page_title: Witch of Endor
section_title: Cultural references
hierarchical_section_title: Witch of Endor / Cultural references
caption_attribution_description: Saul Consulting the Spirit of Samuellabel QS:Len,"Saul Consulting the Spirit of Samuel" label QS:Lde,"Saul spricht mit Samuels Geist bei der Hexe von Endor"
context_page_description: In the Hebrew Bible, the Witch of Endor is a woman Saul consulted to summon the spirit of prophet Samuel in the 28th chapter of the First Book of Samuel in order to receive advice against the Philistines in battle after his prior attempts to consult God through sacred lots and prophets had failed. The witch is absent from the version of that event recounted in the deuterocanonical Book of Sirach.
  Later Christian theology found trouble with this passage as it appeared to imply that the witch had summoned the spirit of Samuel and, therefore, necromancy and magic were possible.
context_section_description: The witch appears as a character in oratorios (including Mors Saulis et Jonathae (c. 1682) by Charpentier, In Guilty Night: Saul and the Witch of Endor (1691) by Henry Purcell, Saul (1738) by George Frideric Handel on the death of Saul, and Le Roi David (1921) by Honegger), in dance music (The Witch of Endor (1969) by Louis Hardin) and operas (David et Jonathas (1688) by the afore-mentioned Charpentier and Saul og David (1902) by Carl Nielsen).
  A year after the death of his son at Loos, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem called "En-Dor" (1919), about supposed communication with the dead. It concludes,
  Oh the road to En-dor is the oldest road
  
  And the craziest road of all!
  
  Straight it runs to the Witch’s abode,
  
  As it did in the days of Saul,
  
  And nothing has changed of the sorrow in store
  
  For such as go down on the road to En-dor!
  The Martha Graham Dance Company premiered The Witch of Endor in 1965 at the 54th Street Theater in New York. A one-act work, it had choreography and costumes by Martha Graham, music by William Schuman, sets by Ming Cho Lee, and lighting by Jean Rosenthal.
  In Endor by Shaul Tchernichovsky, describing King Saul's encounter with the Witch of Endor, is considered a major work of modern Hebrew poetry. Tchernichovsky particularly identified with the character of Saul, perhaps due to his own name, and the poem expresses considerable empathy to this King's tragic fate.
  An episode in the 1932 radio program NBC Mystery Serial written by Carlton E. Morse was called The Witch of Endor, and included a character who said she was a witch; the story was set in "a sparsely populated residential district in the suburbs of San Francisco called Endor Park".
  A ship named the Witch of Endor was also featured in the Horatio Hornblower book "Flying Colours".  The cutter, with an armament of 10 guns, was used by Hornblower to escape from France after he was captured.
  The Witch of Endor is a ship in Babylon's Ashes, the sixth book of The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey. She is destroyed early in book six on the orders of Marco Inaros, chief antagonist of the books five and six (Nemesis Games and  Babylon's Ashes) for mutiny.
  Endora from the hit TV series Bewitched was named after the Witch of Endor to appease Christians who may otherwise have been critical of the program's occult themes.
  Massachusetts playwright Jon Lipsky's 1978 play Beginner's Luck is based on King Saul's encounter with the Witch of Endor in the Bible.
  "Witch of Endor" is the first track on the self-titled 2012 debut album of American occult rock band Bloody Hammers.
  The Witch of Endor is a modern day character in Michael Scott's novel, "The Alchemist: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel." (2007,Delacourt Press) In it, she is described as "not just a witch. She is the original Witch."
  “Lover, Leaver (Taker, Believer)”, featured as the fifth track on the modern rock band Greta Van Fleet’s 2018 debut album Anthem of the Peaceful Army, references the Biblical tale of the Witch of Endor.
  Oh God, hellfire
  
  Witch of Endor raised
  
  Saul would fall to his knees,
  
  Watch the fire blaze
  
  Satan plays his flute for him
  
  The sound, it burns his ears
  
  Watches as the peace of man   
  
  Slips and disappears
caption: Saul speaking to Samuel's spirit at the Witch of Endor 1675 by Gabriel Ehinger, Städelsches Kunstinstitut.
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