankha in disguise and through following runners finds the house where the Left Hand is operating. Despite his magic blocking stones, one of the sorceresses discovers him and attempts to kill him. However, Lady Teldra, Vlad's Great Weapon, deflects the attack spell back to the sorceress and kills her. Vlad now knows he must be more careful to mask his actions, but he needs more information about what is going on and who is involved, but he lacks the resources he had when he was a crime boss.

The dream ends and a new dream starts, this time dealing with the adventures of Geralt. Geralt has been completing monster contracts in the duchy of Toussaint while the rest of the group, Dandelion, Regis, Milva, Angoulême, and Cahir, have been exploring and relaxing. Geralt eventually starts a relationship with the castle sorceress, Fringilla Vigo. Fringilla is one of the few members of the Lodge, a group of sorceresses that wish to control the political world, and is assigned the task of delaying him to seek out Ciri and Yennefer.

Taran and his companions meet Gwystyl as they are escaping the Huntsmen of Annuvin after their failed attempt to obtain the Black Crochan. Under the pressure of fellow Fair Folk, Doli, he gives them refuge from the vicious Huntsmen in his underground lair, but he immediately encourages them to leave. To the annoyance of Gwystyl, Kaw (who can speak one word sentences) blurts out the names of Orddu, Orwen and Orgoch in connection with the Cauldron. Gwystyl reluctantly reveals that the three sorceresses possess the Cauldron in the Marshes of Morva.

Bradley encouraged female writers and protagonists. The stories feature skillful swordswomen and powerful sorceresses, working from a variety of motives. Jessica Amanda Salmonson similarly sought to broaden the range of roles for female characters in sword and sorcery through both her own stories and in editing the World Fantasy Award-winning Amazons (1979) and Amazons II (1982) anthologies; both drew on real and folkloric female warriors, often from areas outside of Europe. Early sword and sorcery writer Robert E. Howard had feminist views, which he espoused in both personal and professional life.

There were prayers for every such phase in life; for success in battle; for a change in wind (to overwhelm an adversary at sea, or that an intended voyage be propitious); that his crops may grow; to curse a thief; or wish ill-luck and death to his foes. Few men of middle age were without a number of these prayers or charms. The succession of a sorcerer was from father to son, or from uncle to nephew. So too of sorceresses: it would be from mother to daughter, or from aunt to niece.

Three times he attained a paradise that turns out to be false, and this is followed by the death of a woman who are gone until the very end when Thalaba is awarded entrance into a true paradise. The seeking out of mythic figures to guide him onto the next part of the tale is equally repetitive and has little result for the plot. Various instances of the sorcerers and sorceresses are added to the story to emphasise the evil of magic along with tempting Thalaba with power. However, the emphasis on magic hides the moral within Thalaba's temptations.

The personal priest of Maria Elizabeth, Claudius Prytz, was very active in this matter. The duke issued a new law which made it easier to judge and execute witches, which led to the Finspång witch trial; > "Two evil and reputed sorceresses, which Their Graces Duke Johan and his > noble consort Maria Elizabeth upon the word of God destroyed, were burned at > a place called Skogby vad".Ankarloo, Bengt, Satans raseri: en sannfärdig > berättelse om det stora häxoväsendet i Sverige och omgivande länder, > Ordfront, Stockholm, 2007 Seven women were executed in Finspång in 1617. After this, there were few witch trials in Sweden.

RPGamer called Squall "everyone's favorite orphan" and said although he tries to distance himself from others, "he can't help but draw people to him, be it sorceresses or gun-slinging ladies' men". GameDaily ranked him sixth on its list of the "Top 25 Gaming Hunks", stating while critics described the character as a jerk, his character design, especially his scar, make him visually appealing. Den of Geek listed Squall as one of the most sexually appealing video game characters based on the design, especially his scar. Arnold Katayev of PSXextreme praised Squall's redesign in Kingdom Hearts as the game's best character design.

