High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Three Witches or Weird Sisters are characters in William Shakespeare`s play Macbeth (c. 1603–1607). Their origin lies in Holinshed`s Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland. Other possible sources influencing their creation aside from Shakespeare`s own imagination include British folklore, contemporary treatises on witchcraft including King James I VI`s Daemonologie, Scandinavian legends of the Norns, Greek and Roman myths concerning the Fates. Portions of Thomas Middleton`s play The Witch were incorporated into Macbeth around 1618.