#reaction to confession 368

[rwby-confess]

Confession #502

[muzaktomyears]

The BBC's Audience Research Report on the Magical Mystery Tour film

THE BEATLES

present their own film Magical Mystery Tour

Tuesday, 26th December 1967 8.35-9.25 pm, BBC

Size of audience (based on results of the Survey of Listening and Viewing).

It is estimated that the audience for this broadcast was 25.7% of the population of the United Kingdom. Programmes on BBC 2 and ITV at the time were seen by 1.1% and 15.4% (averages)

2. Reaction of audience (based on questionnaires completed by a sample of the audience. This sample, 368 in number, is the 18% of the BBC 1 Viewing Panel who saw all or most of the broadcast).

The reactions of this sample of the audience were distributed as follows: -

A+     A      B      C      C-

%     %      %     %     %

6       6      14    23     51

giving a REACTION INDEX of 23.

3. There was, it seemed, very little ‘magic’ about this particular mystery tour, most reporting viewers, in fact, finding it virtually incomprehensible. There was no theme or story line, they complained, the programme appearing to consist of confused, disconnected shots of the weirdest things and suggesting a nightmare rather than a mystery tour. Indeed, three quarters of the sample could hardly find a good word to say for the programme, considering [it] ‘stupid, pretentious rubbish’ which was, no doubt, intended to be very clever and ‘way out’ but which was, they thought, a complete jumble with neither shape nor meaning and, certainly, no entertainment value whatsoever. The following are just a few of the many outraged comments:

‘The biggest waste of public money since the Ground Nut Scheme.’

‘Positively the worst programme I can remember seeing on any TV channel.’

‘A load of RUBBISH. We have made better home movies ourselves.’

‘I could not understand the thing at all – was this a “take-on” by the Beatles?’

‘I found it unspeakably tiresome and not the least bit funny – but perhaps this is “sick” humour, in which case I am emphatically not “with it”.’

4. The small minority who did enjoy the programme hailed it as something completely ‘different’, the tour idea providing a framework for a ‘zany’ but fascinating piece of television in which anything could – and did – happen and making a most refreshing departure from the usual run of programmes. A schoolboy had this to say: ‘It was one of the best Christmas programmes we have had for a long time. The idea was clever as well as original. It was very funny in parts. A marvellous programme in black and white – in colour, it would be indescribable’. Even those who usually admired the Beatles, however, often confessed themselves bitterly disappointed in the film – it was just not good enough to throw together a seemingly haphazard collection of pictures, shove in a few songs and call it ‘a magical mystery tour’, they said, and a programme like this could do the Beatles’ reputation nothing but harm. The songs were, for some, the only redeeming feature – however poor their film-making, these boys could certainly write good songs (Continued)

[booksociety]

Book Society presents its May reading event! As chosen by the members, the theme is All Things Victorian and the optional book of the month is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Join us as we travel back to the 19th century by reading a book that either takes place during the Victorian era (1837-1901) or was written during this time period. This event is open to everyone, not just our members.

✧ how to participate:

optional: reblog this post; check out our network and members

read (or reread) either The Night Circus (fantasy, historical, romance; 391 pages) or a book of your choice that fits this month’s theme

share what book you’ve chosen, thoughts, reactions, and/or creations

use the tag #booksociety in your posts, and include “@booksociety’s All Things Victorian event: [insert book title here]” in the description of your creations

the event starts on 1 May and ends on 31 May

✧ reading recommendations (under the cut):

A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell #1) by Deanna Raybourn (mystery, historical, romance; 339 pages)

A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle #1) by Libba Bray (young adult, fantasy, historical, romance; 403 pages)

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (adult, historical, mystery; 468 pages)

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll (classic, children, fantasy; 96 pages)

A Shadow Bright and Burning (Kingdom on Fire #1) by Jessica Cluess (young adult, fantasy, historical; 416 pages)

A Spy in the House (The Agency #1) by Y.S. Lee (young adult, historical, mystery; 335 pages)

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (classic, crime; 123 pages)

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas (mystery, historical, retelling; 323 pages)

Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women #1) by Evie Dunmore (adult, historical; 356 pages)

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (classic, horror; 108 pages)

Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare (young adult, paranormal, urban fantasy; 481 pages)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (classic, horror, fantasy; 488 pages)

Dearly, Departed (Gone With the Respiration #1) by Lia Habel (young adult, steampunk, horror; 470 pages)

