Witches from Myth and Folklore Coloring Pages
Long before anyone carved a jack-o’-lantern, witches were turning up in myths and legends. Some were goddesses, some were seers people travelled miles to consult, and a few were downright dangerous. This page gathers 37 of them from around the world, grouped by where their stories come from.
Please note: Some of the images and stories on this page are a little scary for young children. If you're looking for coloring pages suitable for young children, check out our cute Halloween Witches!
Jump to: Mythology | Seeresses | British and Irish | Midwinter | Slavic and Asian | American
Witches and Goddesses from Mythology
Nyx (Greek Primordial)
Witches get a lot of credit for loving the night, but the night had a ruler long before there were witches or even gods. Nyx was one of the very first beings to exist, and she was the mother of Sleep, Death and the Fates. Every evening she drove her chariot across the sky, trailing a dark veil behind her.
Even Zeus, king of the gods, was careful not to cross her. In Homer's Iliad, he holds back from punishing a god who has run to Nyx for protection, because he didn't dare upset her...
Hecate (Greek Goddess)
Hecate was the Greek goddess of magic and crossroads, and she carried two flaming torches to light her way through the dark. People left meals for her at crossroads on moonless nights, hoping she’d look kindly on them...
Circe (Greek Mythology)
Circe came from a very powerful family. Her father was Helios, the sun-god and a son of two Titans, and her mother, Perse, was a daughter of Oceanus, the great ocean stream. That put a pretty impressive set of grandparents on both sides of her family tree. Her brother Aeetes became a king, which sounds quite dull next to being a sorceress, and her niece Medea turned out to be an enchantress too. Magic clearly ran in the family. But Circe didn’t need the family glow to stand out. Her gift was a different kind of power, and there’s a reason it made even heroes careful...
Medea (Greek Mythology)
Medea was a princess of Colchis, a granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and a sorceress. When the hero Jason arrived to steal the Golden Fleece, she used her magic to put its dragon guardian to sleep and then sailed back to Greece with him. Years later he left her for a Corinthian princess, and Medea answered with a poisoned wedding gown that killed the bride.
The ending is the part that still shocks people. Medea killed her own sons so Jason would have nothing left, then escaped in a chariot pulled by dragons. Was she a monster or a woman pushed past breaking point? People have been arguing about it for well over two thousand years.
Aglaonice (Greek Legend)
Thessaly was the part of Greece famous for its witches, and people said the best of them could pull the moon right out of the sky. Aglaonice was the one everybody talked about. Her real secret was cleverer than magic, though. She'd learned to work out when an eclipse was coming, so she'd announce she was about to make the moon vanish, and right on time, it went dark. Nobody in town wanted to be on her bad side after that!
Pamphile (Roman Story)
Pamphile lived in Thessaly too, and she could do something even Aglaonice couldn't. She'd rub a magic ointment over her skin, give herself a good shake and fly out the window as an owl. Her nosy houseguest decided he wanted to try it, but he grabbed the wrong jar...
Simaetha (Greek Legend)
Simaetha was a young woman whose sweetheart, a handsome athlete named Delphis, had stopped coming to visit. So one moonlit night she set out to win him back with magic. She spun a little magic wheel, burned barley and bay leaves, and asked Hecate and the moon goddess Selene for help. When the spell was done, she sat and told the moon the whole story of how she'd fallen in love. Nobody ever finds out whether it worked, but at least the moon heard her out.
Agamede (Greek Mythology)
Agamede was a princess of Elis and a daughter of King Augeas, the king whose enormous, filthy stables Herakles had to clean in a single day. The Greeks said she knew every healing plant that grew anywhere on the wide earth, so she was the person to see when something hurt. Of course, anyone who knows which plants can cure you also knows which ones can do the opposite. That's why the Greeks used the same word, pharmakon, for a medicine, a poison and a magic potion.
The Gray Sisters (Greek Mythology)
The Gray Sisters were three witches who were born old, with gray hair right from the start. They had just one eye and one tooth to share between them, so they spent all day passing them back and forth. That worked just fine... until the hero Perseus showed up...
