Each year I aim to include a spooky theme on Halloween week. This year I've decided to extend it throughout the entire month of October. I'll review four witch-themed books back-to-back, but not the popular, spine-tingling type of novel aimed to disturb and unnerve us. I'll focus on insightful vintage reads which encourage us to consider the topic through the lenses of tradition, history, and even Christian faith.
Second is this novel I read during my Primary School years, and tracked down as a free read on Internet Archive.
MY THOUGHTS:
Three young friends, William, Susie, and Martha, concoct a witch's brew as a bit of a lark. They follow Shakespeare's recipe (Eye of newt and toe of frog...) but improvise heavily. The old Cotswold barn in which they hang out is rumored to have once been the home of a real witch.
Old Miss Hepplewhite, the owner of the barn, totters over a moment too late. Still, she enlightens them about the identity of the witch who once claimed ownership. It was King Arthur's sister, Morgan le Fay, whose alter-egos include Duessa, Circe, the witch from Snow White, the Ice Queen, and many more. She is widely recognizable as a bad egg.
As Morgan thrives on credulity, she's disempowered when people don't believe in her. That's why she jumps on any opening afforded by children. But perhaps, Miss Hepplewhite suggests, since theirs was only a small belief, nothing will come of it.
Nope, it is soon clear that the evil Morgan has snatched her opportunity to enter their era. She takes advantage of vulnerable Martha, who has nervous misgivings from the very start, and who is subject to nightmares of the most fantastical nature. Yet the other two are certainly not blameless. William always comes up with creative and original ideas (such as the brew) which pragmatic and capable Susie figures out how to implement.
The question we readers may wonder is why Morgan would target these three specifically for harm, simply because they unintentionally summoned her? Is being evil all through enough of a motive? Hmm, I'm guessing she's discovered, throughout her personal history, that those humans who give her a leg in feel most responsible for getting her out again. Therefore she's pre-empting the young trio by already acting defensively as well as maliciously.
It is the early 1970s. Black-and-white TV is state-of-the-art technology, and Morgan apparently assumes that those who watch it are worshipping some sort of deity, haha.
Although the kids 'win' the first few rounds, they soon realize they're in over their heads. Morgan le Fay, in her renewed human form, marries a local business tycoon and begins machinations for a whopping great highway to run right through their beloved village. Why, we may ask? Miss Hepplewhite provides the answer. If Morgan controls the road, she may ensure that it becomes a place of mass fatality. William, Susie, and Martha are obligated to think of a way to stop her.
What follows is a retro series of rescues and chases, involving hypnotism, public buses, and a menacing black Rolls Royce without a driver. The triage in the hospital casualty waiting room was impressively quick in 1971, but cancelled out when the nurse casually organizes a lift against the children's will. I'm impressed to see that Morgan, like Count Dracula, is susceptible to the power of the Cross, so a high stakes scene in a church becomes vital. And at last the Whispering Knights of the title come into play.
As a nine or ten-year-old, I found this story riveting. It doesn't quite live up to my memory. The Whispering Knights' role has an anti-climactic, backstage feel about it, even though the children are present for the duration. Same with Mr Steel's apparent whirlwind courtship and marriage, although he has, of course, been 'magicked'. But descriptions of Morgan are suitably creepy, evoking visions of Narnia's White Witch and Harry Potter's Bellatrix Lestrange to join the litany of examples Miss Hepplewhite tells the young trio.
Penelope Lively has really played on the longstanding legend of the wicked witch. This seems to draw from some more base type of evil, presenting true devilry with a feminine face. The question is how it started (presumably during the witch hunt era) and why it's stuck.
I didn't find this novel as quaintly philosophical as Lively's haunting offering, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, but it has some truly lovely nature descriptions.
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I love this t-shirt featuring some of Disney's wicked witches with the caption 'Chillin' Like Villains.' I popped into a tiny secondhand shop in a rural town where we stopped to stretch our legs and came out with this. It fits the spirit of this book perfectly.
Next week I'll feature a witch-centric book by the incomparable Elizabeth Goudge. For my witchy October, start with last week's review, The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
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