Dread Nation (Dread Nation #1) by Justina Ireland (young adult, horror; 455 pages)

Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School #1) by Gail Carriger

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (adult, historical, lgbt, romance; 548 pages)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (classic, gothic, romance; 532 pages)

Kiss of Steel (London Steampunk #1) by Bec McMaster (adult, steampunk, romance, paranormal; 423 pages)

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (classic; 449 pages)

Middlemarch by George Elliot (classic; 904 pages)

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (classic, romance; 521 pages)

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (classic; 608 pages)

Olivia Twist by Lorie Langdon (young adult, historical, retelling; 331 pages)

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield (adult, historical, fantasy, fabulism; 464 pages)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (adult, historical; 269 pages)

Something Strange and Deadly (Something Strange and Deadly #1) by Susan Dennard (young adult, steampunk, horror; 388 pages)

Stalking Jack the Ripper (Stalking Jack the Ripper #1) by Kerri Maniscalco (young adult, historical; 327 pages)

The Alienist (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler #1) by Caleb Carr (adult, historical, mystery crime; 498 pages)

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (historical, mystery; 384 pages)

The Falconer (The Falconer #1) by Elizabeth May (young adult, fantasy, steampunk, romance; 378 pages)

The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles (classic, historical, romance; 470 pages)

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo (fantasy, historical; 368 pages)

The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves #1) by Roshani Chokshi (young adult, fantasy; 388 pages)

The Girl with Ghost Eyes (The Daoshi Chronicles #1) by M.H. Boroson (historical, fantasy; 288 pages)

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (historical, fantasy; 486 pages)

The Long Song by Andrea Levy (adult, historical; 320 pages)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (classic, horror, mystery; 144 pages)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (classic, horror; 241 pages)

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë (classic, romance; 576 pages)

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (adult, historical; 306 pages)

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd (adult, historical, fantasy, fabulism; 373 pages)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (classic, gothic, romance; 464 pages)

[fanfic-corner]

15x19 Fics

!! SPOILERS FOR 15x19 AHEAD !! So, how is everyone feeling? I am going to post the Cafe AU fics later today because they have been waiting ever so patiently in my drafts, but I couldn’t help but read some fics based on last night’s episode.

you can have it, though by make_your_user_a_name on AO3. (1,127 words).

Tags: Post Episode: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, Coda, Fix-it, Fluff, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Sam Winchester Knows, Cute.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: Jack was walking away and it was too late. It was too late because Dean didn’t think he would have to say anything. He thought Jack would bring it up and they would never have to know that he missed Cas so desperately it hurt. It hurt so goddamn bad. And then Jack stopped and turned back to the Winchesters, his eyes focused on Dean. And that’s when it hit him. Jack knew. Jack knew what Cas had said. Jack knew Dean needed to say it or the second Cas was back everything would just go back to normal. So he did.“Bring him back.” His voice was low but it wasn’t threatening. It came out more broken than anything. Because he was so broken. And maybe it was okay to let them see it. “Bring Cas back, Jack. We,” he glanced at Sam and took a deep breath. “I need him.”

Notes: This was so freaking adorable! If Cas comes back and is nervous about what Dean’s reaction to his confession would be I would laugh because they are dumbasses and then cry.

Sunrise by matzerella_sticks on AO3. (1,782 words).

Tags: Coda, Post Episode: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, Lazy Mornings, Domestic Fluff, Reunions, Resurrection, Human Castiel, Grief/Mourning, Acceptance, Happy Ending, Fluff.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: Dean and Sam were free. Finally, unequivocally, free.But this wasn't the happy ending Dean had expected. Maybe in the past, having Sam in the passenger seat tearing across an open stretch of highway as the sunsets, it'd be what he wanted. But that was years ago. He's not that man anymore. Dean's tired of sunsets, of saying goodbye. He yearns for a different ending. One that's less of an ending, and more of a beginning. A sunrise instead of a sunset. Sam has his. Dean lost his. Despite this setback, he won't stop. He'll live in memory of his sunrise. Except, what can he do when he feels those rays on his face again?

Notes: This was beautifully written and exactly the ending I want for my boys!

you’re the one I wanted to find by outruntheavalanche on AO3. (368 words).

Tags: Season 15 Spoilers, Post Episode: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, Requited Destiel, POV Castiel.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: The Castiel of old has fallen away like molted feathers, leaving behind a wholly new creation.

