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57-454: The Witches presents The Grand High Witch as a particularly powerful, evil and feared witch who hides her ancient age and hideous appearance behind an attractive disguise, in order to blend in with society, and plots to wipe out all the children in England after summoning the country's witches for the task. The boy protagonist and his grandmother (herself a retired witch-hunter who once searched

114-500: A black cat go across your path you would think, if you were superstitious, You are going to have a little bad luck. The idea of sabotage is to use a little black cat on the boss." When the Space Shuttle program naming system for missions was reworked to avoid a Space Transportation System (STS)-13, some sourced this to superstition and Apollo 13 . The crew for what would have been STS-13 (which turned out to be STS-41C ) made

171-476: A black cat without paying the usual $ 75 adoption fee, in order to encourage the adoption of black cats. This trend has now spread across the United States, with many shelters offering free adoption of black cats on Black Friday. With the success of the 2018 African-themed superhero film , Black Panther , there was a fad of adopting black domestic cats as pets and naming them after various characters of

228-493: A chicken by giving her chocolate with a magic potion that did the job. In addition, she is depicted with one toe on each foot and elongating arms. When she is turned into a rat, The Grand High Witch is trapped in an ice bucket by the grandmother. Before the grandmother and the children leave the room, the grandmother takes the Grand High Witch's trunk full of money and releases her cat Hades from its cage. As they close

285-591: A children's movie should have sex appeal. It simply had not occurred to me. But of course, Nic was absolutely right. His vision was diabolical and dark and brilliantly funny. If a witch was to be at the center of this plot, she needed to be sexy to hold the eye." The character's monstrous version was prepared by Jim Henson's Creature Shop : "The prosthetics for Miss Ernst's transformation to The Grand High Witch were extensive. The various features—contact lenses, full facial mask, hump, withered collarbone, and hands—took over six hours to apply and almost as much time to remove at

342-615: A curse on the Anglo-Scottish Border reivers and caused it to be read out in all churches in the border area. It comprehensively cursed the reivers and their families from head to toe and in every way. In 2003 a 371-word extract from the curse was carved into a 14-ton granite boulder as part of an art work by Gordon Young which was installed in Carlisle ; some local people believed that a series of misfortunes (floods, factory closure, footballing defeats etc.) were caused by

399-426: A custom to casually murder at least one of her minion witches simply to keep the others fearful of her, and now she does it by incinerating a timid English witch for speaking out of turn. She has already tortured and killed thousands of children around the world, and in the book she also keeps three of them just recently turned into frogs in her room, intending for them to be eaten alive by seagulls. Now she plans to give

456-476: A humorous mission patch that included a black cat and a number 13. The mission was successful and even landed on Friday the 13th . The UK Government has adopted several cats from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home as mousers . Gladstone is known as the Chief Mouser of HM Treasury . India , also known as Willie, was a presidential cat owned by George W. Bush and Laura Bush who lived with them at

513-477: A mysterious and seemingly wealthy woman who arrives with a group of distinguished ladies for an annual convention of the ironically named RSPCC (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, reminiscent of the real-life National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children ). In her disguise, she is dressed entirely in black and with a "look of serpents" and "brilliant snake's eyes". However, soon

570-401: A recessive gene that suppresses the tabby pattern. Sometimes the tabby pattern is not completely suppressed; faint markings may appear in certain lights, even on a solid black cat. A cat having black fur with white roots is known as a "black smoke". Black cats can also "rust" in sunlight, the coat turning a lighter brownish-red shade. Eumelanin, the pigment required to produce the black fur,

627-526: A significant proportion of the study of both folk religion and folklore . The deliberate attempt to levy curses is often part of the practice of magic . In Hindu culture , the Sage or Rishi is believed to have the power to bless ( Āshirvada or Vara ) and curse ( Shaapa ). Examples include the curse placed by Rishi Bhrigu on king Nahusha and the one placed by Rishi Devala. Special names for specific types of curses can be found in various cultures: There

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684-479: Is a broad popular belief in curses being associated with the violation of the tombs of mummified corpses, or of the mummies themselves. The idea became so widespread as to become a pop-culture mainstay, especially in horror films (though originally the curse was invisible, a series of mysterious deaths, rather than the walking-dead mummies of later fiction). The " Curse of the Pharaohs " is supposed to have haunted

