Nine sorceresses

The nine sorceresses—also called the nine witches, nine maidens, or nine sisters (Welsh: *naw chwaer*)—appear repeatedly in Arthurian legend, part of a broader nine-maidens motif found in world mythologies. Their key roles come in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account of Avalon, where they are sisters of the figure who later becomes Morgan le Fay, and as the central focus of Peredur’s story in the *Mabinogion*’s *Peredur son of Efrawg*.

In the poem *Preiddeu Annwfn*, nine virgin priestesses guard a magic cauldron on the otherworldly island of Annwfn (the Welsh version of the Celtic Otherworld). Their magic includes breathing fire. Arthur and his warband raid the island, stealing or destroying the cauldron, but the poem does not say what happens to the maidens. Similar groups of nine supernatural women appear in other Celtic Otherworld tales, possibly inspired by ancient sisterhoods of priestesses. The nine witches of Ystawingun are mentioned in a single line of the poem *Pa gur* (around 1100), where killing them in that highland is listed among the greatest feats of Cai (later Kay). Ystawingun’s location is unknown, but it may connect to Stanton Moor’s “Nine Ladies” stone circle or to Porthsgiwed. John and Caitlin Matthews suggest these women are the same pagan priestesses from *Preiddeu Annwfn*. Scholars Norris J. Lacy and John T. Koch also link them to the nine witch sisters and their mother in the 7th-century Breton *Vita Prima Samsonis*. There, Saint Samson of Dol meets one sister, a wild witch called Theomacha (“Enemy of God”), flying through a forest on the island of Loire and attacking his deacon. Samson urges her to repent, but she refuses, saying she wishes only evil. When she tries to flee, Samson commands her to stay, freezing her in midair. After she rejects a final chance, he prays for her destruction, and she falls dead.

Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th-century *Vita Merlini* introduces Avalon, a paradisal “Isle of Apples,” ruled by nine benevolent enchantress sisters who are great healers, shapeshifters, and spellcasters: Morgen, Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, Thiten, and Thiton (in some versions, the last two are both named Thitis, one “best known for her cither”). They receive the dying Arthur from Taliesin, hoping to revive him.