Notes: This was absolutely gorgeous. I really want to see Cas’ reaction to his name on the table now.

15x19 coda: stripped of everything holy by contemplativepancakes on AO3. (1,275 words).

Tags: Fix-it, First Kiss, Episode: s12e19 The Future - Mixtape Scene, Post Episode: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, Suicial Ideation, Angst with a Happy Ending.

My Rating: 5 stars.

Description: “About time we put you on the family tree, right?”Jack sinks down in the chair across from him, contemplating. He puts the tip to the table and rests it there. Jack glances up at him. “Why isn’t Cas’s name here?” That’s a damn good question, Dean thinks. It’s because he was too much of a fucking coward. Dean’s still having trouble reconciling everything Cas said with the past ten years of his life. It seems like, maybe, if he thinks about it hard enough, he can see that Cas returned his feelings, but he still can’t believe Cas said all those things. He’s bullshit all the way through, but Cas… Cas hadn’t thought so. Dean clears his throat. “We’ll add his next, huh?”

Notes: Their names on the table was the first thing I saw when I woke up this morning and I nearly cried.

may i feel said he by bk119 on AO3. (1,070 words).

Tags: 15x19 coda.

My Rating: 4 stars.

Description: a coda to 15.19. cas comes back, and words are said.

Notes: Oh boy, I don’t even know what is going on at this point. I just want Cas and Eileen back.

Hollow by ComicBooksBro on AO3. (532 words).

Tags: Angst, Depressed Dean Winchester, Episode: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, Suicidal Thoughts.

My Rating: 3 stars.

Description: Dean is having a hard time coping.

Notes: Well, I’m crying now. If they don’t bring Cas back I will literally fly over there and kick the writers in the nuts.

And another bonus self-promotion:

A State of Normal by Lina_Rai on AO3. (457 words).

Tags: Alcoholic Dean Winchester, Post-Episode: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, Depressed Dean Winchester, Ambiguous.

Description: Slowly, life returned to a state of normal that Dean hardly recognised.

Notes: I wrote this in about 10 minutes and I’m not super proud of it but have it anyway I guess. (I would make an excellent salesman).

Just a quick reminder that I am doing a Supernatural quiz tonight if anyone is interested in joining! I will be posting the link at 8pm UK time.

[rejectedembers]

Firebrant: The Golden Compass

So, here I go again nitpicking children’s books like a cynical, adult asshole. There were, surprisingly, a lot of little things that just kind of pissed me off and drew me out of the world of The Golden Compass, like, more than usual I feel, because I managed to fill up a whole page of notes on this one (including quotes and page references, because I’m a sophisticated asshole). And so, without further ado, allow me to ruin your childhood for my own salty pleasure.

I already touched upon a couple of my complaints in my more-or-less spoiler-free review, but I’ll reiterate them again here, because I can. Every line of dialogue is written with an accent, and it’s one of the worst things in the world to read. I especially hate how it breaks up the flow of the writing, because you’ll get paragraphs of narration that are written in regular English and then, out of nowhere, dialogue is written in with terrible accents. Maybe it’s just me, a person who is not accustomed to British accents, heavy or not, but it ends up reading in an almost start-and-stop manner since trying to decipher the intentionally misspelt words makes me slow down and use more brainpower than should be necessary in a children’s book. And, going back to the weird use of heavily detailed sections followed by sparse sections, the book is a bit chunky. It feels like we spend way more time in some sections of the book than is necessary. For example, the Jordan College section goes on for way, way too long considering how quickly in-universe it is abandoned. By contrast, so little detail is given about London that I kind of forgot Lyra ended up there while I was reading the novel despite the fact that Lyra herself spends a good few weeks in the city.

Alright, so onto the new stuff. One of my biggest questions while reading this book was: when the fuck does this story take place? I get that it’s supposed to be an alternate universe Earth type situation, but seriously, I don’t think a proper date is ever given. I read somewhere online that it’s supposed to take place in the late-Victorian Era (so anywhere between 1880 and 1900ish), but there are such huge technological advancements that I would contest this and perhaps place it closer to 1910, or even 1920, given OUR world’s technological discoveries. The universe of The Golden Compass has zeppelins (page 74) and neon signs (page 179), the former of which were invented in 1895 but not commercially used until 1910 and the latter of which were invented in 1910 but didn’t gain popularity until the 1920s in our world. And yet women seem to still be largely considered second-class citizens. That’s not to say I was expecting social equality, however, the world feels devoid of the suffragette movement, which was HUGE for its time. I dunno, it just really bothered me that I couldn’t pin down a time period, either one that can be associated to our world or simply one that makes sense in the world of The Golden Compass.

