Summary

A Note About Witches – The seven-year-old, never-named English narrator explains at the outset of the story he is about to relate that witches are real, that they are evil, that they hate children and spend their lives plotting to get rid of them, that they blend in easily, and that they could be any woman anywhere. This, the narrator explains, is part of what makes them so dangerous to children, as well as the fact that witches don’t ordinarily look dangerous. The narrator asks the reader to observe a drawing of two women, and asks which is the witch. The narrator says there is no way to know.

My Grandmother – The narrator explains to the reader that he has had two close encounters with witches in his life, and that only because of his Norwegian grandmother was he...