Wyrd Sisters

Wyrd Sisters is Terry Pratchett's sixth Discworld novel, published in 1988, and it re-introduces Granny Weatherwax from Equal Rites.

The novel features three witches: Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, the matriarch of a large family and owner of the most evil cat in the world, and Magrat Garlick, the junior witch, who believes firmly in occult jewellery, covens and bubbling cauldrons, to the annoyance of the other two. That division of temperament is what generates most of the book's comedy between the plot beats.

The story is built on a royal murder. King Verence is killed by his cousin, Duke Felmet, at his wife's urging, and the crown and the heir are handed to the witches by a servant who is escaping. The novel's engagement with a well-known Shakespearean tragedy is why it is listed under satire as well as fantasy, and the witches are left with the practical question of what a kingdom is owed. The borrowings are structural rather than decorative: the murdered king, the usurping duke and the true heir are all established before the witches decide what the kingdom is owed.