Just as there were previous Sorceresses in the 1980s He- Man series, the current Sorceress is not the first. The wife of King Grayskull, known as Veena, was seemingly the original Sorceress of Castle Grayskull. She has a similar appearance to Teela Na, can also transform into a bird, and it was she who was first entrusted with the Power Sword's protection following the death of King Grayskull. Had the series continued into a third season, She-Ra would have been introduced, with the Sorceress again sending He-Man on the quest to locate his sister with the Sword of Protection.

The series is set in a matriarchal world inspired by early 20th century Asia, and tells the story of Maika Halfwolf, a teenage girl who shares a mysterious psychic link with a powerful monster. The background to the story is a war between the Arcanics, magical creatures who sometimes can pass for human, and the Cumaea, an order of sorceresses who consume Arcanics to fuel their power. Maika is an Arcanic who looks human, and who is set on learning about and avenging her dead mother. Maika's left arm has been severed and a demon occasionally emerges from its stub.

One fan theory about the game was that the overarching antagonist of Final Fantasy VIII, Ultimecia, is Rinoa from the future. Reed also included the theory of Rinoa being Ultimecia on the list of top nine lingering plotlines in video games. According to Glenn Morrow of RPGamer, most of the arguments in favor of it have potential but also opined that the theory is "in no way" plausible. Kitase debunked this theory when interviewed during the PAX West 2017 event, conceding that while there are similarities, such as both being sorceresses, they are not the same person.

He is mollified somewhat by the treasure he finds in the sorceresses' cottage, but his rage returns when, after returning to the People's Palace, he spots his guide. After killing the guide, he is briefly jailed but escapes, using the voice in his mind to make the D'Haran guards do his bidding, and resolves to locate Richard Rahl. Jennsen and Sebastian reach Emperor Jagang at the van of the army of the Imperial Order. Though initially shocked by the crude Order soldiers, she is advised not to be so picky and that the D'Harans are even worse.

In many of the Oz books, Dorothy is the main heroine of the story. She is often seen with her best friend and the ruler of Oz, Princess Ozma. Her trademark blue and white gingham dress is admired by the Munchkins because blue is their favorite color and white is worn only by good witches and sorceresses, which indicates to them that Dorothy is a good witch. Dorothy has a forthright and take-charge character, exhibiting no fear when she slaps the Cowardly Lion, and organizing the Winkies' rescue mission of her friends who have been dismembered by the winged monkeys.

Elisabetta Pilotti-Schiavonetti ( - 5 May 1742) was an Italian operatic soprano who was associated with the House of Hanover. She was one of the leading prima donnas at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket (it later became the "King's Theatre" after King George I's accession in 1714) from 1710 to 1717. She is best remembered today for creating roles in at least four operas by George Frideric Handel, possibly five. Three of the roles that Handel wrote specifically for her were sorceresses, and the demands of those roles indicate that she possessed an exceptional voice capable of both dramatic power and technical agility.

The Spellsong Cycle is a fantasy series written by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. Set in the fictional world of Erde, it is notable for its system of magic, based on music and song. The main character of the first three books of the series is Anna Marshall, a middle-aged music instructor and small-time opera singer who is magically transported from Ames, Iowa to Erde, a fantastical world where songs have a magical power, and where she has the capability to become one of the most powerful sorceresses in the world.Publishers Weekly. excerptKirkus Reviews. 1996. excerpt.

Owen Swiny by Peter van Bleeck, 1737 (National Portrait Gallery). The German-born Handel, after spending some of his early career composing operas and other pieces in Italy, settled in London, where in 1711 he had brought Italian opera for the first time with his opera Rinaldo. A tremendous success, Rinaldo created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. Rinaldo, a "magic" opera featuring enchantments, sorceresses and scenic ingenuity, had been followed by Il Pastor Fido, a shorter and simpler opera, which was not a success with London audiences at its first performances.

