Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the first Worst Witch published?
The Worst Witch is a British-Canadian ITV television series about a group of young witches at a school for magic. The series stars Georgina Sherrington and Felicity Jones, and is based on "The Worst Witch" books by Jill Murphy (published from 1974 onwards). It aired for a total of 40 episodes spread over three series between 1998 and 2001, before being followed by "Weirdsister College." Most episodes revolved around the school, following the adventures of Mildred and her friends. The series was later followed by "The New Worst Witch", which ran for two series and chronicled the experiences of Mildred's younger cousin Hettie as she attended the school.
The Wicked Witch of the West is the malevolent ruler of the Winkie Country. Her castle is described as beautiful instead of being the sinister fortress shown in the movie. In all versions, she is seriously aquaphobic. The Wicked Witch of the West was not related to the Wicked Witch of the East, but leagued together with her, the Wicked Witch of the South and Mombi to conquer the Land of Oz and divide it among themselves, as recounted in L. Frank Baum's "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz". She shows no interest in the death of the Eastern Witch, and all she cares about is obtaining the Silver Shoes which will increase her power. W. W. Denslow's illustrations for "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" depict her as a paunched old hag with three pigtails and an eye-patch. L. Frank Baum himself specified that she only had one eye, but that it "was as powerful as a telescope", enabling the witch to see what was happening in her kingdom from her castle windows. Other illustrators, such as Paul Granger, placed her eye in the center of her forehead, as a cyclops. Usually, she is shown wearing an eye patch, however some illustrations show her with two eyes.
Enid Nightshade is Mildred's second best friend who is introduced in "The Worst Witch Strikes Again" where she has hair "the colour of milky tea" wearing it in a thick plait and having large limbs. Mildred is assigned to look after her by Miss Cackle. Enid at first appears to be dull and boring but turns out to be a wild practical joker/prankster who is more likely to get the three into trouble than Mildred is. She unintentionally causes trouble for Mildred throughout the novel, even to the point where Miss Cackle threatens to expel Mildred if there is any more bother from her. Nevertheless, Enid is just as loyal as Maud is and provides comfort and support to Mildred in the following books of the series. Enid is the second worst witch in the Academy, as both she and Mildred are hapless at broomstick riding and lack the specific requirements to be fully-fledged, efficient witch. In the TV series, Enid was portrayed by Jessica Fox. In the new BBC reboot, Enid was portrayed by newcomer Tamara Smart.
Ethel Hallow is the snobbish, stuck-up, vindictive, and sly rival and enemy of Mildred and her friends. She is favoured by Miss Hardbroom, but appears to have no friends, apart from the rarely seen Drusilla Paddock, who is just as bad as Ethel. Ethel is described as being ""one of those lucky people for whom everything goes right"" which is what caused her to become so snobby. Ethel is tall and thin (just like Mildred) and has mousy-brown hair which she wears in a ponytail with a black hair ribbon. She also has a very spiky nose (pointed out by Maud in "A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch"). Various sources have noted that Ethel's primary weakness as a student is that, which she is able to easily follow the rules and perform new spells after demonstration, she lacks the ability to imagine and improvise when given free rein. This was demonstrated most clearly in "The Worst Witch to the Rescue", when she was the student who performed worst in the art class and had no ideas whatsoever for a summer project to research a spell of the student's choice as she lacked a framework for her to start studying in, in contrast to Mildred who not only performed best in art but had even created a completely new spell for the project.Because of her nasty ways, Ethel is sometimes seen as a bully. Yet her actions are instrumental in setting up the climax of nearly every novel.
In "The Worst Witch" the jinx she puts on the broomstick results in Mildred running away into the woods rather than face Miss Cackle. If Mildred hadn't run away she wouldn't have spotted Agatha Cackle and her coven.
In "The Worst Witch Strikes Again", if she hadn't locked Mildred and Enid in the store cupboard they would never have flown into the Great Hall to do a performance and improve Maud's speech.
