Three Witches Are Not Enough Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hecate

"Macbeth" by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is about an eponymous general who strives for the Scottish throne. The three witches known as the weird sisters have prophesied that Macbeth would become the Scottish king, but in order to attain this position, he would have to kill various people. Later on the weird sisters are reprimanded by Hecate, queen of the witches, for revealing to Macbeth part of his future destiny without Hecate's knowledge.

Shakespeare took the name Hecate from Greek myth, where she is the goddess involved with magic, knowledge of herbal medicine and poisons, and apparition of ghosts, but is also the goddess of crossroads and trivia.

Answer: Alexandra Spofford

John Updike (1932-2009) published "The Witches of Eastwick" and a sequel named "The Widows of Eastwick". In the first novel, three women were living in the fictional town of Eastwick, Rhode Island, and somehow they always got what they wanted. They found out this was a sort of magic when a stranger named Daryl Van Horne moved in to this village. The three women were Alexandra Spofford (at that time a widow), Jane Smart (divorced) and Sukie Rougemont (divorced). All three in turn fell in love with Daryl, and they were ready and willing to share this man. But when Daryl married their young friend Jenny Gabriel, the other women joined their magical forces to hit Jenny with cancer.

In the sequel, Alexandra was remarried and Jane and Sukie were married to their ideal husband, when one husband after the other died. The three witches then decided to go back to Eastwick and remember Jenny with some white magic. But then Jenny's brother Christopher tried to have his revenge.

Mind you: this question is about the *BOOK*, not about the 1987 movie inspired by the book. In the movie the three witches have other surnames.

Answer: Egwene al'Vere

"The Towers of Midnight" is the penultimate novel in the series "Wheel of Time" written by Robert Jordan (1948-2007) and completed by Brandon Sanderson (born 1975) after Jordan's death.

The series concentrates on five youngsters from an almost-forgotten village. The two girls (Egwene al'Vere and Nynaeve al'Meara) would evolve to the most powerful Aes Sedai (good witches) of all time, even capable of defeating the Forsaken. Egwene was chosen by a group of wandering Aes Sedai as their leader (Amyrlin Seat), and at the end of the novel "The Gathering Storm" Egwene succeeded in reuniting all Aes Sedai, and was chosen Amyrlin Seat of all.

Answer: Plancina

"I, Claudius" and its sequel "Claudius the God" are historic novels written by Robert Graves (1895-1985). In the form of an autobiography by Emperor Claudius, Robert Graves sketched the century in which Rome was governed by the Julian-Claudian dynasty.

When Germanicus, the most probable successor to Emperor Tiberius, was in Rome recovering from some illness, a series of unexplained events took place. As a consequence of the superstition very common in those days, Germanicus was convinced he would not recover, but would die on a certain day. The sign for the days Germanicus had left was his name scribbled out on ceilings and walls, each day with a letter less. As soon as his last letter vanished, Germanicus died.

Soon after these events, Plancina and her husband were accused of witchcraft, and they were banished out of the Roman Empire.

Answer: Kahlan Amnell

Terry Goodkind (born 1948) wrote "Wizard's First Rule" as the start of the series "Sword of Truth". Although the fifteen-odd books were conceived as stand-alone novels, it has all to do with the same protagonists. Kahlan Amnell is the female protagonist, a young witch appointed as Mother Confessor (head of the magic community).

When enemy forces invaded her country, she ran away in search for the Seeker, the one and only person who could wield the Sword of Truth and help Kahlan to free the world from an oppressor.

Answer: Fleur Delacour

JK Rowling (born 1965) shot to fame with the "Harry Potter" books. In the fourth instalment, the fabulous Tri-wizard Tournament was organized at Hogwarts (Harry's school), and three students from three different schools were to be selected for quite dangerous magic challenges.

The chosen students were Cedric Diggory for Hogwarts, Viktor Krum for Durmstrang and Fleur Delacour for Beauxbatons - and Harry Potter, although there were already sufficient competitors, and Harry was too young and inexperienced.

Answer: Mildred Hubble

Jill Murphy (born 1949) started her series "The Worst Witch" in 1974. The books concentrate on Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, a remote boarding school for girls only, who learn magic. Mildred Hubble, the protagonist throughout the series, is a nice and friendly girl, but whenever she tries to do magic school tasks, she mysteriously fumbles them all up.

But in spite of Mildred's clumsiness, she is the one who repeatedly saves the school from various enemies.

Answer: Jessica Whitwell

Jonathan Stroud (born 1970) wrote a trilogy on an alternative history for London, where the upper class consists of magicians who can summon djinn from "the other place", a universe where time does not exist. Bartimaeus is the protagonist in this trilogy. By the way, Storud also wrote a prequel to the trilogy, set in Jerusalem many centuries ago.

Unfortunately warlocks and witches who summoned djinn to aid and abet them in their struggle for power, eventually came under the spell of their genie, and lost their mental sanity. Jesscia Whitwell was the Minister of Security throughout the trilogy, and chose immediate death before succumbing to a genie.

Answer: Morgan le Fay

Sir Thomas Malory (probably 1415-1471) compiled various Arthurian legends and bundled these in the book "Le Morte d'Arthur". The colophon to the book explicitly mentions Sir Thomas Malory, a knight in prison, as the author, but medievalists are still debating about the true identity of this Sir Thomas.

According to "Le Morte d'Arthur", Morgan le Fay was trained in black magic and wanted to remove Queen Guinevere from the throne. In order to accomplish Queen Guinevere's downfall, Morgan tried to steal King Arthur's sword Excalibur, with the intention of donating it to one of Arthur's most deadly foes. The theft of the sword failed, and Morgan could only take away the scabbard (sheath) in which the sword usually was stored. This resulted in Arthur being killed in battle: the scabbard functioned as a magical protection for the man who wore it while wielding Excalibur.

Answer: Jadis

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) is best known for his series "The Chronicles of Narnia". In the first novel published ("The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"), four siblings accidentally entered a parallel world when going through a wardrobe. In this parallel world, named Narnia, the siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie met various mysterious creatures, including the White Witch of the North (who turned out to be the evil ruler of Narnia) and a speaking lion (Aslan, one of the main characters in each and every of the seven books).

The White Witch of the North was a native from another parallel universe, banned from her birth town. She had used her magic to transform Narnia into a place of eternal winter, without any Christmas. She dropped her name Jadis to Edmund Pevensie when she lured him to her icy castle.