One of the Adversary's most powerful sorceresses, Baba Yaga arrived in Fabletown after taking the form of Red Riding Hood. In this disguise, she seduced, interrogated and tortured Boy Blue, and then led an army of wooden soldiers to attack Fabletown. She was defeated in a magical battle with Frau Totenkinder on the roof of the main Fabletown building where Totenkinder had spent years laying down protective spells, giving her the advantage. The rest of Fabletown believes Baba Yaga died in this battle; however, Bigby and Totenkinder kept her alive and restrained, regularly drained of magical power, in a secret prison cell in order to extract information from her.

Geralt, without much of a choice, accepts, and Yennefer and Geralt take a bath together, preparing to die. When they ask the guards for the dagger to finally put an end to their lives, Ciri eventually enters the room, saying that the Emperor and his men left without a word. The three soon leave, with Ciri leading the way to all of the places during her adventures earlier in the story in order to take revenge/pay her respect to those who have helped her during her journey. Yennefer is soon contacted by the Lodge of Sorceresses and is summoned to Montecalvo castle along with Ciri.

Kenichi must find a way to return everything back to normal until the dimension falls apart. Sex Demon Queen Kuri and Linna, a pair of two beautiful and deadly sorceresses, live in an age when all manner of unclean beasts and demons wreak havoc on the general population as they seek to gratify their unquenchable lust. Kuri has dedicated her magic to stopping these foul beasts, though her partner would rather cavort with these demons than kill them. However, this odd couple won't stand for rape, and as they rescue a damsel in distress, they are noticed by the Sex Demon Queen, who seeks to have them as her own.

However, Christian influence on popular beliefs in witches and maleficium (harm committed by magic) failed to entirely eradicate folk belief in witches. The fierce denunciation and persecution of supposed sorceresses that characterized the cruel witchhunts of a later age were not generally found in the first thirteen hundred years of the Christian era.Thurston, Herbert. "Witchcraft." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 12 Jul. 2015 The medieval Church distinguished between "white" and "black" magic. Local folk practice often mixed chants, incantations, and prayers to the appropriate patron saint to ward off storms, to protect cattle, or ensure a good harvest.

Afrasiyab had a magic mirror which projected his body into his court during his absence, and many magic doubles who replaced him when he was in imminent danger. Besides sorcerers and sorceresses, the emperor also commanded magic slaves and magic slave girls who fought at his command and performed any and all tasks assigned them. As Hoshruba’s time neared its end, Emperor Afrasiyab resolved to defend his empire and tilism, and foil the conqueror of the tilism when he appeared. The story of Hoshruba opens where the false god Laqa—an eighty-five-foot-tall, pitch-black giant – and one of Amir Hamza’s foremost enemies – is in flight after suffering a fresh defeat at Amir Hamza’s hands.

Scholars have unearthed very few facts about Shakespeare's sources for Sycorax. In fact, other than her connection to the magical sorceresses Medea and Circe of Greek mythology, nothing conclusive has been proposed. Several competing linguistic theories have been put forth. Some scholars argue that her name may be a combination of the Greek sus ("pig") and korax ("crow"). Another rough translation produces the phrase "the Scythian raven", an etymological description of Medea (Batman upon Bartholome, a work which Shakespeare is likely to have used for reference, gives the name Corax for a ravenFrancis Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare (1807) via Google Books) Also, psychorrhax ("heartbreaker"), may be a play on the Greek word psychoraggia ("death struggle").

The fairies, rejoicing at the opportunity to perform a "good miracle", cast a spell and turn the father into a son, the son into father, and mother ... into a cactus. At the same time, two other female sorceresses from the Institute of minor mischief also appear among people to commit more trouble. Since the next day is the 1st of September, the son needs to go to school, and the father to work in the clinic, they try to teach and prepare each other for unexpectedly new habits and responsibilities in their childhood and adulthood. And the fairies Daisy and Violet somehow manage to correct their mistake - they turn the mother-cactus into a mother-girl.

