Hilda Spellman
Encyclopedia
Hilda Spellman is a character featured in the classic Archie
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
comic book Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She is a full witch (as opposed to half or fully mortal
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
) who live in the fictional town of Greendale ("Westbridge, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
" in the sitcom). She lives with her niece Sabrina Spellman
Sabrina Spellman
Sabrina J. Spellman is the title character—a half-mortal and a half-witch—from the comic book Sabrina, the Teenage Witch which was later adapted in 1969 by Filmation as a segment from The Archie Comedy Hour . The character was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo...
, sister Zelda Spellman
Zelda Spellman
Zelda Spellman is a fictional character featured in the classic Archie comic book Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She is a full witch and lives in the fictional town of Greendale...
and the family cat Salem, who (in the sitcom) is serving time as an animal as a punishment for his attempt at world domination. In the live-action TV series, she is portrayed by Caroline Rhea
Caroline Rhea
Caroline Gilchrist Rhea is a Canadian stand-up comedian and actress who was the original host of the reality television show The Biggest Loser on NBC until she was replaced by Alison Sweeney after the end of the third season...
.
Childhood
Hilda grew up with at least four siblings: Vesta, being the oldest;,Edward and Sophia, being the youngest and her sister Zelda whom she lives with.Vesta was terribly jealous of all the attention that Hilda and Zelda got when they were little. So, she turned their parents into pigs. The Witches Council decided that people with pigs feet could not raise children and so when Vesta refused to turn them back Hilda and Zelda were adopted out to a family in the country.
While the children were living in the farm house the parents stayed in the barn. Their father was "getting very good at working an instamatic with his snout". When their mother headbutted Vesta about a month later, they were turned back into humans. In order to legally get Hilda and Zelda back, they had to adopt them.
Their overbearing mother, Grandma Lydia, spent 200 years of violin lessons on Hilda. The first thing little Hilda ever zapped was a little clay horse.
Adulthood
As Hilda reached adulthood she went off to college. Hilda went to Clown College and her roommate was Bobo, a monkey. Hilda graduated magna cum seltzer.When Hilda was forty-eight she had her first kiss, and was later engaged to Drell- the wedding took place at the Acropolis
Acropolis
Acropolis means "high city" in Greek, literally city on the extremity and is usually translated into English as Citadel . For purposes of defense, early people naturally chose elevated ground to build a new settlement, frequently a hill with precipitous sides...
. Drell stood Hilda up at the altar, causing an infuriated Hilda to destroy the Acropolis, although history later blamed the Turks.
Hilda bounced from one job to another over the centuries while trying to find what she wanted to do. Her jobs included being a blacksmith and donkey walker, in addition to deep sea fishing, which she rated as being her worst job. During the early 19th century, Hilda and Zelda worked together at a saloon before eventually being run out of town, but they fortunately found a way to maintain some financial security: junk
Scrap
Scrap is a term used to describe recyclable and other materials left over from every manner of product consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has significant monetary value...
. During the early 1970s, Hilda went to work for Salem Saberhagen
Salem Saberhagen
Salem Saberhagen is a character from the American comic Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, who also appeared in all other adaptations of the original, including the 1969 animated version by Filmation in which Salem is an American Shorthair breed, and has no other name except "Salem". In addition, unlike...
as his secretary
Secretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
. Salem was found out by the Witch's Council, and as punishment was turned into a witch-familiar as a cat; Hilda was forced to keep him worm-free for a century, but she was pardoned at the end of Season Five. In the early 1990s, before Sabrina came to live with Hilda and Zelda, they had manservants, spent late nights on the town, weekends in Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
, took part in Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
racing, and originally had a disco on the second floor of their house.
In the season 6 finale Hilda meets her true love; Will, the train conductor from the episode Murder on the Halloween Express. They decide to get married in the finale when Hilda meets him at an Other Realm mall. Zelda
Zelda Spellman
Zelda Spellman is a fictional character featured in the classic Archie comic book Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She is a full witch and lives in the fictional town of Greendale...
and Sabrina
Sabrina Spellman
Sabrina J. Spellman is the title character—a half-mortal and a half-witch—from the comic book Sabrina, the Teenage Witch which was later adapted in 1969 by Filmation as a segment from The Archie Comedy Hour . The character was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo...
