Witch World

The Witch World by Andre Norton is a long series of fantasies laid in a parallel universe where magic works and, at the beginning at least, is the exclusive property of women. The series combines many traits of high fantasy and sword and sorcery. It begins with what is now called the "Estcarp cycle". These describes the adventures of Simon Tregarth from Earth, his witch wife Jaelithe, and their three children Kyllan, Kemoc and Kaththea.

It expanded greatly with the "High Hallack cycle", starting with "Year of the Unicorn" in 1965 and its sequels "Jargoon Pard" and "Gryphon in Glory". The Dales of High Hallack are on a different continent from Estcarp and its neighboring lands.

Mostly these cycles are organized by continent. Estcarp corresponds to Europe in our world (directly: Simon Tregarth entered Estcarp through Europe).

"The Turning" sequence is about events which convinced conservative witches that men could handle magic responsibly. The "Secrets of the Witch World" trilogy brings many of these story lines to a climax. Both deal with worldwide events. Except for the last of the "Secrets of the Witch World" books most of these were written in collaboration with Miss Norton's fans. The Witch World series can be considered the first romantic fantasy series, both because of the content and because these books were a primary inspiration to later romantic fantasy authors like Mercedes Lackey.

As noted, in the Witch World, as first introduced, magic power is considered to be exclusively female and exercised only by virgins, with the sexual act depriving a witch of her power (which leads Estcarp's male-dominated enemies to consider rape as a convenient way of "neutralising" captive witches). The advent of Simon Tregarth, a man who turns out to possess some magical power and who forms a magical link with the witch Jaelithe after she becomes his wife, poses an uncomfortable challenge to the conservative witch hierarchy, which is by slow degrees forced to accept that males - and females who have relationships with them - can and do possess magic power. This can be considered a mirror image of Ursula K. Leguin's Earthsea, where a hierarchy of male mages who hold female witches in contempt is slowly and painfully forced to accept them as equals. And in both series, the long-held assertion that sex and magic are mutually exclusive ("a mage who makes love thereby unmakes his power") proved unfounded.

Here is a list of Witch World stories:__NOTOC__

"Estcarp Cycle"

imon Tregarth

*"Witch World" (1963)
*"Web of the Witch World" (1964)
"Annals of the Witch World" (omnibus) (SFBC, 1994), AKA "The Gates to Witch World" (TOR, 2001), contains "Witch World", "Web of Witch World" and "Year of the Unicorn")

The Tregarth Children

*"Three Against the Witch World" (1965)
*"Warlock of the Witch World" (1967)
*"Sorceress of the Witch World" (1968)
"Chronicles of the Witch World" (omnibus) (SFBC, 1998, AKA "Lost Lands of Witch World" (TOR, 2004); contains "Three Against the Witch World", "Warlock of the Witch World" and "Sorceress of the Witch World")

Others

*"Trey of Swords" (1977)
*"Ware Hawk" (1983)
*"The Gate of the Cat" (1987)
"Witch World: Swords and Spells" (omnibus) (SFBC, 1987, contains "Trey of Swords", "Ware Hawk" and "The Gate of the Cat")
*"Ciara's Song" (1998) with Lyn McConchie
*"The Dukes Ballad" (2005) with Lyn McConchie

"High Hallack Cycle"

*"Year of the Unicorn" (1965)
*"The Jargoon Pard" (1974; sequel to "Year of the Unicorn")
*"Spell of the Witch World" (1972) collection of stories
*"Gryphon Trilogy":*"The Crystal Gryphon" (1972):*"Gryphon in Glory" (1981):*"Gryphon's Eyrie" (1984) with A. C. Crispin
*"Zarthor's Bane" (1978)
*"Horn Crown" (1981)
*"Were-Wrath" (1984) Very Rare - Only 177 Copies Printed
*"Songsmith" (1992) with A. C. Crispin
*"Silver May Tarnish" (2005) with Lyn McConchie

"The Turning"

*"Storms of Victory" (omnibus) (1991, contains "Port of Dead Ships" by Andre Norton and "Seakeep" by P. M. Griffin)
*"Flight of Vengeance" (omnibus) (1992, contains "Exile" by Mary H. Schaub and "Falcon Hope" by P. M. Griffin)
*"On Wings of Magic" (omnibus) (1994, contains "We the Women" by Patricia Mathews and "Falcon Magic" by Sasha Miller)
*"The Key of the Keplian" (1995) with Lyn McConchie
*"The Magestone" (1996) with Mary H. Schaub
*"The Warding of Witch World" (1996)
*"Secrets of the Witch World" (omnibus) (2001, contains "Key of the Keplain", "The Magestone" and "The Warding of Witch World") - released as Digital Media Only

"Short stories"

(most are set in High Hallack)
*"Ully the Piper" (1970)
*"Amber out of Quayth" (1972)
*"Dragon Scale Silver" (1972)
*"Dream Smith" (1972)
*"Legacy from Sorn Fen" (1972)
*"The Toads of Grimmerdale" (1973)
*"Spider Silk" (1976)
*"Falcon Blood" (1979)
*"Sand Sisters" (1979)
*"Changeling" (1980)
*"Of the Shaping of Ulm's Heir" (1987)
*"The Way Wind" (1995)

Witch World Short Story Collections and Anthologies

*"Spell of the Witch World" (1972) Collection of Stories
*"Lore of the Witch World" (1980) Collection of Stories
*"Tales of the Witch World 1" (1987) Collection of Stories edited - Andre Norton wrote Introduction & "Of the Shaping of Ulm's Heir"
*"Four from the Witch World" (1989) Collection of Stories edited - Andre Norton wrote Introduction
*"Tales of the Witch World 2" (1988) Collection of Stories edited - Andre Norton wrote Introduction
*"Tales of the Witch World 3" (1990) Collection of Stories edited - Andre Norton wrote Introduction

ee also

*GURPS Witch World

External links

* [http://www.andre-norton.org/wworld/creat.shtml Andre Norton's account of how she wrote these stories.]