He is in fact very intelligent and well read. Whenever he captures a new city, he has teams of servants who bring him any books that he believes are of note, and has read many, if not all, of the books he has captured. Also, by reading books through the minds of the Sisters of the Light and Sisters of the Dark that he has enslaved, he also knows quite a lot about magic and magic theory, despite being unable to utilize the knowledge himself. He frequently questions his sorceresses about matters of magic that he already has the answers, well before they do, simply to determine if they will lie to him.

In the first book, they find out that this group of sorceresses was forced to disband after one of their own, a woman named Sarah Rees-Toome, betrayed them. Throughout the series Gemma learns of her own heritage and the magical powers she possesses, including the ability to enter "The Realms," a magical world in which dreams can become reality, but everything seems to have a cost. This series addresses some of the issues faced by women in the late 1800s, and creates parallels to issues faced by women today. There are many female characters, and the struggles they encounter on their journey to becoming empowered both within and outside of The Realms ring true.

All in all, Barks drew nine stories with Magica: The Midas Touch in 1961; Ten- Cent Valentine, The Unsafe Safe, and Raven Mad in 1962; Oddball Odyssey, For Old Dime's Sake, and Isle of Golden Geese in 1963; The Many Faces of Magica de Spell and Rug Riders in the Sky in 1964. In the latter, Barks tried to increase the usability of the character by having plots turn on other magic artifacts, here a flying carpet, not always having to repeat the joke about Scrooge's first coin. Magica also appeared as an antagonist in the Wizards of Mickey comic series as part of a trio of sorceresses who all had rivalries with each other.

Before doing so, the two sorceresses manage to conjure up a spell that causes a brief storm, in which hail drops from the sky, dispersing the rioting mob. Yennefer, in an attempt to heal Geralt, falls unconscious. Ihuarraquax the unicorn, who seemingly had sacrificed himself to save Ciri previously, shortly appears running on the surface of the lake, and did not even wrinkle the water which was described like something "strange", and channels his power through Ciri to apparently heal Geralt. Guided by the unicorn, Ciri then asks her friends to help her and puts the bodies of the two, Geralt and Yennefer, on a nearby boat that appears from nothing into the fog.

Belief in witchcraft is ancient. in the Hebrew Bible states: "Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead." Pope Gregory VII wrote to Harald III of Denmark in 1080 forbidding witches to be put to death upon presumption of their having caused storms or failure of crops or pestilence. According to Herbert Thurston, the fierce denunciation and persecution of supposed sorceresses which characterized the cruel witchhunts of a later age, were not generally found in the first thirteen hundred years of the Christian era.

The singer Elisabetta Pilotti-Schiavonetti in the role of Medea, who specialised in playing sorceresses, and for whom Handel had written the similar part of Armida in Rinaldo and later the role of Melissa in Amadigi di Gaula was the star of the show, and Handel's music distinguishes between her vengeful character and that of the other leading female part, the sweet Princess Agilea. 18th century musicologist Charles Burney wrote of the accompanied recitatives for Medea: > in which the wild and savage fury of the enraged sorceress, Medea, and her > incantations, are admirably painted by the instruments.Charles Burney: A > General History of Music: from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period. Vol. > 4, London 1789, reprint: Cambridge University Press 2010, , p. 242.

Many cultures around the world have stories about groups of nine women. In Great Britain they occur in a variety of situations. In Scotland there are references to Nine Maidens, purportedly a group of,Forbes, AP. Kalendars of Scottish Saints 1872, Edinburgh, p420 and there were a number of wells dedicated to them,Mackinlay, J F. Traces of the Cultus of the Nine Maidens Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1910 pp255-65 but like all similar groupings would appear to have had their origin in pre-Christian times. In Arthurian material, the best known of these groups are the Nine sorceresses, Morgan and her sisters who live on the Isle of Avalon and are both seeresses and healers.

