Day 1 - Let the 31 Days of October Begin!

Let the witching hour begin!

Because I write a story that associates with the Salem Witch Trials, people assume I'm somehow a practicing witch. And while the exact point of my books point out that judgment such as that is incredibly ignorant, I'm going to embrace the title this October season and bring you various legends of Witches.

You're welcome.

First up on Day 1, we have The Witch of Endor.

Sounds spooky already, right?

But who was this witch?

The Christian Bible has an injunction against practicing witchcraft and divination, and that can probably be blamed on the Witch of Endor. In the first Book of Samuel, King Saul of Israel got in some trouble when he sought assistance from the witch and asked her to predict the future. Saul and his sons were about to march into battle against their enemies, the Philistines, and Saul decided it was time to get a bit of supernatural insight as to what was going to happen the next day. Saul started off by asking God for help, but God stayed mum…and so Saul took it upon himself to seek answers elsewhere.

According to the Bible, Saul summoned the Witch of Endor, who was a well-known medium in the area. Disguising himself so she wouldn’t know she was in the presence of the king, Saul asked the witch to revive the dead prophet Samuel so that he might tell Saul what was going to happen.

Who was the witch of Endor? Well, like many other biblical figures, no one really knows. Though her identity is lost to myth and legend, she has managed to appear in more contemporary literature. Geoffrey Chaucer makes reference to her in The Canterbury Tales, in the tale spun by the friar to entertain his fellow pilgrims. The Friar tells his listeners:

"Yet tell me," said the summoner, "if true: Do you make your new bodies always so Out of the elements?" The fiend said, "No, Sometimes it's only some form of disguise; Dead bodies we may enter that arise To speak with all the reason and as well As to the Endor witch spoke Samuel.”

Find out more about the story here.

Love a good witchy tale? Check out the "Secrets, Spells and Tales" book series on Amazon, Nook, Kindle and Smashwords!

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