Both wear headscarves that identify them as Waldensians, members of a Christian sect founded in the 12th century who were branded as heretics by the Catholic Church, partly because they allowed women to become priests.Īnthologist Robin Skelton suggests the association between witches and brooms may have roots in a pagan fertility ritual, in which rural farmers would leap and dance astride poles, pitchforks or brooms in the light of the full moon to encourage the growth of their crops. In the two drawings, one woman soars through the air on a broom the other flies aboard a plain white stick. The earliest known image of witches on brooms dates to 1451, when two illustrations appeared in the French poet Martin Le Franc’s manuscript Le Champion des Dames (The Defender of Ladies). His confession came under torture, and he eventually repented but was still imprisoned for life.īy the time of Edelin’s “confession,” the idea of witches riding around on broomsticks was already well established.
He was arrested in 1453 and tried for witchcraft after publicly criticizing the church’s warnings about witches. Edelin was a priest from Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. From the beginning, brooms and besoms were associated primarily with women, and this ubiquitous household object became a powerful symbol of female domesticity.ĭespite this, the first witch to confess to riding a broom or besom was a man: Guillaume Edelin. It gradually replaced the Old English word besom, though both terms appear to have been used until at least the 18th century.
The word broom comes from the actual plant, or shrub, that was used to make many early sweeping devices.
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