And this is where we get into the shit that’s going to really make me look bad. Ok, so, first of all, I want to address the elephant in the room. I haven’t seen too much about this, but I feel like the use of the term “gyptians” to refer to a particular cultural group within The Golden Compass is kinda racist. It’s pretty clear that Pullman’s gyptians are based off of our world’s Romani, or at least a stereotypical version of their culture. The term “gyptians” appears to come from the disparaging term for Romani individuals, “g*psy”, and while it was uncomfortable just to see the word pop up here and there, it made me more uncomfortable to see the gyptian characters be totally complicit in its use. The gyptians themselves refer to themselves as such in the book (gyptians isn’t even capitalized like it should be for real-world ethnic groups). While I am not Romani myself and so cannot speak as to the exact appropriateness of the use of this term, I do think it was rather insensitive for Pullman to have named this cultural group as he did. It kind of speaks to a lack of research of actual Romani accounts, as well, so there’s that.

Next we’re going to get controversial with this statement: I don’t understand, from the first book alone, how His Dark Materials is meant to be feminist in nature. I understand that there are complex female characters and that the main character of a sci-fi adventure is a girl, but there’s this one section that really, really bothered me. So, when Lyra is staying with the gyptians, at one point a group of women approach the patriarch, John Faa, about joining the mission. They provide both emotional (it is their children who are missing just as much as they are the men’s) and logical (it may prove easier to employ women in certain situations requiring espionage) reasons, and yet, last minute, John Faa does not permit any of them to go. This issue is never brought up again. There are no consequences to none of the women going. John Faa, who is by and large treated like a hero and stand-up gentleman, is never made to explain his reasons for his decision. And the women seem to simply accept his ruling since none of them speak out or try to sneak aboard the ship anyways. This could have been a perfect opportunity for Pullman to show equality by having men and women fight side-by-side. It certainly would have stood out in contrast to the rest of British society, which had already been clearly shown to push women into the background whenever possible. It was incredibly frustrating to see this idea brought up only to be pushed aside later, and really made me question Pullman’s feminist message.

Lastly, I just want to point out that Lord Asriel is abusive to Lyra. I don’t think this is really a secret, but, like how the gyptians and gyptian women were written, Pullman’s writing makes it seem like we should just accept it and move on. In our first introduction to him, we see him painfully twist Lyra’s arm and threaten to break it just because she’s somewhere she’s not meant to be (and while Lyra is a bit of a troublesome child, her actions don’t warrant this kind of reaction from an adult). On page 14, Lord Asriel straight up says, “If I hear the slightest noise, I’ll make you wish you were dead.” Yet, Lyra spends most of the first book idealizing him, wanting to find him and work with him in his research. And while Lyra does eventually confess that she’s afraid of him, and even realises that he has never and will never love her like a father (page 368), she shouldn’t have been spending all that time in between seeing no fault in him. Children know when they are being mistreated. At the very least, Lyra should have had doubts about Lord Asriel from the beginning. 

Before I wrap this up, I just want to say that the foreshadowing is just really, really obvious. I know, I get it, it’s a children’s book, it’s not supposed to be difficult to figure out, but I have a couple things to say about that. First of all, stop treating children like idiots. Second of all, I don’t care if it’s for children, no one should read a sentence that literally spells out “this character has a great destiny ahead of them”. OF COURSE THEY ARE IMPORTANT AND HAVE A DESTINY TO FULFILL, THEY’RE THE MAIN CHARACTER. Either let the audience clue in on their own damn time, or don’t bother making it a mystery at all.

...So, yeah. That’s all I have to say about the beloved children’s book, The Golden Compass. Thanks for coming out to the undeserved barbecue, everyone!

[sagoreads]

Warcross by Marie Lu hardcover, 368 pages, goodreads ★★★

spoilers under the cut!!

     I had very high expectations for this book because of my love for Lu's The Young Elites series and because of some friends of mine that had read it and adored it, but I must confess that initially I was disappointed. It's not that Warcross wasn't an enjoyable read, but rather that I didn't think it was of the caliber that I've come to expect. If you follow me on Twitter you'll know I pointed out fairly early on that some of the tropes felt very fan fiction-esque to me and that's not something I look for in a published book. However, the more time I stewed the more I've come to appreciate it.