Isis (Egyptian Mythology)
Isis was the great magician of the Egyptian gods, and she wanted what no one else had: the secret name of the sun god Ra. She made a serpent to bite him, then offered to heal him only if he handed his true name over. It worked, and she became one of the most powerful beings in Egypt’s pantheon...
The Morrigan (Celtic Mythology)
The Morrigan was an Irish goddess of war and fate who could turn herself into a crow and fly over the battlefield. When warriors spotted a crow circling overhead, they knew the fighting was close, and that not everyone would be going home...
The Cailleach (Scottish and Irish Folklore)
Her name means "old woman" but she is no ordinary grandmother. In Scottish tradition the Cailleach is a blue-faced goddess of winter who rules the cold half of the year.
In Ireland she is best known as a builder of landscapes. Stories say she made hills and mountains by dropping stones from her apron, and the ancient cairns at Loughcrew are said to be among them.
Ceridwen (Welsh Mythology)
Ceridwen was a Welsh sorceress with a cauldron of inspiration. She spent a year and a day brewing a potion to make her son Morfran wise, and left a boy named Gwion Bach to stir it. Three hot drops landed on his thumb. He put it in his mouth and instantly knew everything, including the fact that Ceridwen was about to kill him.
He ran and she chased him. He became a hare so she became a greyhound. He leapt into a river as a fish so she became an otter. He flew off as a bird so she became a hawk. Finally he turned into a single grain of wheat and she became a hen and swallowed him. Nine months later she gave birth to a baby so beautiful she couldn’t bring herself to kill him. She dropped him into the sea in a leather bag instead. He was fished out, grew up, and became the great Welsh poet Taliesin.
Freya (Norse Mythology)
Freya was the Norse goddess of love and magic. She rode in a chariot pulled by two big cats and owned a cloak of falcon feathers that let her fly anywhere she liked...
Norse mythology coloring pages
Gullveig (Norse Mythology)
Gullveig is one of the most mysterious figures in Norse mythology, and one of the most badly treated. Her name roughly means “gold power,” and stories say she came to the gods’ hall and was met with spears. They burned her three times, and three times she rose again unharmed.
That attack is often named as the start of the first war in the world, between the two families of Norse gods: the Aesir and the Vanir. Gullveig is also said to have gone by the name Heid and practised seidr, the same magic linked to Freya, and some scholars think the two are the same goddess. Nobody knows for sure, but the war that followed suggests the Vanir weren't at all happy about how she was treated.
Seeresses and Mediums
The Völva (Norse Seeress)
A völva was a wise woman from Viking times who people believed could see the future. The old Norse sagas describe her travelling from farm to farm with a tall staff. When she arrived, she was given the best seat in the house and a special meal, and then everyone gathered round to hear what was coming for them. Freya herself was said to be the first to practise this kind of magic, called seidr.
Thorbjörg the Little Völva (Norse Saga)
Most of what we know about völvas comes from one visit. During a hungry winter in Greenland, a farmer invited Thorbjörg, known as the Little Völva, to tell everyone when things would get better. She arrived in a blue cloak set with stones, a hood of black lambskin lined with white cat fur, and catskin gloves, carrying a staff with a brass knob on top. Supper was goat's milk porridge and a dish made from the hearts of every animal on the farm. Then a young woman named Gudrid sang the old spirit songs for her, and Thorbjörg announced that the hard times would end by spring and that Gudrid had a grand future ahead. Both turned out to be true.
Huld (Norse Saga)
Huld was the sorceress people hired when they wanted something done that nobody else could manage. Queen Drífa of Finland was one of them. Her husband, King Vanlandi of Sweden, had sailed home promising to come back in three years, and ten years later she was still waiting. Drífa paid Huld to bring him back or make him pay. Huld's magic filled the king with a terrible longing to go to Finland, and when his friends talked him out of it, a nightmare spirit came to him in his sleep and he never woke up.
