A Nehalin or Witch of the Ethir-Folk
A Witch was a female magic-user.The rare male equivalent is sometimes referred to as Witcher.
The terms "witch" and "hag" (or "Hagling") also were used as slurs, many "Hags" actually had nothing to do with real magic at all though many men, especially in Rohan, Gondor and southern Eriador, had prejudices against women who worked in professions of healing, dabbled in elvish or númenorean lore or even only held positions of uncommon political power.
Although Witch and Hag were used mostly in a derogatory sense, some Eriadorians and Elves distinguished between White witches (Q."Curuni",S."Curuwen", G."Curus"), as users of Nature-Magic, and Black Witches (Q."Felusi"), who used Morgûl-Magic.Generally in northern Eriador and Rhovanion, especially among the Hill-men, Witch was seen as a more neutral or even positive term.
In Middle-Earth the term Witch may refer to:
- A female Black Magician
- orcish Dushi
- The Gurach of the Dunlendings
- A Hobbit hagling
- A Hûriga or Asdriag Witch-Priestess
- A Curuni or Curus, an elven Enchantress
- Eriadorian Wood-Witches or Wise-Women
- dunnish Mhaig
- Modrog of the Donaen
- Nehalin or witch-doctors of the Ethir-Folk
- Wegech of the Hillmen
- the Wicca of the Northrons
- Willowhags
- the Witches of Angmar
Witches of note[]
- Athelwyn
- Beruthiel
- Iweriadd Gwynn
- Galadriel
- Hannei
- Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
- Mîrgaimur
- the Old Woman of the Mountain
- Peath
- Saviga
- Tudgech hyn Bodnod
Rolemaster[]
In Rolemaster a Witch is a playable Profession, a hybrid spell user of both channeling and Essence.Similar classes are Warlock, Macabre, Maleficant.
Notes[]
Witch is derived from anglo-saxon "(H)wicce", one "who twists or binds".Witch was originally used as both male and female form, male witch was derived from "Wicca", of which no formal equivalent exists in modern english, to reflect it modern fantasy literature has coined the neologism "witcher".In modern oractice the term "Warlock" was introduced for a male witch though it originally was an archaic scottish-english word for an "oathbreaker" or apostate, regardless of gender.
In earlier drafts for The Lord of the Rings J.R.R.Tolkien used "Wicca" as the rohirric translation or equivalent of Wizard regarding Gandalf and the Heren Istarion.