Ah! she's not a witch - she's a sociopath!
Which book is it the first chapter of? not "Sword/Stone," I'm assuming, unless she was a kid. LOL of course the best of sociopaths started out torturing small animals as children.

LOL @ the Ursula Leguin stuff (her books are ones I'm always meaning to read). I guess the thing with the old legends though, the fun is finding your version of the story, and the wherefore and why!

what are you working on right now?