Witches

Witches: ( written by ROALD DAHL):

Author: Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales of Norwegian parents. He was one of the most successful writers all over the world.

He died in November 1990 at the age of 74.

Other books: Dirty beasts

Esio Trot

Matilda

In fairy-tales witches wear silly black hats and ride on broomsticks. Real witches dress in ordinary clothes, they live in ordinary houses and they work in ordinary jobs. A real witch hates children and wants to get rid of them (it is pleasure for a witch to squetch a child;) A real witch never gets caught,because of the magic in her fingers. No country in the world is completely free from witches, but the number of real witches in the world is not very high.

MY GRANDMOTHER: The little boy who is telling the story of "REAL WITCHES"  goes to school in England and every Christmas he comes to stay with his grandmother in Norway. His parents got killed in a car accident and so the only relative he has is his lovely grandmother. Every day, before going to bed, the old lady tells him stories. One time she tells him about witches. Firstly he does not believe in what she is telling, but then she tells him about five children, who vanished in a strange way Ranghild Hansen, Solveg Christiansen, Birgit Svenson, Harald and Leif;).

HOW TO RECOGNIZE A WITCH: Real witches wear gloves, because they do not have finger-nails. They also wear wigs, because they are bald headed and they have nostrils like horses. Children smell to them like dogs droppings the less they bathe,the less they stink; one bath a month is enough.) The eyes of a witch are different to ours. The dot is changing colour. And at last, witches have no toes, they have square feet. Their spit is blue, like ink. You can never be sure whether a woman is a witch or not, just by looking at her.

THE GRAND HIGH WITCH: A man in a black suit arrives. The grandmother has to go back to England with her grandson, because it is his father´s last will. But the young boy is afraid that there are many witches ( every country has its own witches;) The GRAND HIGH WITCH is the witch of all over the world, she is the ruler. The boy, back in England, builds a big tree house with his friend. He also sees a woman, who passes by and wants to give him a snake. He is very much afraid, because in every woman he sees a witch.

SUMMER HOLIDAYS: At first they want to spend their holidays in Norway, but then the grandmother becomes ill and so the trip is too much for her. Finally they decide to go to the South of England. The boy takes two white mice with him, but as the hotel -manager sees them he gets very angry. So the boy goes into the big ballroom to do mouse training. Suddenly some ladies come in.

THE MEETING:

The ladies sit down on their seats and after some time they begin to scratch their heads. The boy also recognizes that every woman has got gloves. He is fascinated and kneels down behind a screen, to see what`s going on.

FRIZZLED LIKE A FRITTER: The "witches" sit in their chairs and look like as if they are hypnotised. Suddenly a very pretty woman appears on the platform, but when she takes off her mask, her face is the most frightful one (she is the Grand High Witch). She is the witch all over the world. She tells the other witches to put off their gloves, their wigs and also their shoes. She talks about the vanishing of children and about a new method of getting rid of the tiny, stinking ones.

FORMULA 86 DELAYED ACTION MOUSE-MAKER + THE RECIPE: The Grand High Witch calls her magic liquid Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse Maker. With this liquid they can get rid of children. Within 26 seconds the child is no longer a child: it`s a small, grey mouse. But the witches are only allowed to give one bonbon to one child. The boy`s two mice run away, straight towards the Grand High Witch. As she sees them she gives them a swift running kick, so that they both crash against the wall. She also tells the witches the recipe. The most important thing  are the gruntles`eggs. The witches should also take care, not to overdose.

BRUNO JENKINS DISAPPEARS: One day before the Grand High Witch prepared a small quantity of the Formula 86, she meets a young boy. She promises him to give him some sweets if he´ll come to the ballroom at 2.30 pm. But this is a trap to demonstrate how the liquid works. Finally it all happens very quickly and after some seconds Bruno isn`t there anymore - He has turned into a little mouse. 

THE ANCIENT ONES: For the older ones the Grand High Witch has made some liquid, because most of them are not able to climb up high trees to get gruntles` eggs. Before they leave the room, one of the witches says that it smells like dogs`droppings. They discover the boy behind the curtains.

METAMORPHOSIS: The Grand High Witch pours the entire contents down his throat. After some seconds he feels how his skin begins to tighten. After they have turned him into a mouse, they unlock the doors to shove off to the Sunshine Terrace, to have tea with the manager. 

BRUNO + HELLO GRANDMAMMA: Now the little boys are both mice, and so they go to the grandmother`s room, to tell her the whole story. Bruno says that his mother is afraid of mice. As they are in the room, the grandmother begins to cry. They talk about the toeless ladies, the Grand High Witch, and the most important thing, the Formula 86. They recognize that the Grand High Witch lives one storey below them so they try to find a possibility to get some of the Mouse Maker, out of her room.

THE MOUSE-BURGLAR: The grandmother lets him down to the balcony of room 454. He manages to get a bottle of the Delayed Mouse Maker. But there are some problems: The Grand High Witch comes back when he is still in the room. And so she goes out on the balcony where his grandmother shouts from one storey above: "Hurry up, come out quickly!" He cannot hear her words, because he`s hiding under bed in the Grand High Witch`s room. Suddenly there is a knock on the door. The ancient ones are there, to get the promised quantity of Formula 86. He uses his chance to get out of the room, when the door is open.

MR AND MRS JENKINS MEET BRUNO: Bruno, the little boy and the grandmother try to find Bruno`s parents. They sit in the hotelhall, reading. As the grandmother tries to tell them what had happened to Bruno, they don`t listen to her. They only say that she`s a funny, stupid, old lady.

THE PLAN: The three work out a plan. In the dinning room, the old lady says that he should try not to be seen and he also should wait for someone giving him a clue that he pours the Formula into the right meal.

IN THE KITCHEN: As he`s in the kitchen he listens very carefully and then he puts the Mouse Maker into a big bottle of soup, which the witches should get. Nobody has seen him until yet. But suddenly the mouse hunting begins  and so he climbs up the trouserleg of a cook. Then he tries to hide in a sack of potatoes. One of the cooks has cut a little bit of his tail with a big knife. After this, he returns into the bag of his grandmother.

MR JENKINS AND HIS SON: Mr. Jenkins joins the grandmother, because his son has not returned until now. So the lady tells him the same story as in the afternoon: his son has become a mouse. She also shows Bruno to him. He cannot really believe what has happened.

THE TRIUMPH: Suddenly eighty ladies jump on their seats in the dining room and begin to scream. It is the witches, because of the working of the Mouse Maker. They all turn into mice within 26 seconds. Everybody watches what`s going on around there.

THE HEART OF A MOUSE: Back in Norway the little boy (mouse) asks his grandmother how long a mouse lives. He says that his grandmother has to live nine more years and after such a long time he will be an old mouse and she will be an ancient grandmother and they will die together.

IT IS OFF TO WORK WE GO! They decide to try to get rid of all the witches all over the world with the help of the Mouse Maker. They also know that the Grand High Witch lives in a castle, high up the hills, in Norway. After having changed her into a mouse they will live in the castle together.

Main characters:

Grandmother: She is an old lady and takes care of her grandson, because his parents died in a car accident. She is the only grandmother who smokes cigars. She also tells her grandson stories about witches, before going to bed.

Grandson: He is a little boy, about eight years old and his father`s last will says that he has to finish school in England. He has got two white mice.

Bruno: He is a friend of the little boy`s. He is also turned into a mouse by the witches. His hobby is eating: he eats everything he can get, so the sweet he gets from the witch.