![]() ![]() Western European artists began to modify images of witches from the Middle Ages, lengthening the blunt tips of their caps into devilish spikes. Fueled by the popularity of these “penny merriments,” the stereotype caught on quickly. It wasn’t until the 1710s and 1720s that children’s chapbooks in England began illustrating supernatural tales with crones in peaked hats. Woodcuts from the 1600s occasionally outfitted spell-casters in common bonnets. Medieval depictions of witches often show them nude and bare-headed, their long hair mingling with flames and smoke. outtake from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.Įxperts aren’t sure exactly when pointed lids became associated with sorcery. They look like aunts in a fourth century B.C. But weirdly, one of the earliest incarnations of the conical headpiece is also one of the most familiar: Three female mummies uncovered in the Chinese region of Subeshi -known as the “witches of Subeshi”-are famous for covering their hair with large funnel-shaped contraptions of black felt. There are simply too many varieties of pointy hat to describe in a single blog post, more possible antecedents than can be ruled out. That’s largely because history is full of pointy hats, from the tapering hennins favored by medieval noblewomen to the soft Phrygian caps adopted by French revolutionaries (and Smurfs). And yet the story of this particular hat-where it originated, and how it took on its demonic resonance-is a murky one. The hat makes the witch, to paraphrase Mark Twain. Accessorize as you wish with a broom or a grassy complexion, but on pain of expulsion from the coven, do not forget the peaked, black, wide-brimmed hat. Thanks in part to The Wizard of Oz, the word witch has become code for a certain type of dress.
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