Unlucky Charlie

A scarecrow in Lancre, used as the object of demonstration spells in the Lancre Witch Trials.

While Charlie was originally selected as preferable to a real living animal or human, in much the same way and for much the same reasons that armies will use hanging sacks of straw for bayonet practice, the downside of this is that Charlie has absorbed so much directed witch magic over the years - including having had a previous head exploded by Granny Weatherwax - that he has now developed a kind of sentience. In Lancre, it is thought of as slightly worrying, if not bad luck, to have Charlie suddenly appear in your garden or at your front door. Yet nobody has ever seen the scarecrow actually move.

He doesn't worry Nanny Ogg (well, what does?) She once found him in her bedroom, still on his stake. She says that if you're friendly and polite to him, you may get a bumper crop of pumpkins next harvest, even if you didn't plant any.

Charlie is discussed in The Sea and Little Fishes and Nanny Ogg's Cookbook.

Unlucky Charlies

Don't get confused with another unlucky Charlie - or lucky, depending on how you look at it - the Charlie from the Department of Post-Mortem Communications at Unseen University.