Around 42-43 years ago, had you gone to a chain bookstore like Walden Books or B. Dalton Bookseller at your local mall, there would be a good sized shelf of Andre Norton books.

“Andre” Norton, born Alice (1912-2005) was a writer that started out more in the young adult market but became one of Donald Wollheim’s mainstays for Ace and DAW Books.

The Witch World series was one of those “fantasy” series you would find. At the time Ace had reprinted the Lancer Conan series, Ace had Fritz Leiber’s “Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser” series. Who can forget how popular Roger Zelazny’s “Amber” series was?

I avoided reading Norton for a while. Did not read her stories in anthologies I was picking up used in the early 80s: Heroic Fantasy, Swords Against Darkness, Flashing Swords. I felt burnt reading C. L. Moore’s “Jirel of Joiry” after reading how great those stories are (they aren’t). I would read a Tanith Lee story but not Norton.

What finally broke the ice was reading the historical Shadow Hawk. I then picked up the DAW paperback Garan the Eternal. I finally broke down and read the collection Lore of the Witch World (DAW Books, 1980). And I liked it much more than I though I would. Not long after, I read Witch World (1963) and the sequel Web of the Witch World (1964).

The first two novels were sword & planet or rather “science fantasy” updated. Norton had as much influence from A. Merritt as Edgar Rice Burroughs, maybe more.

I have had Three Against the Witch World (1965) lying around a couple years. Picked it up at Pulpfest a few years ago from a box with cheap paperbacks. Decided to finally read it.

Three Against the Witch World picks up with the birth of the triplets from Earth man Simon Tregarth and Lady Jaelith, the former witch. Kyllan, Kemoc, and Kaththea are raised with little interaction with their parents. Simon Tregarth disappears and Jaelith leaves to look for him.

Kyllan and Kemoc are raised as warriors. The witches of Estcarp find Katthea has witch powers and take her to be one of them. The brothers rescue her before she can be given the final initiation. Things are not going well with Estcarp with invasion from the south. It does not look Estcarp will hold out much longer.

The story has them escaping east through mountains and forest to an unknown land their ancestors had crossed. They find a conflict of inhabitants against forces of evil. They decide to settle and bring help.

The last part is a journey back to Estcarp to bring any and all who would join them.

This is a 190 page paperback. My guess is possibly 80,000 words. The Witch World series started out as sword & planet/science fantasy but evolved into a fantasy series. You can see the J. R. R. Tolkien influence seeping in alongside A. Merritt.

Norton was stronger with shorter lengths. Lore of the Witch World is a good place to start if you are interested in checking out the series. Norton’s alien space witches are not portrayed in a benign fashion.

Interesting to see Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “Darkover,” Anne McCaffrey’s “Pern,” and Ursula Le Guin’s “Hainish” in addition to Witch World all have medieval feudal societies on other planets. The Pink Future is feudal. I will eventually write more on this in time.