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According to the Elders who rule the Protectorate, there is a Witch who terrorizes the forest and demands a baby as a sacrifice every year. This fictional Witch—as opposed to any of the actual witches in the novel—symbolizes storytelling’s power to control people, as the specific Witch that the Elders talk about does exist. Instead, she’s nothing more than a story designed to keep the populace terrified, sorrowful, and under control of the Protectorate’s powerful elite. At several points throughout the novel, the reader discovers that there are real witches around. One of them, Xan, who lives in the forest and takes the abandoned babies in order to protect them (rather than harm them), is kind and certainly doesn’t demand the sacrifice; while Sister Ignatia, the Head Sister of the Order of the Star, is more akin to the Witch in the stories. In this way, the various versions of the Witch speak more broadly to the fact that stories can be slippery and easy to manipulate. Anyone, the novel suggests, can be the Witch if the storyteller makes their case in the right way.
The Witch Quotes in The Girl Who Drank the Moon
The The Girl Who Drank the Moon quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Witch. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2
Quotes
They left knowing that there surely wasn’t a witch. There never had been a witch. There were only a dangerous forest and a single road and a thin grip on a life that the Elders had enjoyed for generations. The Witch—that is, the belief in her—made for a frightened people, a subdued people, a compliant people, who lived their lives in a saddened haze, the clouds of their grief numbing their senses and dampening their minds. It was terribly convenient for the Elders’ unencumbered rule.
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Chapter 8
Quotes
But he didn’t kill the Witch. The Witch killed him instead.
This is why it doesn’t pay to be brave. Bravery makes nothing, protects nothing, results in nothing. It only makes you dead. And this is why we don’t stand up to the Witch. Because even a powerful old wizard was no match for her.
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Chapter 18
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What if we are wrong about the Witch? What if we are wrong about the sacrifice? Antain wondered. The question itself was revolutionary. And astonishing. What would happen if we tried?
Why had the thought never occurred to him before?
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Chapter 22
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They say she even stole it from the moon. And then she cast a spell over all of us—a great cloud of sorrow, covering the world.
Well, of course it covers the world. That’s why the world is drab and gray. That’s why hope is only for the smallest of children. Best you learn that now.
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Chapter 29
Quotes
But the volcano never really went out. The wizard stopped it up, but it went underground. And it leaks its fury into the water pools and the mud vats and the noxious vents. It poisons the Bog. It contaminates the water. It is the reason why our children go hungry and our grandmothers wither and our crops are so often doomed to fail. It is the reason we cannot ever leave this place and there is no use trying.
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Chapter 33
Quotes
Antain kneeled down. “I’m sorry,” he breathed. “I’m so, so sorry.” He scooped up the bird in his hands. It didn’t look healthy. How could it, in these cursed woods? Half the water was poisoned. The Witch. It all came back to the Witch. Curse her name forever.
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Chapter 38
Quotes
A story can tell the truth, she knew, but a story can also lie. Stories can bend and twist and obfuscate. Controlling stories is power indeed. And who would benefit most from such a power? And over time, Ethyne’s eye drifted less and less toward the forest, and more toward the Tower casting its shadow over the Protectorate.
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But as the clouds broke and the sky began to clear, they found themselves feeling something else, too. Something they had never felt before.
Here is the baby holding her own sweet baby. My grandchild. Here is her knowing that no one will ever take that child away.
Hope. They felt hope.
Here is the baby in his circle of friends. He is laughing. He loves his life.
Joy. They felt joy.
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Chapter 40
Quotes
“How do you know that name?” Sister Ignatia whispered.
“Everyone knows that name,” the madwoman said. “It was in a story. About how the Witch ate a tiger’s heart. They all whisper it. It’s wrong, of course. You don’t have a tiger’s heart. You have no heart at all.”
“There is no such story,” Sister Ignatia said. [...] “I started the stories in the Protectorate. I did. They all came from me. There is no story that I did not tell first.”
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The Witch Symbol Timeline in The Girl Who Drank the Moon
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Witch appears in The Girl Who Drank the Moon. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1. In Which a Story is Told
...child that “of course” there’s a witch in the woods. Nobody has ever seen the Witch and nobody ever will—they’ve taken steps to make sure of it. The parent doesn’t know...
(full context)
Chapter 2. In Which an Unfortunate Woman Goes Quite Mad
Gherland pretends to be compassionate and clarifies that the Elders aren’t taking the baby; the Witch is taking the baby. When the mother growls again, Gherland tells the man that his...
(full context)
...really just leave the baby. He suggests that they should wait to make sure the Witch gets the baby, rather than wild animals. Gherland shuts Antain down and leads him back...
(full context)
Chapter 3. In Which a Witch Accidentally Enmagics an Infant
...staff and bellows at the swamp monster, Glerk, to resurface and apologize. Xan is the Witch, and that she’s too young to have any real power over Glerk. Glerk surfaces, rolls...
(full context)
Chapter 4. In Which It Was Just a Dream
The parent chastises the child for asking too many questions about what the Witch does to the kidnapped children. They say that people can’t ask because it hurts too...
(full context)
Chapter 8. In Which a Story Contains a Hint of Truth
...the woods where good witches and wizards live. The woods at this point aren’t dangerous—the Witch cursed the wood some time after this. One day, the Witch rides in on a...
