The witch’s familiar

The witch’s familiar was usually a small animal, sometimes as tiny as a housefly. The witch fed the familiar and in return, it might grudgingly act out her commands. It was, in fact, a kind of fairy known as the household brownie or hob. These creatures favour cream and have to be appeased by constant offerings of it or they can start to behave like poltergeists. It was therefore assumed that they could be put to work ruining the work of other householders.

Familiars may also be related to the Norse fylgia, or fetch – a person’s double, which can also shapeshift to animal form. The fylgia is associated with a person’s luck or fortune. To the learned in the 17th century, however, the familiar was simply a devil. Familiars are mentioned in the 1566 Chelmsford witchcraft trial where the familiar in question resembles a human being. The idea that you can separate out part of yourself, a part that may look exactly like you, and send it to work your will on the bodies of others, is central to the idea of witchcraft.

Whatever their origin, familiars come from that popular underworld of ideas and tales. In places in England, you can almost feel it underneath the soil – the weight of the past and the freight of its dead. Our ancestors could feel it too.

Source:

from an interview of Diane Purkiss, Professor of English Literature at Keble College, University of Oxford