     At first glance this book has a pretty cool premise. I’m a sucker for anything science fiction and Lu’s name on the cover was just another box checked for me, and as far as the sci-fi aspects go this book was wonderful. I, personally, believe that VR will one day be integrated into our daily lives, so to see that play out in a book was really fascinating for me. My issues arose around some of the more base level plot. The idea that a multimillionaire would miraculously pay off some random girls debt after she hacked into a worldwide event with over 500 million views and then offer her a job just feels incredibly unrealistic to me. I’m all for books requiring a certain amount of suspension of belief but the level that it would take to make that something I could just gloss over is too much for me. It honestly detracted from my enjoyment of the book for quite some time, really until about halfway through. Once I got past that however I found the rest of the plot engaging and different from any other ya novel I’ve read.

     The thing that always gets me hooked on books is characters, they’re the backbone to the plot and the one part of a story that you really can’t live without. While Emika is not my favourite of Lu’s characters, she’s pretty high up there. I love that she’s not always the best person she could be, but she’s still a good person at the core. For most of the book Hideo was my favourite, but after finding out that he was literally giving away mind control devices I’m unsure as to how I feel about him. As someone that’s lost a sibling I feel for him, but what he’s doing is definitely not something I can personally agree with. This leaves me at the end of the book without a distinct favourite, because while I like a lot of the supporting characters I don’t feel like we got to know any of them well enough to claim them a fav yet. For me not having a favourite is dangerous, because it leaves whether or not I’m going to finish the series up in the air.

     Emika and Hideo’s relationship was something that I took a while to get into, probably a direct reaction to how much the first half of the book felt like fanfiction to me, but once I did get into it I got into it hard and then Lu snatched it all away. It’s given me a sort of emotional whiplash that I’m not sure how I’m going to cope with. However, I loved the relationship between all the Phoenix Riders. By the end of the book they felt like they were almost a real squad and I’m a HUGE sucker for squad dynamics in books. I’m also super interested to see where Roshan and Tremaine’s relationship goes, it seems like there’s a lot more than we’ve been told so far and I have so many theories about what could have happened that I’m making my own head spin. 

     The more time I spend thinking about this book, the more I appreciate it for what it is: a fun sci-fi romp with interesting characters. Lu’s writing is, as always, fantastic, even if a tad cheesy at times, and overall the book is easy to enjoy. It’s definitely a fairly light story, so if you’re into lighter sci-fi I’d definitely read this. The main draw for me is the relationships, I’m intrigued about all of their futures and most of their pasts and I really hope we find out more about all of the side characters in the next book.

[itshistoryyall]

Part 4: Burn Them All

photo credits: here

A little foreword before we begin:

I had to start over for this part because, I’m gonna be honest, it’s a mess. For some reason historians have this aversion to keeping history in a tidy chronological order, and I’m not sure why, but I basically had to sift through other people’s research for multiple days and then come up with a game plan for how all of this was going to be laid out. To put into perspective just how large this part of the research was, I made this photo of the links that I found on Wikipedia.

   The rest of this will include only the trials that I wanted to research or thought were interesting or had some sort of historical importance, so if you feel like there’s one I didn’t mention and you would like researched, please email me or PM me and I will do my best to do a separate post about it. I have to admit, it was just too much for me to do without spending a few weeks researching. Now, back to the good stuff.

 In the mid-1500’s we begin to see a wide-spread persecution of alleged witches and a mass hysteria driven by religious persecution and fear of accusation. This time period between 1560-1630 is considered by most historians to be the bulk of the trials, and that idea is backed up by sheer numbers. The death toll from these trials is somewhere in the 40,000-50,000 range, though, historians of the past have wildly unpredictable and outrageous estimates numbering in the millions. Taking into account a “normal” level of fatalities for crimes outside of witchcraft, plague fatalities, and normal death rates, it’s a bit safer to assume somewhere in the thousands 40-50,000 even seems a bit steep to me, but no one can ever know for certain. The important thing to takeaway from this was that it was a lot. In this section we’ll be focusing on the trials that have enough historical information to be granted a name and some basic description located somewhere other than Wikipedia, or (more likely) the ones that piqued my interest most. Those are as follows: The Witch Trials of Wiesenteig, Trier, Berwick, Bamburg, Nogaredo, the Pappenheimer Family, Pendle Witches, and the Affair of Poisons. The Salem Witch Trials are a unique set of events that I feel require special attention and will therefore write on that subject separately. size