741-473: Is a great castle in Norway, where she has a magic money-printing machine and lives with large retinue of special assistant witches, tyrannically ruling over all the witches anywhere and plotting ever more harm to children everywhere. The current Grand High Witch, who is unnamed in the book but goes under the alias of Eva Ernst (Miss Eva / Miss Ernst) in the film, is described as "the most evil and appalling woman in

798-400: Is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, "curse" may refer to such a wish or pronouncement made effective by a supernatural or spiritual power, such as a god or gods, a spirit, or a natural force , or else as a kind of spell by magic (usually black magic ) or witchcraft ; in

855-413: Is needed when hunting for the treasure of the carbunclo . In Japan , black cats are good luck and are connected with the god Maneki-neko . Scottish culture associates black cats with prosperity and the goddess Brigid . In Latvia , black cats on farms mean prosperity and a good harvest. In Italy black cats mean upcoming good luck. In Germany , a black cat walking left to right is good luck. In

912-490: Is said that each and every witch has been "smashed and bashed and chopped up into little pieces" by the hotel employees, and that The Grand High Witch was chopped up into pieces by the head chef. In the film, they begin turning into mice with black-and-white fur, except for the fuming Grand High Witch, who is last to be affected as she resists the effects due to her sheer power. She recognizes Helga and attempts to curse her "old adversary" (having perhaps encountered Helga when she

969-510: Is shown to be actually friendly with is "the Woman in Black", who attempted to kill Luke earlier in the story and is given a larger role in the film. In the original book's chapter The Triumph, The Grand High Witch's own magic is used against her and her followers during their public banquet at the hotel's ballroom, when they are all transformed into brown mice by a massive overdose of Formula 86. It

1026-414: Is sliced in half with a meat cleaver in her rat form, finally ending Helga's long conflict, and with the witch population of England now wiped out. The book ends with the protagonists planning to destroy The Grand High Witch's retainers and conquer her castle, and then use its various magical resources to systematically hunt down the unsuspecting witches of every country and rid the world of them forever. In

1083-660: Is somewhat fragile, so the rusting effect can be more pronounced in cats that frequently spend time in the sun. A rarer situation that can also cause rusting is a deficiency of the amino acid tyrosine , which is required to produce eumelanin. In addition to the Bombay , the Cat Fanciers' Association allows solid black as a color option in 21 other breeds. The color description for those breeds is: The exceptions are: The superstitions surrounding black cats vary from culture to culture, and black cats have positive associations in

1140-634: The Celtic nations and England, where a black cat crossing your path is considered good luck. In 2014, the animal welfare organisation RSPCA stated that "in UK folklore, black cats symbolise good luck". Scottish lore holds that a black cat's arrival at a new home signifies prosperity, while Welsh lore states that a black cat brings good health: Cath ddu, mi glywais dd'wedyd, A fedr swyno hefyd, A chadw'r teulu lle mae'n byw O afael pob rhyw glefyd. A black cat, I've heard it said, Can also charm, And keep

1197-522: The United Kingdom , to celebrate the virtues of black cats and to encourage people to adopt an unwanted black cat. Cats Protection's own figures suggest that black cats are more difficult for them to find a new home for than other colors. In 2014, the RSPCA reported that 70% of the abandoned cats in its care were black, saying that though black cats symbolise good luck in UK folklore, one reason for

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1254-526: The White House . Trim sailed with Matthew Flinders as he mapped the coastline of Australia between 1801 and 1803. Trim now accompanies him on several statues in Australia and England. Hodge (fl. c.  1769 ) was a cat belonging to Samuel Johnson . Most of what is known about Hodge comes from James Boswell 's biography and a statue of Hodge stands outside Dr Johnson's House . Oscar

1311-516: The archeologists who excavated the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun , whereby an imprecation was supposedly pronounced from the grave by the ancient Egyptian priests, on anyone who violated its precincts. Similar dubious suspicions have surrounded the excavation and examination of the (natural, not embalmed) Alpine mummy, " Ötzi the Iceman ". While such curses are generally considered to have been popularized and sensationalized by British journalists of