Her quest devolves a series of captivities and escapes, in which she is in turn separated from and reunited with her feline guardian. She is successively enslaved by lecherous inhabitants of the city of Paltossa, the Northern Barbarians, the sorceresses of the Witch Wood, and the sorcerer Sarkon and his three Womanthing minions. During the course of her adventures she picks up additional companions, including the bisexual girl Evalla, the Lion Warrior Thund, and the teenage boy Zorak, all of whom provide opportunities for sex play between adventures. Throughout all, she somehow manages to maintain a technical virginity, primarily because her various antagonists seem too depraved to consider ordinary intercourse, while her male companions are either too honorable, too inhibited, or too distracted by Evalla.

The German-born Handel, after spending some of his early career composing operas and other pieces in Italy, settled in London, where in 1711 he had brought Italian opera for the first time with his opera Rinaldo. A tremendous success, Rinaldo created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. Rinaldo, a "magic" opera featuring enchantments, sorceresses and scenic ingenuity, was followed by Il Pastor Fido, a shorter and simpler opera, which was not a success with London audiences at its first performances. The substantial revision of 1734, with the famed castrato Carestini, was much more successful, and the subsequent revival the same year featured dances by celebrated French ballerina Marie Sallé and her troupe, with specially composed music by Handel.

The nine make their final written appearance in the Peredur son of Efrawg part of the Mabinogion, wherein Peredur (a variant of Percival) faces many opponents throughout the course of the story. However, his real enemies are eventually revealed as the Gwiddonod Caerloyw - the malignant Nine Witches of Caer Lloyw (or Caerloyw, literally the Castle of Glow in English, or the "Shining Fortress", later identified as Gloucester), also known as the Nine Sorceresses of Gloucester. Here they are fearsome mistresses of warfare and magic who terrorize Britain and whose evil deeds are responsible for ravaging his uncle's kingdom. It is a variant of an Arthurian Grail tale in which, instead of questing for the Grail, the hero takes part in ridding the land of the plague (gormes) of evil witches that must be destroyed.

He is also the one who informs her that the favorite color of the Munchkin people is blue and that only good witches and sorceresses wear white. With the combination of white and faded blue checks in Dorothy's gingham dress, this implies to them that she is a friendly witch, even though Dorothy knows she is just an ordinary little girl from Kansas. After the celebration, Boq gives Dorothy and Toto a comfortable bed to sleep in. In the morning when Dorothy eats a hearty breakfast, Boq admits to Dorothy at the dining table that he has never been to the Emerald City and does not know exactly how far away that it is, for he believes that no one should ever go there unless one has business with the great and powerful Oz.

The German-born Handel, after spending some of his early career composing operas and other pieces in Italy, settled in London, where in 1711 he had brought Italian opera for the first time with his opera Rinaldo. A tremendous success, Rinaldo created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. Rinaldo, a "magic" opera featuring enchantments, sorceresses and scenic ingenuity, was followed by Il Pastor Fido, a shorter and simpler opera, which was not a success with London audiences at its first performances. The occasion for which Silla was written is not known and the presence of a part for a non-singing actor (Scabro) in a Handel opera is a unique feature of Silla for which the reason is again unknown.

In the 2002 version, the Sorceress is much more Egyptian in appearance, with a headdress resembling the Egyptian god Horus, an armored bodice, skirt, bare arms, jewelry, and a magical staff. It is disclosed that the Sorceress is just one in a line of Sorceresses whose duty it is to protect the secrets of Castle Grayskull. In the 2013–2014 DC Comics ongoing series, the Sorceress of Grayskull is captured and imprisoned by Skeletor. Loyal to the end, she refuses to talk or eat until an impatient Skeletor kills her before engaging his nephew Adam/He-Man in a battle outside Castle Grayskull where his Havoc staff is broken and his jaw shattered by He- Man, before being knocked into the pit between Grayskull and the Evergreen Forest.

At the same time, there is a mention of "two evil and reputed sorceresses, which their noble Graces Duke John and his noble consort Her Highness Maria Elizabeth condemned upon the order of God, burned on a village called Skoby vad." The seven condemned of the Finspång witch trial were taken out to the woods, to a cliff above a great bonfire, and pushed to their death in the fire below. If this is true, the method of execution would have been quite unique in the Swedish witch trials, where the condemned were usually decapitated before they were burned; though there are cases where the method of execution is unclear, there is only one case, that of Malin Matsdotter in 1676, where the condemned witch is confirmed to have been burned alive. The witch trial of Finspång has been a legend in folklore.

