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Witchbone

Folklore
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A bone, often from a raven or wolf, used in witchcraft for divination, binding, or as a conduit for spirit communication.

Detailed Definition
Witchbone in poetry symbolizes the sacredness of the discarded. It appears in folk and necromantic verse as the vessel of memory—where the dead speak through marrow, and the bone remembers what the soul forgot.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Scottish folklore, the witchbone is the femur of a hanged woman, used to summon spirits; in Yeats’ “A Vision,” the witchbone is the bone that sings the old songs; in Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush,” the witchbone is the branch that cracks in the frost; in Emily Dickinson’s “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,” the witchbone is the clatter of the coffin’s tread; in Sylvia Plath’s “The Applicant,” the witchbone is the skeleton beneath the suit; in Robert Graves’ “The White Goddess,” the witchbone is the spine of the earth.
Additional Notes
Witchbone is a bone, often from a raven or wolf, used in witchcraft for divination, binding, or spirit communication. In folklore, bones carry memory. In poetry, they symbolize ancestry, the persistence of the dead, and the materiality of spirit. Poets use them to explore grief, inheritance, and the dialogue between the living and the lost.
Also Known As
Bone of the Witch Witch’s Bone
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