1368-679: The "bionic" cat had his back legs sliced off by a combine harvester whilst sleeping in a field in Jersey . He was flown to the UK and received prosthetic limbs in an innovative operation in 2010. There is a common myth that black cats are the least likely to be adopted from animal shelters. However, this is untrue, and the ASPCA has said that black cats are adopted at a higher rate than cats with any other coat color. Some shelters suspend or limit adoptions of black cats around Halloween for fear they will be tortured, or used as "living decorations" for

1425-538: The "sab cat" or "sabo-tabby" —is associated with anarcho-syndicalism , a branch of anarchism that focuses on labor organizing , including the use of wildcat strikes and direct action tactics. According to Ralph Chaplin , who is generally credited with creating the International Workers of the World 's black cat symbol, "My 'Sab Cat' was supposed to symbolize the 'slow down' as a means of 'striking on

1482-531: The 19th century, ancient Egyptians were, in fact, known to place curse inscriptions on markers protecting temple or tomb goods or property. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article Cursing , the Bible depicts God cursing the serpent , the earth, and Cain ( Genesis 3:14 , 3:17 , 4:11 ). Similarly, Noah curses Canaan ( Genesis 9:25 ), and Joshua curses any man who should [re]build

1539-420: The 2020 reboot of The Witches was met with widespread criticism from disability campaigners. They condemned the three fingered depiction of the character, a choice they feared would have a negative impact on children with limb differences. Warner Bros professed they were "deeply saddened" at the news that Robert Zemeckis' film had upset people with disabilities, "it was never the intention for viewers to feel that

1596-464: The chance of such cats being abandoned when the fad fades, reputable animal shelter personnel took the usual precautions of having potential adopters fill out questionnaires to weed out potentially abusive guardians and have them read literature about the needs and responsibilities of such a pet to dissuade the less conscientious. Curse A curse (also called an imprecation , malediction , execration , malison , anathema , or commination )

1653-784: The character of Mr. Jenkins who unsuccessfully flirts with her right in front of his wife (unaware that she has just turned his son into a mouse), and acts in erotic and seductive ways even when tauntingly interacting with children; she is sexually sadistic, even deriving such an excitement and pleasure from hurting children in particular, that she is actually shown as having an orgasmic experience. The other witches fear and adore her, often praising her intelligence. Haughty, cunning, dramatic, impatient, and volatile, she does not care how her commands are carried out, just so long as they are obeyed. She has an assistant named Miss Irvine, who eventually walks out on her after becoming tired of her incompetent behavior, ultimately becoming good. One witch with whom she

1710-576: The city of Jericho ( Joshua 6:26–27 ). In various books of the Hebrew Bible , there are long lists of curses against transgressors of the Law ( Leviticus 26:14–25 , Deuteronomy 27:15 , etc.). The 10 Plagues of Egypt , preceding the 10 Commandments , can be seen as curses cast from the rods of Aaron and Moses acting on instruction from the God of Israel, in order to enable the enthralled to come free from

1767-424: The curse, and campaigned unsuccessfully for the destruction of the stone. Curses have also been used as plot devices in literature and theater. When used as a plot device, they involve one character placing a curse or hex over another character. This is distinguished from adverse spells and premonitions and other such plot devices. Examples of the curse as a plot device: A number of curses are used to explain

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1824-461: The door, Hades attacks and kills her. As part of the publicity for Matilda the Musical , Lucy Dahl, the daughter of the author Roald Dahl , was interviewed about her father's books. She discussed The Witches at length, citing The Grand High Witch was inspired by her stepmother. Her stepmother's personality was not the factor, but it was her social status and look. Lucy also seriously stated she

1881-412: The early days of television in the United States, many stations located on VHF channel 13 used a black cat as a mascot in order to make sport of being located on an " unlucky " channel number. Since the 1880s, the color black has been associated with anarchism . The black cat, in an alert, fighting stance was later adopted as an anarchist symbol . More specifically, the black cat—sometimes called

1938-411: The end of the day." Nonetheless, it has remained one of her favorite roles. In 2018, it was announced that Anne Hathaway would star as The Grand High Witch in the 2020 film adaptation . The film itself garnered mixed reviews from critics. The initial depictions of the Grand High Witch were overall very well received for various reasons, having remained a highly popular and memorable character in both

