Esben and the Witch

Esben and the Witch is a Danish fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book. A version of the tale also appears in A Book of Witches and A Choice of Magic, by Ruth Manning-Sanders. It is Aarne-Thompson type 327B, the small boy defeats the ogre.

Synopsis

A farmer had twelve sons, and the youngest, Esben, was little while his brothers were big and strong. One day the brothers persuaded their father to let them seek their fortunes; he gave them each horses and money. Esben decided he would go too. His father refused to aid him. He took a stick and whittled it, so it was whiter than his brothers' horses, and rode off on it.

The eleven brothers came to a house where an old hag told them they could not only stay for the night, they could each have one of her daughters. They were pleased. Esben came up behind them and sneaked about. In the night, he had his brothers change caps with the daughters. At midnight, the witch came with a knife and cut her daughters' throats, because of their night caps. Esben woke his brothers, and they all fled. The brothers left Esben behind on their horses.

Esben and the Witch (band)

Esben and the Witch are a British three piece rock band formed in Brighton in 2008. consisting of Rachel Davies (vocals, bass), Thomas Fisher (guitar), and Daniel Copeman (drums, electronics - formerly guitar). Their name comes from the Danish fairytale, "Esben and the Witch".

After a self-released 33 EP in 2009 and a limited seven-inch single "Lucia, at the Precipice" in February 2010, the band signed with Matador Records. The band's debut single for the label, "Marching Song", was released in October 2010, followed by their debut album Violet Cries in January 2011. The band's second album, Wash the Sins Not Only the Face, was released in January 2013. In June 2014 the band announced their third album A New Nature, the first to be released on their own Nostromo Records label.

History

Formation and Violet Cries (2008-2011)

Esben and the Witch formed in 2008 when Daniel Copeman moved from Southampton to Brighton and met Thomas Fisher and they began making some music, eventually they decided they wanted and vocalist and held auditions which were unsuccessful. Thomas Fisher bumped into his old friend Rachel Davies, who had just graduated from Brighton University, and asked her if she would like to join the group and she accepted. In 2009 the band recorded their first EP, 33, and released it the same year, the EP gathered attention around the band and in 2010 they contributed their song "Skeleton Swoon" on volume 3 of the Dance to the Radio label's 4 x 12". Shortly after that they released their first official single Lucia, at the Precipice in February on limited edition seven-inch vinyl on the Too Pure singles club, an accompanying video was also released.

The Witch

The Witch is a Jacobean play, a tragicomedy written by Thomas Middleton. The play was acted by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. It is thought to have been written sometime between 1609 and 1616; it was not printed in its own era, and existed only in manuscript until it was published by Isaac Reed in 1778.

The manuscript

The still-extant manuscript (since 1821, MS. Malone 12 in the collection of the Bodleian Library), a small quarto-sized bundle of 48 leaves, is in the hand of Ralph Crane, the professional scribe who worked for the King's Men in this era, and who prepared several texts for the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, as well as two of the surviving manuscripts of Middleton's A Game at Chess, plus other King's Men's works. Since Middleton wrote for the King's Men in this period, the Crane connection is unsurprising. The manuscript bears Middleton's dedication to Thomas Holmes, Esq. There, Middleton refers to the play as "ignorantly ill-fated." This was long taken to mean that the play failed with the audience, but modern critics allow the possibility that the play was pulled from performance for censorship or legal reasons. A 21st century adaptation is available.

The Witch (2015 film)

The Witch (stylized as The VVitch) is a 2015 American-Canadian horror film directed by Robert Eggers. The plot follows a Puritan family encountering forces of evil in the woods beyond their New England farm. It won the Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic category at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The film is scheduled to be released on February 19, 2016, by A24 Films. It was filmed in Northern Ontario, Canada.

Plot summary

In the 17th century, a Puritan family lives alone on the edge of a New England wilderness. Soon after their infant son disappears, their daughter is suspected of witchcraft, and the family begins to break down in the face of an unknown evil.

Cast

Production

The film was partially based on Eggers' childhood fascination with witches. After being unsuccessful at pitching films that were " too weird, too obscure", Eggers realized that he would have to make a more conventional film, however he wanted it to be personal, saying at a Q&A, "If I’m going to make a genre film, it has to be personal and it has to be good."

The Witch (fairy tale)

The Witch is a Russian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book.

A version of the tale, under the title "The Twins and the Snarling Witch", appears in A Book of Witches, by Ruth Manning-Sanders.

Synopsis

A poor widower with twin children, a girl and a boy, remarried. The stepmother had several more children and mistreated the twins. Finally, she told them she was sending them to her grandmother, in the woods, where she knew there was a witch; she said they would have to serve her, but would be well rewarded. The girl said they should visit their own grandmother first. They did this and found that their grandmother knew the woman was a witch. She advised them to be civil and kind, and never touch a crumb belonging to anyone else, and gave them bread, milk, and ham.

The witch set the girl to spin, and the boy to carry water in a sieve. The girl, who could not spin, wept. Mice came up to her and asked for bread. She gave them some. They told her to give the cat ham, and it should show them a way from the woods; meanwhile, they would spin for her. She went out, where her brother was trying to carry water. Wrens flew up and asked for some bread. They gave it, and the wrens advised him to stop up the holes with clay. They then gave the cat the ham. It gave them a handkerchief and comb, which would become a river and a forest, if they threw them behind them while they fled.