After his meal, Vlad returns to Dzur mountain and requests through multiple channels to speak to Cawti to get a better understanding of what happened in his absence. She confirms that she neglected the underworld organization Vlad left to her when he went on the run from the Jhereg, and that the Left Hand of the Jhereg, a coven of sorceresses who normally operate autonomously from the Right Hand (the crime organization run by the male Jhereg), have made an unprecedented move of taking over the crime holdings and try to force Cawti into retirement. Cawti's friend, Norathar, the Dragon heir to the Imperial Throne, doesn't want to see control taken away from Cawti, which is setting the stage for the possible House war. Vlad takes on the responsibility to get to the bottom of the Left Hand's involvement and prevent further chaos.

In the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy (2002–2004) by Brian Herbert and Anderson it is revealed that the Sorceresses of Rossak, who possess destructive telekinetic powers existing only in women and have a breeding plan to create more powerful telepaths, had been the predecessors of the Bene Gesserit. As a Sorceress is always killed when she unleashes her full power, they sacrifice themselves to destroy some of the Titans and Neo-Cymeks during the Butlerian Jihad, over 10,000 years before the events in Dune. Later, they expand their genetic program to preserve human bloodlines when humanity is endangered by a widespread plague called the "Demon Scourge", genetically engineered and unleashed by the thinking machines. Raquella Berto-Anirul becomes their leader after surviving a poisoning attempt by being the first to internally render the toxin harmless.

Letter by Chapuys to the Emperor, 10 July 1533"the King's mistress (amie) was delivered of a daughter, to the great regret both of him and the lady, and to the great reproach of the physicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and sorceresses, who affirmed that it would be a male child" Greenwich Palace, after a 17th-century drawing The infant princess was given a splendid christening, but Anne feared that Catherine's daughter, Mary, now stripped of her title of princess and labelled a bastard, posed a threat to Elizabeth's position. Henry soothed his wife's fears by separating Mary from her many servants and sending her to Hatfield House, where Elizabeth would live with her own sizeable staff of servants and the country air was thought better for the baby's health.Starkey, p. 512. Anne frequently visited her daughter at Hatfield and other residences.

In Ludovico Ariosto's continuation of this tale, Orlando Furioso (1532), Morgana (also identified as Morgan Le Fay) is revealed as a twin sister of two other sorceresses, the good Logistilla and the evil Alcina; the latter appears after Orlando again defeats Morgana, rescuing Ziliante who has been turned into a dragon, and forces Morgana to swear by her lord Demogorgon to abandon her plots. It also features the medieval motif where uses a magic horn to convince Arthur of the infidelity of his queen (Geneura), here successfully. Bernardo Tasso's L'Amadigi (1560) further introduces Morgana's three daughters: Carvilia, Morganetta, and Nivetta, themselves temptresses of knights. Morgan's other 16th-century appearances include these of Morgue la fée in François Rabelais' French satirical fantasy novel Les grandes chroniques du grand et énorme géant Gargantua et il publie Pantagruel (1532) and of the good Morgana in Erasmo di Valvasone's Italian didactic poem La caccia (1591).

In 1609 Councillor Pierre de Lancre intervened in French Basque Country at the head of a commission of inquiry demanded by Henri IV. The commission was to "purge the country of all sorcerers and sorceresses under the influence of demons". The priest of Ascain was degraded then burned.Philippe Veyrin, The Basques, Arthaud, 1975, , page 249 The Bishop of Bayonne, Jean VI de Sossiondo, built a large house called "Askunda" here during the middle of the 16th century, which can still be seen. In 1794, at the height of The Terror and after the desertion of 47 young people from Itxassou, the Committee of Public Safety (Decree of 13 Ventôse Year II - 3 March 1794) arrested and deported some of the men, women, and children from Ainhoa, Ascain, Espelette, Itxassou, Sare, and Souraïde; and declared the commune, as for other communes near the Spanish border, a "Notorious commune".