Arthurian, British and Irish Folklore
Nimue, the Lady of the Lake (Arthurian Legend)
The Lady of the Lake is the enchantress who lives beneath the water and in many tellings hands the young King Arthur his sword Excalibur. Other versions give that job to a different lady of the lake and save Nimue for a darker role.
In those stories Nimue is Merlin’s pupil. He taught her his magic and she used it to seal him away for good. Some tales call it a betrayal. Others say Merlin walked into the trap willingly because he loved her.
Lady of the Lake coloring pages
Morgan le Fay (Arthurian Legend)
Morgan le Fay was a powerful enchantress from the legends of King Arthur, and also his half-sister. Sometimes she helped him and sometimes she plotted against him, so you never quite knew which Morgan you were going to get...
Nicnevin (Scottish Folklore)
Nicnevin is a Scottish witch queen tied to Halloween itself. A 16th-century Scots poem describes her leading a ride of witches, fairies and spirits across the countryside on Halloween night. Later writers turned her into more of a witch than a fairy queen, and some folklorists connect her to the Cailleach, the winter hag.
Black Annis (English Folklore)
Black Annis was said to live in a cave in the Dane Hills near Leicester, with a great oak tree growing at its entrance. She was a blue-faced hag with iron claws, and legend says she dug that cave out of the sandstone herself. She hid in the oak to pounce on small creatures who passed by and she was said to hang their skins in its branches to dry.
She could also take the shape of a huge cat, which may explain an old Leicester custom. On Easter Monday a scented dead cat was dragged from her cave to the mayor’s door in a mock hunt, and some versions of the legend link it to her. (I really like cats so, for me, that little tidbit is the scariest thing on this page!!!)
Grendel's Mother (Old English Legend)
Everyone remembers Beowulf beating the monster Grendel, but the fight wasn't over. That night, Grendel's mother crept into the king's great hall to avenge her son and carried off one of the king's oldest friends. Beowulf tracked her to a dark lake and dove to the bottom, where she lived in an underwater cave. His own sword couldn't hurt her, so he grabbed an enormous old sword hanging on her wall, one made by giants, and that finally did the job. The old poem never gives her a name, which somehow makes her even spookier.
Jenny Greenteeth (English Folklore)
Jenny Greenteeth is a river hag from the north-west of England with green skin, sharp teeth and very long arms. She lurks under the green carpet of duckweed that covers still ponds and slow rivers, and if a child leans over for a closer look she might reach out and snatch them under. Duckweed can look exactly like solid ground, so the warning behind the story was a sensible one. She was probably invented to keep children away from a very real danger.
Peg Powler (English Folklore)
You could call Peg Powler Jenny Greenteeth's cousin from the River Tees in the north-east of England. She has long green hair and sharp teeth, and she waits under the water for children who play too close to the bank, especially ones who were supposed to be at Sunday school. The frothy foam that gathers on the Tees was called “Peg Powler's suds,” so if you spotted it, you knew she was close by.
Mother Shipton (English Legend)
Mother Shipton is England's most famous fortune teller. Legend says she was born Ursula Southeil in a cave in Yorkshire in the 1400s, and that she could predict the future. That cave is still there, and people have been visiting it for almost 400 years. Here's the funny part, though: many of the famous predictions people credit to her were actually made up long after she died!
Biddy Early (Irish Folklore)
Biddy Early was a real woman who lived in County Clare, Ireland, in the 1800s, and she became one of the most famous healers in the country. People walked for miles to ask her for herbal cures, and she'd peer into a mysterious blue bottle to see what was wrong with them. Some said the fairies gave it to her. The local priests weren't fond of her, and she was even put on trial for witchcraft, but the case fell apart for lack of evidence. When she died, the blue bottle was thrown into a nearby lake, and people say it's still down there.
Midwinter Witches
Frau Holle (German Folklore)
When Frau Holle shakes out her featherbed, snow falls on the world. In parts of Germany people still say she is making her bed when it snows. In the Grimm fairy tale a girl drops her spindle down a well and follows it into Holle’s world. She helps with the housework, shakes out the featherbed and goes home covered in gold. Her lazy sister tries the same trip and ends up covered in sticky black pitch instead.
