50 Fun Facts About Witch

The Salem witch trials took place in which years?

Thirty people were convicted and nineteen hanged; a modern town, Danvers, occupies the old Salem Village where the accusations began.

How many people were executed by hanging at Salem?

Fourteen women and five men; Giles Corey was separately pressed to death and at least five people died in jail.

How did Giles Corey die during the Salem trials?

The torture, peine forte et dure, was meant to force a plea; legend has him answering only "more weight."

Who was the first person tried and executed at Salem, in June 1692?

She was indicted and tried on June 2 and hanged eight days later; the first three arrested were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and the enslaved Tituba.

In what year was the last convicted Salem witch, Elizabeth Johnson Jr., formally exonerated?

That was 329 years after her conviction; earlier acts had cleared others in 1711, 1957 and 2001.

Nobody was burned at Salem. What did the 'witch cake' used to detect witchcraft contain?

It was fed to a dog; the minister Samuel Parris had explicitly warned his flock against such folk tests.

The Malleus Maleficarum, the notorious witch-hunting manual, was written by which German inquisitor?

It was published in Speyer in 1486 and spread fast thanks to the new printing press.

What does Malleus Maleficarum mean?

Top theologians at Cologne condemned it for recommending illegal procedures, but it became a bestseller anyway.

Which pope issued the 1484 bull Summis desiderantes affectibus against devil-worshippers?

Kramer had the bull printed as the preface of the Malleus to imply papal approval.

Modern historians estimate how many people were executed for witchcraft in Europe?

Estimates since the 1990s put it at 35,000 to 60,000. Around three-quarters or more were women, and central and southern Germany saw the heaviest persecution.

Which self-styled 'Witchfinder General' drove England's witch-hunting peak in 1644-47?

His tests included stripping suspects to find the witches' mark, pricking the skin, and the swimming test.

Which king attended witch trials after storms hit his bridal voyage and wrote the manual Daemonologie?

The North Berwick trials saw more than 70 accused; James later became James I of England, Shakespeare's patron.

The Pendle witches were tried in 1612 in which English county?

The twelve accused were charged with ten murders by witchcraft; the trial's clerk Thomas Potts wrote it up as The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches.

Anna Göldi, often called Europe's last person executed for witchcraft, died in 1782 in which country?

She was executed in Glarus; Barbara Zdunk was killed in Prussia as late as 1811.

At one point in the Würzburg trials of 1629, what share of the accused were children?

Würzburg, Bamberg, Trier and Fulda hosted the largest German trials of the era.

Which country executed a man for practising witchcraft and sorcery in 2014?

Saudi Arabia beheaded a man for sorcery in 2014. Witchcraft accusations have also led to violence in parts of Africa, South Asia and Papua New Guinea in the 2010s and 2020s.

In English folk belief, what is a 'familiar'?

Cats, toads and hares were typical; the idea that witches have animal helpers is found on several continents.

Which modern religion, made public by Gerald Gardner in 1954, is the main form of contemporary witchcraft?

Gardner was a retired British civil servant; his High Priestess Doreen Valiente wrote much of the liturgy.

Wicca is typically duotheistic, honouring a Triple Goddess and which male deity?

Its seasonal festivals are the Sabbats, and its lunar rites the Esbats.

What is the traditional Wiccan word for practising rituals in the nude?

Tradition also holds that thirteen is the ideal size for a coven, though it is not a firm rule.

The concept of a witch's 'flying ointment' first appears in records from about which year?

Modern researchers note the plants involved contained hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids, one of which can be absorbed through the skin.

What was the older English word for a broom, still used for the twiggy witch's version?

Birch besoms were bound with a strip of ash wood; broom the word comes from the broom plant whose twigs were used.

Baba Yaga, the witch of Slavic folklore, lives in a hut that stands on what?

She flies about in a mortar, steers with a pestle and sweeps her tracks away with a broom.

In Macbeth, which goddess scolds the three witches for meddling with Macbeth without her?

Many scholars believe the Hecate scenes were added by another writer, possibly Thomas Middleton.