The narrative does not actually say how many witches are gathered for the final battle at Caer Loyw when they are wiped out, and there might be more than the nine from the first encounter between them and Perodur; according to John Rhys it is suggested "they must have mustered in a great force," possibly along with (unmentioned) "numerous allies of the other sex." In any case, Peredur's duty of vengeance was fulfilled and he is celebrated as hero for his role in freeing the kingdom of the great scourge of witchcraft - and, with the sorceresses now annihilated, Peredur himself becomes the last keeper of their magic secrets. However, what happened to his uncle after the victory is left untold. Urban T. Holmes Jr. assumed that with the witches' death the king was freed from their enchantments, conversely Arthur Edward Waite assumed that the king was not healed and it was all in vain.

The curse tablet was excavated from a grave of La Vayssière necropolis, just north of the village of L'Hospitalet- du-Larzac, close to the ancient Roman road from Condatomagus (Amiliavum, Millau) to Luteva (Lodève), at the time crossing the provincial border between Gallia Aquitania and Gallia Narbonensis. The text cannot be translated with any certainty, but it is clear that its nature is that of a magical curse, cast in the "world of women", presumably by one group of women or sorceresses against a rival group. The placement of the curse tablet in a tomb is not unusual in the Greco-Roman world; the tomb was considered a gateway by means of which the curse would reach the infernal deities charged with its execution. The fragmentation of the tablet may also be intentional, performed by its original authors, as part of the ritual "burial" of the curse to send it on its way to the underworld.

The magic invoked is clearly malicious, of a nature well attested from other parts of the Celtic world, notably Irish mythology. Sisterhoods of sorceresses or witches are also known to have existed in ancient Gaul on the authority of ancient ethnographers; thus, Pomponius Mela (III, 6, 48) records a college of nine priestesses capable of invoking tempests and adopting animal form among the Osismii, while Strabon (IV, 4, 6) is aware of a convent of women of the Samnitae possessed by Dionysus, installed on an island of the Loire estuary. Both the context of the curse tablet and the names of the women listed as targets of the curse reflect the syncretic culture of Roman Gaul at the end of the 1st century. The name of Severa Tertionicna, the "head witch" targeted by the curse, consists of a Roman cognomen Severa and a patronymic which combines the Roman cognomen Tertio with the Gaulish -ikno- suffix.

It is often featured in Gawain's origin stories since at least The Rise of Gawain from around 1200, often through the "Castle of Wonders" version in Perceval, Parzival, The Crown and elsewhere; the 13th-century romance Palamedes replaces Gawain with Palamedes in its version of that tale. Usually, Gawain has to lift the siege of otherwise help the women dwelling in the castle, who then tend to turn out as his mother and sisters (see also examples in Gawain's article). One exception can be found in the Livre d'Artus, where Sagramore dispels the castle's evil enchantment (a cry that drives mad or kills) by the Queen of Denmark so Gawain can overthrow her son, the Red Knight. In the 13th-century French romance Claris and Laris, Morgan lives in a palace in the enchanted forest of Brocéliande with twelve other fairy sorceresses, who lure and trap there forever various young knights for their pleasure.

Hardenbrook goes farther than many previous Oz authors in an attempt to provide a contemporary conceptual framework for the fictional world of Oz. In a Prologue titled "The Story So Far," Hardenbrook specifies that Oz exists in a parallel universe, in "a galaxy very like our own Milky Way" with "a star virtually identical to our sun...." The star has "a planet that corresponds to Earth" -- though it differs in possessing "two extra moons and a polychromatic ring system...." The planet contains continents and archipelagoes that include "Dodgesonia" and "Geiselgea" as well as "Baumgea." Hardenbrook goes on to summarize the narrative background of the Oz mythos -- the fairy queen Lurline and the whole scope and structure of magic, wizards and sorceresses crucial to Baum's fantasy -- before he gets to his story in earnest.Dave Hardenbrook, The Unknown Witches of Oz, Lakeville, MN, Galde Press, 2000; Prologue, "The Story So Far," pp. xi-xiv.