(full context)
Chapter 12. In Which a Child Learns About the Bog
The parent assures the child that the Witch doesn’t live in the Bog—the Bog is entirely good, and with the Witch there it...
(full context)
Chapter 13. In Which Antain Pays a Visit
...daughter isn’t dead and Antain points out that she shouldn’t be—they don’t know what the Witch does with the children. One of the woman’s paper hummingbirds crawls into Antain’s shirt and...
(full context)
Chapter 18. In Which a Witch Is Discovered
The madwoman watches the Witch walk, even though the Witch is impossibly far away. She wonders if she knew how...
(full context)
...he’d be alone, but love proved him wrong. He wonders if they’re wrong about the Witch and the sacrifice, and what would happen if they tried to stop it. He thinks...
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Chapter 22. In Which There Is Another Story
The parent tells the child about the Witch’s Seven League Boots. Like all magic, they’re not good or bad; they just allow the...
(full context)
Chapter 24. In Which Antain Presents a Solution
...Sacrifice. The Elders clear their throats, but Antain says he knows how to stop the Witch’s tyranny. He says he saw the Witch. Gherland is beside himself, as he knows there’s...
(full context)
Chapter 26. In Which a Madwoman Learns a Skill and Puts It to Use
...a girl, she drew pictures and listened to her mother tell her stories about the Witch. Her mother said that the Witch ate sorrow, souls, volcanoes, babies, and brave wizards. She...
(full context)
...never seems to age as she listens to them discuss Antain’s intention to hunt the Witch. Antain has told others about it, and now people are beginning to hope. Sister Ignatia...
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...that one of the Sisters could deal with him, but Sister Ignatia says that the Witch must kill Antain. She flicks her tongue out to taste Gherland’s sorrow and her cheeks...
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Chapter 28. In Which Several People Go into the Woods
...the wood, and the danger that will follow him. She remembers the stories of the Witch from her childhood. In those stories, the Witch had the heart of a tiger and...
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Chapter 29. In Which There Is a Story with a Volcano in It
The parent tells their child that a witch (but not the Witch) made the volcano thousands of years ago. Nobody knows how old the Witch is, but...
(full context)
Chapter 31. In Which a Madwoman Finds a Tree House
...remembers that long before she was born, her mother sacrificed a baby boy to the Witch. Her mother used to have visions of that boy growing up, just as the madwoman...
(full context)
Chapter 33. In Which the Witch Encounters an Old Acquaintance
Antain realizes that he hit a sparrow, not the Witch, and feels awful. He isn’t sure he even has the guts to kill the Witch....
(full context)
Chapter 37. In Which the Witch Learns Something Shocking
...says that he’s not wicked, but because he loves his family, he will kill the Witch.
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Chapter 38. In Which the Fog Begins to Lift
...Mae walk toward the Tower. It’s unusually sunny. Ethyne remembers her mother’s stories about the Witch and that her mother lost a boy long ago. Because of Ethyne’s constant questions, Ethyne’s...
(full context)
...Wyn stands outside with a chain, a padlock, and a key. Ethyne says that the Witch isn’t in the woods—she formed the Sisterhood and invented the story of the Witch to...
(full context)
Chapter 39. In Which Glerk Tells Fyrian the Truth
...she should’ve been curious. Antain tells Xan that once the moon rises, he’ll kill the Witch and they can go home. Xan thinks that she’d love to transform and tell Antain...
(full context)
Chapter 40. In Which There Is a Disagreement about Boots
...Sister Ignatia paces and says that she started every story in the Protectorate—and her fictional Witch never ate a tiger’s heart. The madwoman says that right now the Sisters are talking...
(full context)
Chapter 41. In Which Several Paths Converge
...go away. Out loud, she hears the man say that he’s going to slit the Witch’s throat. Luna yells for Xan to be careful and then hears a swallow cry.
(full context)
...Antain holding a struggling swallow and watches Antain look down the hill at Luna, the Witch. The crow screams for Luna to run.
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Chapter 42. In Which the World Is Blue and Silver and Silver and Blue
...Luna’s blue glow approaching and watches Antain lift his knife. Luna says she’s not a Witch. Antain, Luna, and the madwoman all leap, and the sky fills with birds.
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Chapter 44. In Which There Is a Change of Heart
...it and realizes that she’ll need to be careful. Antain asks if Xan is the Witch who demands a baby, but Luna insists she isn’t. Antain says that someone demands a...
(full context)
Chapter 45. In Which a Simply Enormous Dragon Makes a Simply Enormous Decision
Antain is confused to see Sister Ignatia. Xan tells Antain that Sister Ignatia is the Witch. The Sorrow Eater—whom, Luna realizes, is Sister Ignatia—taunts Xan and Zosimos’s memory. Luna can see...
(full context)
Chapter 46. In Which Several Families Are Reunited
...die. Luna tells them the story of a town under the control of a horrible Witch who feeds on sorrow. She explains about the Day of Sacrifice and the good Witch...
(full context)
Chapter 48. In Which a Final Story Is Told
...happens when a witch claims someone to protect. This, the parent says, is how the Witch claimed the Protectorate. They belong to each other, and the Witch’s magic blesses them, the...
(full context)
