Andre Norton's Witch World novels introduced me to the first fully developed Fantasy world I had ever read when I first stumbled across WARLOCK OF THE WITCH WORLD, WITCH WORLD, and WEB OF THE WITCH WORLD in a used book store somewhere in the backwoods of Indiana. I chose WARLOCK to read first and have never stopped collecting the books since then.

When I was in college I always seemed to be involved in one thing or another, but managed to find some free time one summer to compile extensive notes on J.R.R. Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS and Norton's Witch World. Most of the Tolkien notes are now long gone, lost through numerous changes of residence and career. I had thought the Witch World notes were lost, too, until in early 1997 I came across an old spiral-bound notebook containing some of my conclusions about the chronology, calendar system, and the relationship of High Hallack's dales to one another.

The few attempts at documenting the Witch World which I've stumbled across over the years have left me disappointed, mostly because the works don't leave well enough alone. It seems to be the one fatal flaw of every author who has touched Andre Norton's world that they introduce inconsistencies into it. Some do a good job of preserving the medium. But some have created a morass of impossible connections.

Of course, as anyone intimately familiar with Andre's own Witch World stories knows, she herself introduced some inconsistencies. These problems mostly fall into the category of variant spellings, and many of them may be due more to typography and editing error than to authorial error. And I cannot promise that my research will be any better than that of others. But at the very least I shall try not to introduce new ideas, and will show where I've made conjectures by indicating uncertainty.

My desire has always been to see published a work similar to Robert Foster's THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MIDDLE-EARTH, an impressive and well-respected volume (admittedly now dated) which attempts to catalogue every name of every person, place, and thing in Tolkien's Middle-earth. I don't know how complete this glossary for Witch World will be, but when I soon discovered a second set of notes -- an index of names with brief descriptions of the people and places they belong to -- I was finally moved to do something.

Perhaps this is the sort of project that should be completed first and then farmed out to a publisher. I'd prefer not to hold back this information, however, as I'm afraid I might lose the notes forever and that it would take an inordinately long time to finish and the sell the work. Even if I could sell such a book, it would be at least a year before it came to market.

So, I offer this incomplete work for everyone to read. Please don't copy and distribute these pages. They are intended solely for reading through a Web browser. I have no idea of how often I'll be able to update the pages. I'll post the updates as frequently as I can, but that will depend on many other factors.

I do appreciate comments, however, and corrections. Since this is only an avocation for me, I cannot really do as thorough a job researching the subject as I'd like to. In time this project will be complete and I hope it will be available for Norton fans to enjoy through the years.

Please let me know what you think of this site.

A final word. Late in 1997 Maciej Zaleski (Aetheling) offered to help with the Companion. He has many of the Witch World, some in English as well as Polish. I accepted the offer but soon after Aetheling sent me the first file for integration my life went through several major changes, including change of residence and change of employment. This update represents, after several months' delay, the first integration of Aetheling's research with my own.

There are some challenges. The Polish translators either didn't understand some of the nuances of English, or they took some liberties, or they had to construct equivalent terms or phrases in Polish for terms that native English readers would understand easily. Translating idiom between languages is never easy. Where possible I have "corrected" the information submitted by Aetheling to conform to the original English texts. However, some of the meaning may be lost for Polish readers who have read only the translations and yet can read English well enough to browse this site. In the long run Aetheling may be able to create a Polish version of this Glossary, and if so I am sure he will provide the list of names familiar to Polish readers.

I am sure the differences in idiom will be apparent for fans who have read translations of Norton's works in other languages. I regret I am unable at this time to construct a cross-reference. Such a work might be worthwhile if ever this glossary is finished. But I here say "thank you" to Aetheling for all efforts, past and future, and humbly apologize for taking this long to update the Glossary. Most of the new information comes from Aetheling's notes.

                     Kindest regards to all Norton fans,

                     Michael Martinez
                     "We will NEVER forget Andre Norton...."