The Three Witches in Appleseed: Nature's Vengeful, Shapeshifting Furies
What Are the Three Witches?
In Matt Bell's Appleseed, the three witches are shapeshifting, primordial beings that pursue the faun Chapman across centuries. They are not human, but ancient spirits born from the same mythic story as Chapman himself. Their voices consist of pre‑language sounds — "moss covering a stone," "the crackle of a great spotted egg hatching," "the unheard sound water makes rushing through underground aquifers" — linking them directly to the elemental forces of nature. They carry a disembodied singer's head whose prophetic song can fold time, accelerate growth, and devastate landscapes.
Literally, the witches appear as naked, voluptuous women with mud‑caked bodies, but they can transform into a vulture, a grizzly bear, and a panther. Over the course of the novel, their physical condition degrades, reflecting the cumulative damage humans inflict on the environment.
Where the Witches Recur
The witches appear primarily in the Chapman chapters, which are set in the historical Ohio Territory. Key recurrences include:
- Chapter 18 – First appearance: Chapman, fleeing a storm, takes shelter in an abandoned cabin. The three witches emerge from the swamp, one carrying the singing head. They name themselves in elemental voices and the head's song overwhelms Chapman.
- Chapter 20 – Pursuit across time: The witches chase Chapman through flickering landscapes (past homestead, future industrial road, frozen wastes), using the head's song to advance time and destroy the cabin with lightning.
- Chapter 36 – Attack on a trapper: When Chapman briefly becomes a faun again, the witches appear and savagely kill a giant trapper and his horse, demonstrating their role as "righteous protectors of the land."
- Chapter 38 – Indirect presence: Chapman sees signs of the witches' growing fury — arsenic wells, collapsed dams, sterile apple trees — evidence of their vengeance against settlement.
- Chapter 44 – Final confrontation: The witches arrive at Chapman's nursery as the vulture, bear, and panther. Chapman fights back using the singer's song, which ages them and dissolves them, while accelerating the growth of an orchard from Nathaniel's grave.
- Chapter 47 – Aftermath: Chapman, having cut off his own horns (and thus his faunish shape), is no longer pursued. The witches' role ends after Chapman gives up his wild nature.
How the Witches' Meaning Changes
From Fates to Furies
When first introduced, the witches are ambiguous — terrifying but also "regal and grave, beautiful beyond words." They mirror the Greek Fates, controlling the threads of mythic stories. In Chapter 19 (The First Faun), we learn that these same witches cut the first faun from his looping myth, giving him linear time and free will — but only after he had already committed a terrible crime. This act suggests that the witches are agents of narrative justice, intervening at the "end" rather than the "beginning."
By the time of Chapman's story, however, the witches have transformed from fates into furies. As Chapman observes in Chapter 44, "they've shaken off the myth of their birth; unlike him they've become protectors of the land, fates no longer, now only furies, whose anger is provoked by every clear-cut, every burn, every dammed river or diverted stream." Their purpose shifts from managing mythic fate to punishing ecological destruction.
The Cost of Their Vengeance
A crucial evolution occurs in the physical appearance of the witches. In Chapter 18, they are described as "fleshily voluptuous," with "mountains of engorged breasts." By Chapter 44, they have become "gaunt and drawn, their old voluptuousness sagged into want and wreck." The bear has "threadbare fur" and "rotten flesh," the vulture flies with "missing too many feathers." This degradation signifies that the witches themselves are wounded by the environmental devastation they seek to punish. They are not invincible judges but desperate, injured guardians — a reflection of nature's own suffering.
The Singer's Head as Weapon
The disembodied head is both the witches' tool and their vulnerability. Its song can accelerate time, cause visions, and even "age and dissolve" the witches. In Chapter 44, Chapman turns the song against them, using it as a weapon that simultaneously ages them and forces the orchard to grow. This duality suggests that the power of prophetic story can be used either for destruction or for creation; Chapman's choice to gag the singer with a bitter apple slows the prophecy but also halts the witches' attack.
Character and Theme Connections
Chapman's Complicity
The central character connection is with Chapman (the faun, Johnny Appleseed figure). The witches pursue him not because he is purely evil, but because he is complicit. Even though he plants seeds rather than clear‑cuts forests, his labor enables settlement: "It wasn't the witches who plowed every inch of land they could, wasn't the witches who bragged of planting horizon-busting orchards." Chapman comes to realize that "he couldn't have ended his complicity … not as long as he lived a life dependent on all this human destruction." The witches force him to confront his guilt, culminating in his self‑mutilation (cutting off his horns) to escape their pursuit, effectively choosing a fully human, limited existence over faunish wildness.