The fairy tale is the best known version, but Holle is a much older figure tied to spinning and winter.
Perchta (Alpine Folklore)
Perchta visits the Alps during the Twelve Nights of midwinter, usually around January 5th, and she has no patience for slackers. Stories say she checked that the spinning was finished and the house was clean. Tidy households found a silver coin in the water bucket. Lazy ones got something far worse.
She comes in two forms, a beautiful white-clad Perchta and a hideous one. Perchten parades still happen across Austria and Bavaria in January, with huge carved masks, cowbells and plenty of noise to scare away the winter spirits.
Grýla (Icelandic Folklore)
Grýla is a troll woman who lives in a cave in the Icelandic mountains and comes down at Christmas looking for naughty children to punish. Grýla isn’t a witch in the strictest sense but she has a cave, a cauldron and a wee bit of Christmas magic (she knows where to find the naughty!) so I've included her in this section. She is the mother of the thirteen Yule Lads, the mischievous trolls who visit one by one over the thirteen nights before Christmas. Her enormous Yule Cat eats anyone who doesn’t dress up in new clothes for the holiday.
Parents used her to scare children into behaving for centuries. It worked so well that in 1746 an official decree banned the practice.
La Befana (Italian Folklore)
La Befana is a kind old witch from Italy who flies on her broomstick on the night of January 5th, leaving sweets for good children and a lump of coal for naughty ones.
The story says the Three Wise Men once invited her to come along and visit the baby Jesus, but she was too busy sweeping and said no.
She’s been searching for him ever since, stopping at every house along the way. Before she leaves, she sweeps the floor, which is said to sweep away the troubles of the old year.
Slavic and Asian Witches
Baba Yaga (Slavic Folklore)
Baba Yaga is the most famous witch in Russian and Eastern European fairy tales. She lives deep in the forest in a hut that stands on giant chicken legs and can turn around to face whoever comes knocking. Instead of a broomstick, she flies in a big wooden mortar and pestle, sweeping away her tracks behind her with a broom. Sometimes she helps the travellers who find her, and sometimes she tries to eat them. The ones who get out alive are usually the polite and clever ones.
Kikimora (Slavic Folklore)
Kikimora is a Slavic house spirit who lives behind the stove or under the floor, and how she behaves depends on how you keep your home. A tidy house gets a helpful spirit who looks after the chickens and finishes the spinning at night. A messy one gets a kikimora who breaks dishes, tangles yarn and tickles children awake. There is a darker version too: the swamp kikimora, a thin hag who leads travellers into the bog.
Yamauba (Japanese Folklore)
The yamauba, or "mountain old woman," lives deep in the Japanese mountains and nobody agrees on what she is. In some stories she is an ogress who offers lost travellers a place to sleep and then eats them. In others she is a mountain spirit who blesses the farms and families that treat her kindly. One legend even makes her the mother of Kintarō, the super-strong boy who wrestled bears.
Aswang (Filipino Folklore)
The aswang is a shapeshifter from Filipino folklore, usually a woman. By day she can pass for an ordinary neighbour. At night she turns into a bat, a dog, a pig or a ghoul to hunt. Some stories say she splits in two, with the upper half sprouting wings and flying off while the legs stay hidden behind.
Folk tradition says you can spot her by a "tik-tik" sound that gets quieter the closer she is, and you can keep her away with garlic or salt. Details change from region to region, and people all over the Philippines still tell aswang stories.
American Witch Legends
Moll Dyer (American Legend, Maryland)
In the winter of 1697 a mob in St Mary’s County, Maryland, burned down the cabin of a woman named Moll Dyer. Legend says she was an herbalist who lived alone in the woods, and her neighbours blamed her for a bitter winter and sick children. She fled into the snow and froze to death, and was found kneeling beside a large rock with her hand pressed against it.
People in Leonardtown still point out that rock and say her handprint is in the stone. They also say she cursed everyone who drove her out.
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