It sounds dubious, but constructing a broom by hand can easily be managed without many tools, especially if you live in an area with ample natural resources. A secondary consideration is that they would be made by hand, without modern tools. The only real necessity is to ensure they are made from all natural materials that can be found in nature. There are accounts of what witches brooms were constructed of, but no real hard evidence that there is a proper or ‘correct’ way to make them. Before being called brooms, they were known as besoms. These plants were durable and effective in sweeping. Originally, brooms received their name because they were once made from the branches of broom, a yellow-flowering shrub (pictured left). There are plenty of tales about flying ointments and other potions being applied to broom handles, but those stories are for another article. We all know how perception quickly becomes reality, especially when the story is lurid. It was done at night and to the passerby would certainly have the look of people/witches about to fly away on a broom. In those rituals, both women and men would perform dances in their fields astride of brooms, pitchforks, and other farming implements to encourage growth. The idea was already well established and is commonly believed to be tied to ancient pagan fertility rites. The Priest just didn’t come up with the idea of riding a broom on his own. He was arrested in 1453 and tried for witchcraft and after being tortured, confessed to riding a broom. Even stranger was the fact that Edelin was a priest but also a confessed witch. Oddly enough, the first witch to confess to riding a broom was a Frenchman named Guillaume Edelin. Court records, personal papers of Inquisitors, and other officials told a very different tale of witchcraft than those who practiced it might have written. Most of what we know about Medieval witchcraft comes from the records of those who persecuted witches. History is written by those who are in control at the time, so it is often skewed to tell things in ways that promote or denounce one idea or another. How Riding a Broom Became Part of the Conversation Yet the association with witchcraft and witches wouldn’t be seen until years later. We can also see that with traditional roles the way that they were, that brooms would be associated with women. Understanding the ease of success in this activity, we can easily see how the broom developed. Early humans likely used a hand-full of dry grass or fine twigs to whoosh ashes and debris away from their living areas. But, we can be relatively certain that from the moment humans had permanent living areas, that there were messes made and messes necessitated the need for a sweeping device. No one can pinpoint when the broom was invented. If we look back at history of Witches Brooms, we must first look at the history of brooms in general.
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