1995-430: The ending to the 1990 film, the now-good Miss Irvine arrives to reverse the mouse transformation from Luke and restore him to human form. Luke and Helga are planning to get rid of all the evil witches with the money, address, and resources that Luke stole from The Grand High Witch. In the 2020 film , the role of The Grand High Witch was expanded where she was responsible for turning the grandmother's friend Alice Blue into

2052-437: The fabled and elusive Grand High Witch, who might be the key to finally defeat her evil kind. The Grand High Witch has a heavy foreign accent and it is implied she's originally from Germany. As discovered about her at the end of the book, after she is destroyed: "Nobody in the world had the faintest idea who she was except the other witches. Wherever she went, people simply knew her as a nice lady (...) Even in her home district, in

2109-542: The family where it lives From the grip of every kind of sickness. The Gaels had traditions of feral and sometimes malevolent black cats. In Scottish mythology , a fairy known as the Cat sìth takes the form of a black cat with a white spot on its chest. Black cats are often a symbol of Halloween or witchcraft . In the present day many Westerners, including Christian clergy, have black cats as pets, and very few people attach superstitions to them anymore. In contrast,

2166-473: The fantastical, non-human creatures were meant to represent them." Hathaway apologised for the negative representation of those with limb differences later the same week via an Instagram post on 5 November 2020. Black cat A black cat is a domestic cat with black fur. They may be a specific breed , or a common domestic cat of no particular or mixed breed. Most black cats have golden irises due to their high melanin pigment content. Black cats are

2223-463: The film, such as T'Challa and Shuri . It has been observed that usually people were not going out of their way to follow this fad, but visited animal shelters to simply adopt a pet under normal circumstances and were inspired by the Black Panther to adopt a black cat when they see one. Regardless, as much as this was a welcome development for pets that are difficult to get adopted, to reduce

2280-532: The helpless mice-witches as they run around squeaking. "Her Grandness" herself, in her rodent form and now left without any sort of power whatsoever except still being able to talk even after the overdose, is spotted by Luke, who tells his grandmother not to "let her get away". Frantically pleading "get away from me", she is trapped under a glass water pitcher by Helga, who asks the hotel manager Mr. Stringer to dispose for her of this "especially infectious one". The Grand High Witch ends up unceremoniously executed when she

2337-422: The high percentage of black cats in its care was that black cats tend not to photograph as well. In the United States, August 17 is "Black Cat Appreciation Day". Wayne H. Morris created the day in honor of his late sister, June, who had a black cat, Sinbad. The day was chosen in memorial of June's passing. In 2014 Toronto , Canada's largest city, held an event on Black Friday during which people could adopt

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2394-543: The holiday and then abandoned. Despite this, no one has ever documented in the history of humane work any relationship between adopting black cats and cats being killed or injured. When such killings are reported, forensic evidence has pointed to natural predators, such as coyotes , eagles , or raptors as the likely cause. Limiting or suspending adoptions around Halloween also places more cats of all colors at risk of dying in shelters due to overcrowding. October 27 has been designated 'Black Cat Day' by Cats Protection in

2451-463: The job'," although others in the IWW used the symbol much more broadly. In testimony before the court in a 1918 trial of Industrial Workers of the World leaders, Chaplin stated that the black cat "was commonly used by the boys as representing the idea of sabotage . The idea being to frighten the employer by the mention of the name sabotage , or by putting a black cat somewhere around. You know if you saw

2508-401: The latter sense, a curse can also be called a hex or a jinx . In many belief systems, the curse itself (or accompanying ritual ) is considered to have some causative force in the result. To reverse or eliminate a curse is sometimes called "removal" or "breaking", as the spell has to be dispelled, and often requires elaborate rituals or prayers. The study of the forms of curses comprises

2565-562: The original novel and in the 1990 film adaptation (as one of the best movie witches or in other aspects). Anjelica Huston's campy , over-the-top portrayal in the film was also acclaimed by reviewers at the time, earning her awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics among other wins and nominations. Anne Hathway's enactment of the character in

2622-515: The protagonist boy finds out that the RSPCC is really a coven of English witches, and the society's chairwoman is revealed as the frightening Grand High Witch herself. Removing her synthetic face, she reveals that she is really an extremely old and hideous hag. All the other witches are terrified of her immense power, ruthlessness and boundless cruelty. She is portrayed as having overtly supernatural powers. In previous meetings, The Grand High Witch made it

