The Little Witch
core novel 1957 The Little Witch
Record
| Original title | Die kleine Hexe |
|---|---|
| First published | 1957 |
| Original language |  DE |
| First English translation | 1961 |
| Translator | Anthea Bell |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.22 (12,265 ratings, collected 2026-10-02) |
| Page count | 127 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9783522105804 |
Synopsis
The Little Witch is only a hundred and twenty-seven years old, no age at all for a witch, and lives with her talking raven Abraxas in a small crooked house in the forest. Too young to be allowed at the great witches' dance on the Blocksberg on Walpurgis Night, she sneaks in anyway, is caught by the weather-witch Rumpumpel and hauled before the head witch, who sets her terms: she may join the dance next year only if, within the year, she has become a good witch. The Little Witch sets about it with a will, helping an old woman gather firewood, rescuing a horse from a cruel carter, outwitting a bully and befriending two village children, Thomas and Vroni, while Rumpumpel follows and reports on everything she does. By the next Walpurgis Night the witches' council has a different idea of what "a good witch" means.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Little Witch
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Otfried Preussler
Notes
- Thienemann, 1957; English translation by Anthea Bell (Abelard-Schuman, 1961), retranslated for the New York Review Children's Collection (2015). A separate story from Krabat; the author's two other 'little' books (Der kleine Wassermann, Das kleine Gespenst) are separate stories too.
Sources
← The Little Witch dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.