The witches, a group of black-clad "maiden- hags", actually enter the story as Peredur's opponents-turned-benefactors, even giving him the same powers as they have when he spends time in their home, but the central theme is his eventual unenthusiastic revenge on them for having previously harmed his relatives. Peredur himself vanquishes only the chief witch, and only forced to do so after giving them three chances to yield, but this act breaks the magic of their spells and Arthur and his men slaughter the rest without mercy and with such swiftness that not a single one escapes alive. Relatively early on during his adventures, Peredur comes upon a mountain castle, the lady of which tells him how the surrounding lands have been conquered and laid to waste by the terrifying nine sorceresses, with powers too great for anyone to stop them, and that one is coming to take the castle the very next morning. But Peredur offers to help, and at dawn he fiercely attacks and subdues the arriving enchantress with a blow that shatters her helmet.

He is just about to slay her but stops when she begs forgiveness; after obtaining permission from the lady of the castle, he agrees to spare her life if she promises to return to her land and that she and her sisters would never trouble the dominion of his hostess (Peredur regularly gives quarter to his defeated enemies through the course of the tale, including Kai and various other knights). He then sets off with the now befriended sorceress back to her palace at Caer Lloyw in the journey that itself is not described. Peredur stays at the Witches' Court (Llys Gwiddonod) for three weeks, being tutored by them until he finishes his training, and then he is sent off by their lady principal on his way with the horse and weapons of his choice. During the grand finale at the original end of the tale, however, Peredur learns that a mysterious severed head (replacing the Grail in this story), which he had witnessed before meeting the sorceresses, belonged to one his cousins.

His foster-sister accuses the witches for the murder of his cousin and for having cursed and lamed of his uncle (an unnamed king of the realm, here a Fisher King figure), and tells Peredur that he is predestined to be their avenger. Peredur and his elder companion Gwalchmei (Gawain) decide to summon Arthur's warband to join them in this labour, and he leads them to Caer Lloyw to deal with the sorceresses. During the ensuing showdown, the witches attack and Peredur watches the seemingly invincible leader of the enchantresses defeat Arthur's warriors one by one, as Peredur keeps pleading for her to desist and stop the fighting and give up but she does not listen; only after she kills the third one, Peredur finally enters the strife himself and swiftly strikes her down with a single powerful blow. With her dying breath, she cries out to the other witches they are doomed as Peredur was prophesied as the slayer of them all, and orders the other witches to getaway; however Arthur and the others rush and chase after the fleeing women until every last one is overtaken and put to the sword.

Dusii are among the supernatural influences and magical practices that threaten marriages, as noted by Hincmar in his 9th- century treatise De divortio Lotharii ("On Lothar's divorce"): "Certain women have even been found to have submitted to sleeping with Dusii in the form of men who were burning with love."Quaedam etiam faeminae a Dusis in specie virorum, quorum amore ardebant, concubitum pertulisse inventae sunt: De divortio, XV Interrogatio, MGH Concilia 4 Supplementum, 205, as cited by Filotas, Pagan Survivals, p. 305. In the same passage, Hincmar warns of sorceresses (sorciariae), witches (strigae), female vampires (lamiae), and magic in the form of "objects bewitched by spells, compounded from the bones of the dead, ashes and dead embers, hair taken from the head and pubic area of men and women, multicoloured little threads, various herbs, snails' shell and snake bits."Filotas, Pagan Survivals, p. 305. 19th-century Prussian coat of arms depicting woodland "wild men" The form Dusiolus, a diminutive, appears in a sermon with the beings aquatiquus (from aqua, "water") and Geniscus, possibly a form of the Roman Genius or the Gallic Genius Cucullatus whose hooded form suggested or represented a phallus.