In "A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch", if Ethel hadn't turned Mildred into a frog, Mildred wouldn't have discovered Algernon Rowan-Webb and he would have remained a frog for the rest of his life.
In "The Worst Witch All at Sea", if she hadn't set the boat adrift, the legendary treasure chest on Cat's Head Rock wouldn't have been discovered.
In "The Worst Witch Saves the Day", if Ethel hadn't left Tabby on the roof then Miss Granite wouldn't have picked him up and Mildred wouldn't have found out Miss Granite was actually Agatha Cackle in disguise.
While she is a straightforward bully in "The Worst Witch to the Rescue", where the main threat is Ethel stealing Mildred's summer project to pass off as her own, Ethel returns to her traditional role of unwittingly provoking success in "The Worst Witch and the Wishing Star", where her attempts to expose Mildred's new dog Star result in Mildred being granted permission to use Star as her broom companion rather than Tabby after she and Star win an inter-school competition.
Wake, also called WWW: Wake, is a 2009 novel written by Canadian novelist Robert J. Sawyer and the first book in his "WWW Trilogy". It was first published on April 8, 2009 and was followed by "Watch" in 2010 and by "Wonder" in 2011. The novel details the spontaneous emergence of an intelligence on the World Wide Web, called Webmind, and its friendship with a blind teenager named Caitlin.
The first season of Witches of East End premiered on October 6, 2013 and concluded on December 15, 2013. It consisted of 10 episodes, each running 40–45 minutes approx. The series is based loosely on the book of the same name by Melissa de la Cruz. The story takes place in East End focusing on a family of witches, led by Joanna Beauchamp (Julia Ormond). This season aired on Sundays at 10pm, following the fifth season of "Drop Dead Diva", and averaged 1.67 million viewers.
In the 1970s, the first feminist science fiction publications were created. The most well-known are fanzines "The Witch and the Chameleon" (1974–1976) and "Janus" (1975–1980), which later became "Aurora SF" (Aurora Speculative Feminism) (1981–1987). Windhaven, "A Journal of Feminist Science Fiction" was published from 1977 to 1979 by Jessica Amanda Salmonson in Seattle. Special issues of magazines linked to science fiction meetings were also published at that moment, like the Khatru symposium's fanzine "Women in Science Fiction" in 1975.
The Book of Ceremonial Magic by Arthur Edward Waite was originally called The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts. It was first published in a limited run in 1898, and distributed more widely under the title "The Book of Ceremonial Magic" in 1910. It is an attempt to document various famous grimoires, explain the history behind them (refuting many of the legends surrounding them), discuss the theology contained therein (e.g. raising the question why good angels would be summoned to kill an enemy), and to synthesize many famous grimoires into one system.
In December 2013, Rebecca Mader was cast as the Wicked Witch of the West. She made multiple appearances during the second half of season three and was promoted to a series regular for the show's fifth season. The role of the Wicked Witch of the West was written specifically for Rebecca Mader. It was announced that the writers had chosen not to continue with Zelena's storyline and Mader would not be returning for the seventh season of the show. However, Mader later revealed that she would be returning for multiple season seven episodes.
White is the traditional color of witches in Oz. The Good Witch of the North wears a pointed white hat and a white gown decorated with stars, while Glinda, the Good Witch of the South (called a "sorceress" in later books), wears a pure white dress. Dorothy is taken for a witch not only because she had killed the Wicked Witch of the East, but because her dress is blue and white checked.