, thinking the relationship is just a rebound and a huge mistake, break Hilda and Will up. When Will leaves, Hilda turns to stone, meaning Will was indeed her true love. Realizing this, Sabrina barters her love life for Hilda, causing Josh and Harvey to walk out on her. Zelda, however, trades her years of experience for Sabrina, and it is assumed she travels to the other Realm with Will and Hilda.
In the Archie comic books
Hilda debuted as "Hilda the Witch" in Archie's Mad HouseArchie's Mad House
Archie's Mad House was a comic book published by Archie Comics from 1959 to 1982. The series went through a number of overhauls and name changes. Classic stories have occasionally appeared in digest magazines.-History:...
#19 (June 1962) as an ugly witch with dark hair and green skin. She was featured throughout the series in solo stories, as well as the "host" of the comic book (in a role similar to the Crypt-Keeper from the Tales from the Crypt comic book series). During her early appearances in Archie's Mad House, she was not connected to the Sabrina stories. However, a prototype of the "Aunt Hilda" character named "Greta the Fairy Witch Mother" (who debuted in Archie's Mad House #28 and was similar in physical appearance to Hilda the Witch) appeared in early Sabrina stories. Eventually, Hilda the Witch and Greta the Fairy Witch Mother evolved into the Aunt Hilda character in Archie's Mad House #37 (although the Greta character reappeared one last time in Archie's Mad House #45).
Upon becoming Aunt Hilda, the character was depicted as a tall and thin Caucasian woman with red hair. She tended to be short-tempered and more prone to acting like an evil witch. She was the more prominent of Sabrina's two aunts, appearing in more stories than Zelda.
In the newer comic books, Hilda has her respective orange hair, but appears to be only a few years older than Sabrina.
In the Filmation animated series
Hilda was the same as in the comics, with a typical "witch" appearance and attire. Additionally, she and Zelda disapproved of Sabrina doing good deeds, and thus (as ordered by Della the head witch) were always trying to get her to do bad deeds (like all the other witches); they even force her hand a couple of times. Hilda also had a typical "witch" cackle.In the live-action television series
Hilda was blonde. She is portrayed as the less pragmatic of the two, often doing things on a whim (such as buying a clock shop or running for political office). The endeavors rarely come to fruition.As a witch, her magical abilities often manifested as a puff of smoke, and a "bong" sound (opposed to Zelda Spellman
Zelda Spellman
Zelda Spellman is a fictional character featured in the classic Archie comic book Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She is a full witch and lives in the fictional town of Greendale...
's stream of violet sparkles, Sabrina Spellman
Sabrina Spellman
Sabrina J. Spellman is the title character—a half-mortal and a half-witch—from the comic book Sabrina, the Teenage Witch which was later adapted in 1969 by Filmation as a segment from The Archie Comedy Hour . The character was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo...
's orange sparkles.) She was portrayed by actress Caroline Rhea
Caroline Rhea
Caroline Gilchrist Rhea is a Canadian stand-up comedian and actress who was the original host of the reality television show The Biggest Loser on NBC until she was replaced by Alison Sweeney after the end of the third season...
.
In the DIC animated series
Hilda appears as a character in both Sabrina, the Animated Series and Sabrina's Secret LifeSabrina's Secret Life
Sabrina's Secret Life is an American animated television series based on the Archie Comics character Sabrina, the Teenage Witch produced by DiC Entertainment in partnership with Sony Pictures Television. It originally aired in syndication in 2003 as a spin-off of Sabrina: Friends Forever, Sabrina,...
(Melissa Joan Hart
Melissa Joan Hart
Melissa Joan Catherine Hart is an American actress, writer, television director, television producer, singer and businesswoman...
provided her voice in the first series while in the second series she is voiced by Moneca Stori
Moneca Stori
Moneca Stori is a former Canadian voice actress known mostly for her role as the original voice of Kagome Higurashi in the English version of InuYasha. She is also credited as Monica Gemmer...
), appearing radically different from their comic book appearances; Hilda is depicted as a brunette with an olive complexion. Hilda still had the same basic personalities as on the live-action sitcom. She is depicted as a teenager (instead of the usual middle-aged adult), despite being the same age as in other media (hundreds of years old). It is mentioned in passing that she and Zelda have temporally been changed into teenagers by head witch Enchantra as punishment for minor crimes, but the situation is never fully explained. In Sabrina, the Animated Series both attend high school and are not considered legal adults on the mortal world, which is why Uncle Quigly lives with them. In Sabrina's Secret Life (set two years later) they are out of school and able to run the household (and Uncle Quigly is no longer in the cast).