I could only make it through a couple of the stories.
I guess you have to be a real fan, because I found them tendentious and uninteresting. ( )

Lore of the Witch World by Andre Norton came out in 1980, collecting 7 stories that were originally published in the 1970s and with an introduction by C. J. Cherryh, another of my favorite authors. Something that I did not appreciate when I first read this collection as a child is that all of the stories except "Legacy from Sorn Fen" feature female protagonists. In every case, the woman teams up with a man, and they succeed in overcoming obstacles only because they work together, but she's the one driving the action.

The volume contains 4 short stories ("Falcon Blood," "Legacy from Sorn Fen," "Sword of Unbelief," and "Changeling") and 3 novelettes ("Spider Silk," Sand Sister," and "The Toads of Grimmerdale"). The stories involve characters from both the Estcarp side and the High Halleck side of the Witch World.

"Spider Silk" is divided into 5 chapters, featuring Dairine, a girl with traumatic blindness growing up in a remote fishing village in Estcarp after the war is over and seeking the source of a phenomenal textile with the aid of a Sulcar trading ship. "Sand Sister" also has 5 chapters and takes place in Tormarsh, featuring Tursla and Simond, the son of Koris and Loyse, again after the war is over. "Falcon Blood" features Tanree and an anonymous Falconer as the only survivors of a shipwreck and the mysterious home keep of the Falconers, long since fled. "Legacy from Sorn Fen" is set in High Halleck and the peril and promise of dealing with the Old Ones.

"Sword of Unbelief" returns to Elys and Jervon, who first appeared in Spell of the Witch World. It takes place several years later, after they are wedded and wandering the Waste. An acquaintance online speculated that this may have been intended as part of the Trey of Swords collection but then discarded. I think not, considering that the stories in that collection feature the same set of characters in 3 interlocking stories.

"The Toads of Grimmerdale" and "Changeling" are consecutive stories featuring Hertha, who was thrown out of her brother's hall in the Dales of High Halleck because she refused to terminate her pregnancy resulting from being raped by brigands even though the war was over. She travels to Gunnora's shrine to beg the boon that the baby not carry any part of the rapist, but Gunnora will not aid her in seeking vengeance. And so she turns to darker powers. Then she meets Trystan, a holdless man who has survived the war and seeks to become lord of a leaderless Dale. ( )

For me these are familiar stories taking me back to a time when I first became interested in Science Fiction. The Witch World stories are about honor, faith, belief - especially in oneself and that to do your best is enough. Norton wrote of a world that was dark and harsh and characters that were survivors. The world she created is believable because of the details and background she gives in each story. ( )

Not bad, not wonderful. Seven stories - I've read most of them before. Spider Silk I knew, but didn't remember details. The blind weaver-girl, the spider creatures, and a happy ending. Sand Sister I think was new to me - nice to meet Koris' son, though his people may not be too happy with the reconnection to the Marsh. Interesting echoes with Spider Silk, too - with the blindness. Falcon Blood - also, I think, new to me - I've read references but not the story. And I swear I've heard that name before - Jonkara - but I don't know where (in another Witch World story, though). Legacy from Sorn Fen - I read that just recently - oh, it's in Garan the Eternal. Still don't think much of it. Sword of Unbelief - it's an Elys and Jervon story, and I think I've read it before - but there's not much to it. It sort of starts in the middle but Elys spends so much time flash-backing to explain her and Jervon that it's very muddled. Then the "action", which mostly consists of them standing around and refusing to believe...and of course they triumph. Kind of pointless. Then the two Toads stories - The Toads of Grimmerdale and Changeling. Hertha does jump to conclusions and into action a lot. Trystan is a little hard to understand, in relation to her, too. He really latches on to her. The action is quite straightforward; the understandings and motivations are what drive these stories, and those are rather muddled. I'd like to see a story of Elfanor grown up, though. That kind of exposure to magic that young would be likely to leave traces. Both of these are long-familiar to me. Overall - as I said above, good but not wonderful. ( )