The Wicked Witch appears as the main antagonist of the second half of Season Three of "Once Upon a Time" played by Rebecca Mader. This version goes by the name of Zelena (which means "green" in some Slavic languages). Zelena is discovered to be the daughter of the Queen of Hearts/the Miller's Daughter/Cora (Barbara Hershey/Rose McGowan), making her the older, long-lost half-sister of Regina the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla). Zelena visited Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) and learned from him how to control her own powerful magic. Her storyline revolves around her efforts to create a time-travel spell that will allow her to go back and prevent the birth of Snow White's mother, Ava, who informed Prince Leopold (Cora's fiancé) that Cora was with child to sabotage Cora's attempts to infiltrate the royal family (before she can ruin Zelena's life, and thus Zelena would be raised as royalty. But despite Zelena's efforts to create the deadly time portal Emma Swan (supposedly the only wielder of light magic powerful enough to oppose her) her plans are halted when the Evil Queen masters light magic in time to oppose her (although her time-travel spell is completed, it takes effect after her presumed death, transporting Emma and Captain Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) back to before the original curse was cast). She was later thought to have been killed by Rumpelstiltskin.
Mildred "Millie" Hubble is the protagonist of the series. She is a good-hearted, but bungling young witch-in-training, who never seems to get anything right. She is friends with Maud Spellbody and Enid Nightshade and has a strong rivalry with Ethel Hallow. It is Miss Hardbroom, her potions teacher, who calls her "The Worst Witch".
"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was published in 1900, and was the first to enter the public domain in "1956". This allowed Reilly & Lee, the publisher of all the other Oz books (as well as Baum's other books) to issue their own edition of "The Wizard of Oz", which had previously been published by George M. Hill Company and later by the Bobbs Merill Company after Hill went bankrupt..
In 2014, her best-selling book 'WHAT THE **** IS NORMAL?! was published by Random House to critical acclaim. It has been nominated for the Chortle Comedy 'Best Book' Award and The Bread And Roses Radical Publishing Award. She was described as one of 'Britain's Five Funniest Women' in the Guardian in Nov 2014 along with Bridget Christie, Sara Pascoe, Katherine Ryan and Susan Calman.
The character of Zelena on ABC's "Once Upon a Time", takes on the title "The Wicked Witch of the West" after envy itself dyes her skin in the episode "It's Not Easy Being Green".
The story was first published as a five-part serial in "Weird Tales" between the months of December 1935 to April 1936 (with chapter 20 being misprinted as chapter 21). It was first published in book form in hardcover by Gnome Press in 1950 under the title "Conan the Conqueror", a title retained by all later editions until 1977. The first paperback edition was published by Ace Books in 1954. The novel has been reissued a number of times since by various publishers, notably Lancer Books in 1967 and Berkley/Putnam in 1977; the latter, reedited by Karl Edward Wagner, was the first edition to restore the original magazine text and title, under which most subsequent editions have been issued. Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. published an edition in 1989, with illustrations by Ezra Tucker, as volume XI of their deluxe Conan set. More recently the novel appeared in the collections "The Essential Conan" (1998), "Conan Chronicles Volume 2: The Hour of the Dragon" (2001) and "" (Del Rey, 2005). It has also been translated into Japanese, Italian, Finnish, French, German, Swedish, Czech, Russian, Sinhalese and Spanish.
"Witches of East End" is an American television series loosely based on the book series of the same name by Melissa de la Cruz and developed by Maggie Friedman. In the United States, it premiered on Lifetime on October 6, 2013 and ended on October 5, 2014, with 23 episodes. "Witches of East End" follows the lives of a family of witches – Joanna Beauchamp (Julia Ormond) and her two grown-up daughters, Freya Beauchamp (Jenna Dewan Tatum) and Ingrid Beauchamp (Rachel Boston), as well as her sister Wendy Beauchamp (Mädchen Amick).
A witch hat (), in popular culture, is the style of hat characterized by a conical crown and a wide brim (like akubras and gats).
The origins of the witch hat as displayed today is disputed. A common theory is that it is an exaggeration of the edgeless hats associated with the Welsh and later the Puritans, or an exaggeration of the conical hats believed to stimulate the brain of the wearer. These "thinking caps" are the precursors to the modern dunce cap. Church despised pointy hats given that the points were often related to those of the devil's horns. The witch hat is a more brimmed version of the cone-shaped hats commonly worn by male-gendered wizards and magicians, as the hat was more brimmed for it to be female-appropriate. As of the Victorian era, fairy tales began depicting black-colored conical hats and crones as symbols of wickedness in their illustrations. Another possibility is that in Luna, a town of the Etruscan civilization, there were coins on one side depicting a goddess commonly associated with witches, named Diana, wearing a brimless, cone-shaped hat.
