A late-medieval image took shape in Europe
The flying witch on a broomstick was not a timeless symbol. One of the earliest surviving pictures of the idea appears in a French manuscript made around the middle of the 15th century: women are shown riding through the air on household implements, including a broom. The image emerged as European authorities and writers were increasingly describing witchcraft as a hidden practice whose members could travel through the sky.
Those accounts helped turn an imagined journey into a visual motif. Some reports linked flight to ointments said to be rubbed on the body or an object. Such stories may have drawn on real experiences with intoxicating or mind-altering substances, but the claims of supernatural flight belonged to the period’s beliefs, not evidence that people actually flew.
Why a broom?
A broom was an instantly recognizable domestic tool, making it a natural prop for a story about ordinary life turned upside down. It also made the imagined magic easy to picture: a familiar object becomes a vehicle, and a person associated with the household escapes its usual limits. The word “broomstick” can make the object sound like a specially built wand; early images instead draw on everyday implements.
Over time, writers, artists, and performers repeated and refined the image. The broom became a quick visual shorthand for a witch, even as other details of witch lore changed. Its staying power comes from that simple reversal: the most ordinary tool in the house becomes a means of impossible escape.