As we learned from Part Three, these trials began in a region of southern Switzerland and spread from a French-speaking side to a German-speaking side, so from that we can deduce why the first major trial took place in Germany. The Wiesenteig Witch Trials began in 1562 amassing a death toll of around sixty and earning its reputation for the first mass execution of this magnitude[1]. To understand why we saw such extreme numbers here, we need a little background. The city of Wiesensteig, like many other cities in Europe,[2] was facing a difficult few years. Some might call these things simply unfortunate, but not Wiesensteig. They were clearly cursed by witches because no other city in the world could possibly have inclement weather, the Bubonic Plague—among other epidemics, and (I think at this point it goes without saying, but alas) religious turmoil! So obviously, the first course of action after a particularly brutal hailstorm in 1562 was to arrest a few ladies for witchcraft. Of the accused, six were made to confess through torture and were executed, but before facing their punishment they claimed to have seen several other women at their Dark Sabbath[3]. The women that were named from neighboring Esslingen were soon arrested, and then shortly released leaving authorities in Wiesensteig outraged by the lack of sentencing. In reaction, Weisenstein saw forty-one more executions. In December of 1563, the execution of twenty more women was approved leading ultimately to the production of a widely used pamphlet, True and Horrifying Deeds of 63 Witches. Further executions in the area occurred in 1583, 1605, and 1611 leaving an estimated total of ninety-seven women who perished.

These were certainly not the largest trials to have occurred in Germany, however the Trier Trials taking place in the diocese of Trier near the borders of France, Belgium, and Switzerland[4] certainly left their mark on the world. We can’t know for sure the number of casualties because existing records of the trials only include those that occurred within the city-limits, and they do not include statistics for the entire diocese or those that may have perished via torture or while imprisoned. The number that most sources reference is 400; however, it’s likely that the number closer to the thousand mark rather than the low hundreds, and as such it can be an assumed low estimate of the actual number of deaths. This incident is considered the largest mass execution of peoples during an extended period of peace in Europe’s history.

The appointed archbishop of Trier in 1581, Johann von Schönenberg, was quick to order a purge of three groups that he didn’t like very much. That included Jews, Protestants, and lastly, witches. Due to Johann’s support for these trials, we see a large upturn in the popularity and commendation of these executions among increasingly more church officials. The largest number of executions took place between 1587 and 1593 when 368 people were burned at the stake in twenty-two villages. The number of those executed was so heavily comprised of women, that a couple of villages were left with only a single female resident amongst the living, but that is not to say that it was only women who were executed for sorcery. A large number were members of nobility, held positions in the government, or were people of influence, and of the victims, 108 were men. One notable male victim was rector of a university and a chief judge in the electoral court who didn’t approve of the trials; Dietrich Flade, the rector/judge, doubted the effectiveness of torture practices and opposed the violent treatment of the accused, and as such, was arrested and subjected to the same abuse as those he was attempting to protect. His execution was a turning point, and it effectively ended any opposition to the trials in Trier and making way for hundreds more burnings.

 I would like to issue a trigger-warning for the sensitive material that is to follow. It is graphic, detailed, and gruesome, so please do not read further if you feel sensitive to these subjects.

 One other case worth mentioning in Germany is the Pappenheimer Family Trials. Though it was a small number of fatalities, it was unusually well documented for the time and that gives us a great deal of written detail to refer to when describing the torture practices in these trials. The family comprised of a mother, father, and three sons—Simon (22), Jacob (21), and Hoel (10). The mother, Anna, was born the daughter of a grave-digger and began life on the fringes of society, and her husband, Paul, did not fare much better in life as an illegitimate child and day laborer. Throughout their lives they lived apart from most of society and were likely not even treated kindly by other poor laborers. In fact, the surname suggests that the family was in the business of privy maintenance and cleaning, and it was not their original surname. The real family name was Gämperle, and they were in for a fate much worse than name-calling after Paul was accused of murdering pregnant women in order to gain magical benefits from their unborn fetuses. The whole family, aside from their youngest son, was subjected to cruel and relentless torture until they had confessed to hundreds of unsolved crimes over the past few decades including murder of the elderly and children, spoiling cattle, thievery, and burning people alive in their beds.

