Grand High Witch

It has been suggested that this The Grand High Witch of All The World or just The Grand High Witch is a title given to the leader of all witches on Planet Earth, according to Roald Dahl's 1983 book "The Witches". The Grand High Witch is considered to be the main antagonist. She is described as being "without mercy," and she travels around the world summoning all the witches of whatever country she is in, giving congratulations or punishments according to the witches' success in their ultimate mission: destroying children. She teaches them such schemes as trapping children inside paintings, or turning American children into hot dogs so that they will be eaten by their own parents. She is said to own a money-making machine that leaves her no problem in traveling wherever she likes, or helping her lesser witches financially if she feels they need some assistance in their quest to eliminate all things juvenile.

Role in the story

The Grand High Witch within this story is noted for being particularly intolerant and demanding. She claims to want all children in "Inkland" (England) to be eliminated by the time of her next visit the following year. When one brave (or foolish) witch points out the impossibility of such a thing, The Grand High Witch tauntingly versifies her minion's impertinence and uselessness and promptly burns her to oblivion with magic that jumps from her eyes- a technique of execution that the narrator's grandmother later explains is known in the witches' community as "getting fried".

The Grand High Witch then goes on to explain that elimination of children will be easily done if all the witches set up in trade as sweetshop owners. (One witch interprets this as meaning she wants the children to be poisoned and she looks as though she is about to "get fried" as well, but curiously she is not.) The Grand High Witch then recites to them ingredients of a potion that will turn anyone who consumes it into a mouse - a creature detested by so many that parents and teachers alike would be sure to exterminate them on sight, and thus render children to extinction. The witches (and the narrator) then witness a young boy, Bruno Jenkins, enter the room, whom the Grand High Witch fed a chocolate bar with potion in it the day before, which has been so timed that he will turn into a mouse after just a few seconds in the room- which is precisely what happens, so they know it works.

The witches, satisfied that they will indeed meet their leader's demands to destroy all children in England, are just about to leave when one of the witches then picks up the scent of the narrator of the story. They catch him, pour some more potion down his throat, and leave him to scamper away. Bruno Jenkins and himself then find their way back to his grandmother's room. The narrator descends, via some of his grandmother's knitting, into The Grand High Witch's room (which is right below his own), steals a small bottle of the same potion fed to him and Bruno, and then afterwards takes it into the hotel's kitchen. After hearing that all the witches are having pea soup, he pours the entire bottle into the saucepan in which it is being made. All the witches, including The Grand High Witch, are transformed into mice and instantly are chopped to pieces by the cooks. The narrator and his grandmother decide to move into the castle she resided in, in order to find out the names and addresses of all the other witches in the world. They then make a pact to feed the same potion to the next Grand High Witch, and afterwards travel around the world in order to deliver it to all the witches they can find.

Personal characteristics

The Grand High Witch is described the most evil woman in the world. She is "without mercy," and utterly detests children. She is impatient, volatile, aggressive and tyrannical. She does not care how her commands are carried out, just so long as they are obeyed. Her "real" name is never mentioned but in the film, it is given as Eva Ernst. She resides in a castle in Norway and operates her business mostly from there. She has a money-making machine on which she creates counterfit money to fund her schemes and journeys to other countries.

Like all witches within the story, The Grand High Witch has no toes, no hair, claws instead of fingernails, blue saliva, and slightly larger-than-average nostrils for sniffing out children- all of which will be expertly concealed from anyone who is not another witch. Strangely enough though, she does not remove her wig, gloves or shoes during the meeting of the witches in the hotel. The Grand High Witch also has a hideously deformed face, desribed as "worm-eaten" and "pickled in vinegar", and so she disguises it with a very realistic mask. She also has a somewhat guttural accent (hence her pronunciation of England as "Inkland") that gives her "difficulty" in pronouncing the letters "R" ("rrr") and "W" ("v").

Besides annihilating witches with her eyes, another personal eccentricity of hers is that she has several frogs living with her in her hotel-room that the narrator (when he is in there stealing her potion) overhears her threatening to throw outside to be eaten by seagulls- although it is implied that they, like him, were children once upon a time that she transformed with some other form of potion.

In the film, it is strongly hinted that the Grand High Witch knew the hero's (named Luke in the film) grandmother years ago. The grandmother has a missing thumb on one of her hands and becomes very tense when the dreaded subject of how she was disfigured in this way arises. No explantion is given, but when the Grand High Witch encounters Helga again, she refers to her as "an old adversary."

It is revealed that Grand High Witches have deputies. Meaning another witch who is ready to take over the position upon the death of the current Grand High Witch.

Trivia

*Cher was an original choice to play the Grand High Witch in the film version.