Narrative Conjuring or the Tales of Two Sisters? The Representations of Hannah and the Witch of Endor in 1 Samuel

Abstract

The narrative of 1 Samuel opens graphically with the story of Hannah and also closes with the striking story of another woman, the ‘witch’ of Endor. These two women appear to occupy a significant place in the characterizations of 1 Samuel through the strategic locations of Hannah at the birth of Samuel, and the ‘witch’ at the death of Samuel. While past scholarship has described the individual importance of these two stories, the present study engages the intertextual connections between the two stories and the narrative importance of these two stories in the story world of 1 Samuel. Taking account of this intertextuality, the study underscores the hidden polemics inherent in their representations, especially in the staging of these two women in the same narrative space through the different literary echoes in the two stories that intertextually bind these women together as ‘literary sisters’ and mirrors of each other.