The second and final season of Witches of East End premiered on July 6, 2014 and concluded on October 5, 2014. It consisted of 13 episodes, each running 40–45 minutes approx. The series is based loosely on the book of the same by Melissa de la Cruz. The story takes place in East End focusing on a family of witches, led by Joanna Beauchamp (Julia Ormond). This season aired on Sundays at 9pm, followed by the new series "The Lottery", and averaged 1.13 million viewers. On November 4, 2014, Lifetime cancelled "Witches of East End" due to low ratings in the second season.On November 22, 2013, "Witches of East End" was renewed by Lifetime for a 13-episode second season, which premiered on July 6, 2014. Christian Cooke joined this season as a series regular. James Marsters and Bianca Lawson guest starred this season, (Marsters guest starred as Tarkoff, an old friend of Joanna's; while Lawson played Eva, a mysterious woman who has a connection to Killian).
In 2011 Odyssey published his first middle-grade/young-adult novel, "The Wizard of Dark Street: an Oona Crate Mystery" (Egmont USA, 2011). The book was a top 20 ABC New Voices selection from the American Booksellers Association and was subsequently nominated for both an Edgar Award and an Agatha Award.
Daniella "Dani" Anastasia Baptiste is a fictional, comic book superheroine in the series "Witchblade", published by Top Cow. The character was introduced in the one-hundredth issue, becoming the series' co-lead. An athletic young dancer, Dani becomes the new host of the Witchblade, a mystical gauntlet that grants its host an assortment of powers. The series' story arc then shows the character losing the gauntlet to its original host, but later taking hold of the Angelus, one of the two primal forces of the universe.
Wicca (), also termed Pagan Witchcraft, is a contemporary Pagan new religious movement. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon a diverse set of ancient pagan and 20th-century hermetic motifs for its theological structure and ritual practices.
"The Worst Witch Strikes Again" () was first published in 1980 by Allison & Busby and features a new character, Enid Nightshade.
"The Worst Witch All at Sea" () was published in 1993. It is the only book in the series not set in Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, but by the sea instead.
The series stars Georgina Sherrington and Felicity Jones (as Mildred Hubble and Ethel Hallow respectively), and was broadcast from 1998 to 2001 on ITV, and later on HBO. The series also stars veteran British actress Una Stubbs as the eccentric chanting teacher, Miss Bat. Felicity Jones was replaced by Katy Allen after the first series, it was explained away as a magical makeover (a "witch-over"). New characters were also added, such as Frank Blossom (the school's caretaker), Miss Crotchet, the music teacher in the third series who replaced Miss Bat and two students from ethnic minorities – Ruby Cherrytree and Jadu Wali. New recurring characters included Merlin Langstaff, a wizard apprentice who befriended Mildred, his two mean-spirited acquaintances – Barry "Baz" Dragonsbane and Gary "Gaz" Grailquest, Charlie, Frank Blossom's nephew who really wanted to be a wizard, Mrs. Cosie, the nervous owner of the nearby tearoom and Mistress Hecketty Broomhead, the evil school inspector who later became a brief headmistress. Also as a character who appears more than once is Egbert Hellibore, chief wizard and headmaster of Camelot Castle, where Merlin, Charlie, Baz and Gaz live. The first series dramatised "The Worst Witch" and "The Worst Witch Strikes Again", and the second series dramatised "A Bad Spell For The Worst Witch" and "The Worst Witch All At Sea". Both of these two series also contained original stories. The third and final series continued with purely original material.
"First Prize for the Worst Witch" () was published in 2018.