The Witch of Truro
The first line of this story reminded me slightly of the gods in American Gods. "Witches take their names from places, for places are what give them their strenth." The place doesn't have to be beautiful or even habitable. It just has to be their's. I think that's similar to the gods' need for scrifice. Was Ruth Blackbird Hill the witch? She never did anything extraordinary except live on the beach without shelter. I guess all the people from the village would make that conclusion though.
posted by Barbara Blaylock at 6:48 AM
3 Comments:
It might be like the Zombie thing..we all have the hollywood version in our minds and this is someone elses version of a witch. One close thing to our HW version would probably be the whole cow thing...didn't she feed it special feed or something and had the best tasting milk...
Also another thought on that...In early America when they claimed that people where witches, maybe some did practice wicca but I think that many were just in the wrong place at the wrong time or thought differently (like the cold war red scare). I come over to your house to see you and the next day your kid gets sick...I'm a witch better burn me at the stake?
I think it has to do with her behavior and dress more than anything supernatural. For example, she wore red shoes which in the story signify witchcraft. This is similar to the puritan notion of modesty in dress which stipulated wearing plain clothing so as not to draw attention to oneself. She also had a close relationship with nature, which seems to be a requirement for a witch. One could say that the cows were her familiars, and their milk did seem to have a magical effect on people. There is also her bewitching effect on the smith.
She certainly doesn't seem as much of an overt witch as in "Catskin." She seems more like one of the women who were prosecuted for witchcraft during the colonial period, convicted based on rumor and on the woman's noncomformity. On the other hand, the villagers in the story don't seem to be of a puritan mindset, though perhaps that would change if the men were at home. It's difficult to say what made her a witch, other than the thing about red shoes.
Where is Truro in the story? I don't remember any place named Truro. Was there and I just missed it? I think part of her witchiness was her way with animals. her cows loved her and she basically could communicate with them. Plus, the milk they produced was very sweet and almost magically satisfying. The cows didn't really eat anything special that we know of except for the sugar.
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