On July 29, 1600,the following took place: the eldest sons and their parents were brought before the town along with two others accused of witchcraft, Anne was placed between her two sons, the executioner cut off her breasts, and then he proceeded to beat her and her sons in the face with them three times each. Next, Anne was whipped five times with a “twisted wire,” then both of her arms were broken on the wheel, and her body was immediately burnt. Next the men’s arms were also broken, they all received five lashes with the twisted wire whip, and all of them except Paul were tied to the stake and burned. Paul was then spitted alive and roasted to death, and then once he was dead his body was also burnt.[5] This was all displayed for the entire town to see and was then used as a punishment for ten-year-old Hoel, who was made to watch the entire ordeal. Later that year he was also tortured, strangled, and then burned at the stake after having confessed to eight murders on his own. The importance of pointing out these torture proceedings is to make a reference point for how tortures took place during these executions, and to give you an idea of what this could look like at each and every execution described hereafter.

For our next trial, we turn to Scotland’s famous witch trials where, purportedly Shakespeare gained the inspiration for one of his most famous tragedies, Macbeth, and where we begin to see an association with witches and the natural forces of weather. The Berwick Witch Trials took place for a year beginning in 1591, and it was all due to the inclement weather that beset King James VI after he had sailed to Copenhagen to marry Queen Anne. While the royal couple were sheltering in Norway and waiting on the storms to subside one Danish Admiral, Peder Munk, made mention that high ranking official of Copenhagen’s wife was to blame for their misfortunes. After the suggestion, several nobles of the Scottish court were also accused and confessed to plaguing the voyage of Queen Anne with raging storms and for sending devils to climb up the sides of the ship. More than a hundred of the accused were executed marking this as one of Scotland’s largest witch hunts on record. These events prompted King James to publish his dissertation Daemonologie in 1597, marking the beginning of a secular persecution of witches and conversely inspiring a well-known playwright.

Shortly after the publication of Daemonologie, and the execution of the Pappenheimer’s, the famous English witch trials known as the Pendle Witches[6] (part of a larger series of trials known to history as The Lancashire Trials) took place in 1612. These trials are some of the best kept records of the executions taking place in the 17th century. We know that these trials led to the execution of around 10 people (two were sons of the accused), and although these numbers seem inconsequential when compared to the thousands who perished in Germany, it actually made up a significant portion of executions that took place in England where it’s estimated that the combined executions during this era were fewer than 500. Inspiration for the witch hunt that accused 11 people, included an instance where an unfortunate series of events involving Elizabeth Southerns and her granddaughter Alizon Device. Elizabeth also went by the alias Elizabeth Demdike which was a title derived from “demon woman,” and she was commonly believed to have been a witch by her neighbors for around fifty years prior to the Pendle trials. Her granddaughter, Alizon, one day had the misfortune of running across a beggar selling pins that had an ill-timed stroke after refusing to sell her his products. Pins were often handmade and expensive, and although considered a fairly common item, could also be used for magical purposes including divination, healing, and love magic. The beggar, John Law, was left lame and stiff with a permanent distortion of his face, and subsequently almost the entire Device family, including Elizabeth Southerns now in her mid-eighties, was put on trial for witchcraft.

Next we have a rather large historical event that took place, known as the Thirty Years’ War, and I don’t want to spend a lot time on that subject, so I’ll hit the highlights. It took place mostly in Central Europe from 1618-1648, and it is known as one of the most destructive wars in human history. During this time, we see somewhere around eight million casualties due to human violence, war, plague, and famine and a twenty percent loss of Germany’s total population on par with the casualties that it faced in WWII. We can also see witch-hunting efforts exaggerated by the raging war between most of Europe, and consequently some of our largest casualties from the following executions. Two of the four largest executions of witches in the Early Modern Period (1500-1800) took place during these thirty years of chaos and they resulted in fatalities numbering in the thousands.

[1] Though, we do see an execution a few years earlier in a region of Italy that mirrors the scope of the trials in Weisensteig, it is not as well documented and I thought, for brevity’s sake it would be best if I left it out.

[2] You’re not special, Wiesensteig.

[3] Not the band, that’s a different kind of sabbath.

[4] Remember Switzerland where those other crazy trials started? Me too.

[5] (Unknown, 1600, pp. 1-10)

[6] The Lancashire Trials consisted of the Pendle witches and the Salemsbury witches among other hunts in the area.

[rwby-confess]

Confession #487

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Confession #506