2679-532: The subject of myth, legend, and superstition. They are often associated with witches and good or bad luck in European folklore . The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) recognizes 22 cat breeds that can come with solid black coats. The Bombay breed is exclusively black. Any cat whose fur is a single color, including black, is known as a "solid" or "self". A "solid black" cat may be coal black, grayish black, or brownish black. Most solid-colored cats result from

2736-435: The supernatural powers ascribed to black cats were sometimes viewed positively; for example, sailors considering a " ship's cat " would want a black one because it would bring good luck. Sometimes, fishermen's wives would keep black cats at home too, in the hope that they would be able to use their influence to protect their husbands at sea. In the folklore of Chiloé of southern Chile, black cats are an important element that

2793-504: The victim of expiation for sin ( Galatians 3:13 ), to sins temporal and eternal ( Genesis 2:17 ; Matthew 25:41 ). Cursed objects are generally supposed to have been stolen from their rightful owners or looted from a sanctuary. The Hope Diamond is supposed to bear such a curse, and bring misfortune to its owner. The stories behind why these items are cursed vary, but they usually are said to bring bad luck or to manifest unusual phenomena related to their presence. Busby's stoop chair

2850-450: The village where she lived, people knew her as a kindly and very wealthy Baroness who gave large sums of money to charity." The original version of character is relatively asexual compared to the highly sexualized portrayal in the film adaptation, as she is described only in terms such as being young and "very pretty". In the film version she travels with her black cat , whom she calls Liebchen. The Grand High Witch first appears in person as

2907-513: The witches of England her newest invention, the "Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse-Maker" to distribute and turn all children in the country into mice so they can be exterminated by their own parents. In the 1990 film of The Witches , The Grand High Witch is a tall, mysterious, attractive, snobbish, foreign aristocrat, a glamorously and provocatively dressed femme fatale type with heavily made-up appearance, full of dominating and predatory "vamp" sexuality. Here, she attracts attention of men, including

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2964-418: The world for The Grand High Witch, but could never find her) encounter her by accident in a hotel in England, setting in motion the main plot of the novel. The Grand High Witch is described as the most powerful being in the world, and is the only link between the secret societies of demonic witches that exist in various countries, as they are not allowed to contact each other. The Grand High Witch's headquarters

3021-424: The world". In the backstory, the boy protagonist (Luke Eveshim in the 1990 film, Charlie Hansen in the 2020 film) has a grandmother (known as just Grandmamma in the book, and named Helga Eveshim in the 1990 film and Agatha Hansen in the 2020 film) who is the nemesis of The Grand High Witch. The grandmother had once been one of the very best of the witch-hunters and has travelled all over the globe trying to track down

3078-529: The yoke of enforced serfdom , slavery and the like. In the New Testament , Christ curses the barren fig tree ( Mark 11:14 ), pronounces his denunciation of woe against the incredulous cities ( Matthew 11:21 ), against the rich , the worldly, the scribes, and the Pharisees , and foretells the awful malediction that is to come upon the damned ( Matthew 25:41 ). The word curse is also applied to

3135-427: Was attempting to track down The Grand High Witch), but then Bruno (a boy turned into a mouse) finds the courage to leap onto her cleavage and bite her, which breaks her concentration and she too begins to painfully transform - in her case into a large, nasty, hairless rat . A panic and utter chaos ensues, and the hotel staff members begin to violently take on what they think is a sudden infestation, unknowingly massacring

3192-444: Was not entirely sure witches were fiction, saying, "There's this older lady, a neighbor. If witches are real, she's one of them." For the 1990 film adaptation, Anjelica Huston and the costume designer Marit Allen originally brought a different dress for Huston's role as The Grand High Witch, but the director Nicolas Roeg rejected it as "not sexy". Huston recalled: "That was the first time I'd imagined that this horrible creature in

3249-518: Was reportedly cursed by the murderer Thomas Busby shortly before his execution so that everyone who would sit in it would die. According to the Bible, cursed objects are those which are used in idolatry whether that idolatry is indirectly or directly connected to the devil. A list of those Bible references along with a comprehensive list of occult and cursed objects can be found online. In 1525 Gavin Dunbar , archbishop of Glasgow , Scotland, pronounced

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