Nathaniel and Manifest Destiny
Nathaniel, Chapman's human brother, represents the settler ideology of dominion. He dreams of "taming the wilderness for civilization." The witches are opposed to everything Nathaniel represents. When they kill the trapper (Chapter 36), they also punish the mindset of exploitation. Chapman's relationship with Nathaniel is strained because Chapman is caught between wildness and brotherly love; the witches embody the natural world's rejection of Nathaniel's manifest‑destiny creed. Ultimately, Nathaniel dies (implied in Chapter 44, where trees sprout from his grave), and the witches' attack on the nursery coincides with his burial.
The Environmental Themes
The witches are the most direct embodiment of climate change and ecological destruction. Their acts of vengeance — arsenic in wells, dam collapses, sterile apple trees — mirror real ecological consequences of colonization. They represent nature fighting back against manifest destiny and colonization. Their gaunt, injured forms in Chapter 44 illustrate how environmental damage harms not only humans but the very spirit of the land.
Myth and Storytelling
The witches originate from the same mythic story as the first faun (Chapter 19). They have the power to cut characters from their stories, to give or take away free will. This connects to the theme of myth and storytelling — the novel questions whether anyone can escape their narrative role. The witches' head, which sings a "story that physically overwhelms Chapman," demonstrates that stories have real power, both to harm and to heal.
The First Faun and Free Will
The witches' treatment of the first faun (Chapter 19) is a parable about moral responsibility. They cut him from his eternal loop and give him linear time, but only after he has raped his niece and she has died. The first faun wonders, "Why hadn't the witches interceded earlier… when his new free will could've saved his niece?" This suggests that the witches (and by extension, nature) do not prevent harm — they only punish it. Chapman's arc mirrors this: he is given countless chances to change, but the witches only appear after his choices have already caused damage.
Study Questions and Answers
1. How do the witches' physical appearances change over the course of the novel, and what does that transformation signify?
The witches begin as "regal and grave" figures with abundant, voluptuous bodies. By Chapter 44, they have become "gaunt and drawn," with threadbare fur, missing feathers, and rotten flesh. This change signifies that the environmental destruction they are fighting against has wounded them as well. They are not separate from nature — they are nature, and as humans degrade the land, the guardians of that land also suffer. Their deteriorating bodies represent the cost of ecological vengeance: to punish perpetrators, the world must sacrifice its own vitality.
2. In what sense are the witches both "fates" and "furies"? What is the difference?
As "fates," the witches originally controlled mythic storylines — cutting the first faun from his loop and granting him free will, but at a time too late to prevent tragedy. They acted as arbiters of narrative justice. As "furies," they become agents of ecological retribution, punishing anyone who damages the wild — not because of preordained story, but because of real, physical harm. The difference is one of agency: fates enforce destiny, while furies enforce consequence. By the time of Chapman's story, the witches have "shaken off the myth of their birth" and become pure avengers, motivated by rage at every clear‑cut and dammed river.
3. Why does Chapman cut off his own horns? How does this action relate to the witches?
Chapman saws off his horns in Chapter 47 after accidentally frightening a child, realizing that his faun shape makes him dangerous to the human family he loves. Cutting off his horns — the physical marker of his faunishness — is an attempt to "flicker" away his wild nature permanently. This act directly responds to the witches' pursuit: as long as Chapman remains a faun, he attracts their attention. By losing his horns, he stops being a target. The witches do not appear after this point. However, the act is also a form of self‑punishment, mirroring the mutilation the witches have inflicted on themselves (their gaunt, injured bodies). Chapman's sacrifice suggests that the only way to escape nature's wrath is to fully abandon the wild self — a choice that leaves him lonely and diminished.
4. What role does the singer's head play in the witches' power? How does Chapman turn it against them?
The singer's head is a disembodied, still‑living head that sings a "dirge" capable of folding time, causing visions, and physically overwhelming listeners. The witches use it to advance through time — for example, skipping ahead to the moment an abandoned cabin will be struck by lightning, or aging a nursery so that an orchard grows instantly. In Chapter 44, Chapman grabs the head and forces its throat open, using the amplified song to age and dissolve the witches themselves. Simultaneously, the song speeds up the growth of trees from Nathaniel's grave. Chapman then gags the singer with a bitter apple, slowing the prophecy. This scene demonstrates that the power of story (song) is ambivalent: it can be used to destroy or create, and neither the witches nor Chapman fully control its effects.