Holinshed describes Macbeth and Banquo meeting three women 'resembling creatures of' what?

The play calls them the Weird Sisters, from wyrd, the Old English word for fate.

What caused Margaret Hamilton's serious burns while filming The Wizard of Oz?

The toxic makeup normally had to be removed with acetone; she suffered third-degree burns to her hands and face.

How does Dorothy accidentally destroy the Wicked Witch of the West?

The witch's guards are the Winkies, and asbestos was used for the burning broomstick effect.

In the 1939 film, how does Glinda the Good Witch arrive?

Billie Burke played her; she tells Dorothy the house has landed on the Wicked Witch of the East.

In Hocus Pocus, what is the surname of the three witches?

Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy played them; a sequel arrived on Disney+ in 2022.

What punishment do the Hocus Pocus witches inflict on Thackery Binx?

They also raise Winifred's ex-fiancé Billy Butcherson from the grave to chase the children.

Which streaming service released Hocus Pocus 2 in September 2022?

Anne Fletcher directed it, and a third film has been announced.

How does Samantha cast spells on Bewitched?

The sound effect was synthesized; Elizabeth Montgomery also played Samantha's cousin Serena, credited as Pandora Spocks.

Who played Samantha's mother Endora on Bewitched?

Dick York played Darrin until illness forced him out in 1969, when Dick Sargent took over for three seasons.

In the musical Wicked, what is the green-skinned future Wicked Witch of the West called?

Idina Menzel originated her on Broadway in 2003; Cynthia Erivo played her in the 2024 film.

Wicked premiered on Broadway in October 2003 at which venue?

It won three Tonys despite mixed reviews and passed $1 billion in Broadway revenue in 2016.

Where do the two future witches meet as students in Wicked?

Their headmistress Madame Morrible makes them roommates, and Doctor Dillamond is the only animal professor.

In Roald Dahl's The Witches, what does the Grand High Witch plan to turn all of England's children into?

Her potion is Formula 86; the book is on the ALA's list of most-challenged books of the 1990s.

The Witches is set partly in England and partly in which other country, home of the boy's grandmother?

Dahl's own parents were Norwegian; the 1990 film starred Anjelica Huston and the 2020 remake Anne Hathaway.

In Sabrina the Teenage Witch, what is the family's talking cat Salem's backstory?

Nick Bakay voiced the 500-year-old Salem Saberhagen; Aunts Hilda and Zelda are 600 years old.

At what age does Melissa Joan Hart's Sabrina learn she has magical powers?

That was a departure from the Archie Comics, where she knew from childhood; the show moved from ABC to The WB in 2000.

From the 1920s, Margaret Murray popularised which now-rejected theory about people persecuted as witches?

The witch-cult hypothesis influenced Gerald Gardner and the founding of Wicca before historians dismantled it.

What term did English villagers use for local practitioners of helpful magic, as opposed to witches?

They were also called blessers, wizards, or white or unbinding witches.

Which governor's arrival with a new charter in May 1692 led to the special court that tried the Salem cases?

His own wife was later named as a witch, and by October he had halted the executions.

Which Basque witch trial saw six accused burned at Logroño in 1610?

A French Basque hunt the year before burned around eighty; the Zugarramurdi caves now host a witchcraft museum.

In what year did an Act put an end to witchcraft as a traditional legal offence in Britain?

The Witchcraft Act 1735 replaced prosecutions for real witchcraft with penalties for pretending to have magical powers.

How was Grace Sherwood of Virginia tried for witchcraft in 1706?

The so-called 'Witch of Pungo' was jailed after the water ordeal; Virginia's governor formally restored her good name in 2006.

In which country did the 1674 Torsåker trials execute 71 people for witchcraft in one day?

The Torsåker trials marked the peak of the Nordic witch panic, which reached remote parts of Europe later than the German heartland.

Who was executed for witchcraft in Scotland in 1727, the last such execution there?

Jane Wenham, by contrast, was convicted in England in 1712 but pardoned and set free.

Which Alpine region saw early witch trials begin in 1428, lasting six to eight years?

The Valais trials started in the French-speaking lower Valais and spread to German-speaking areas, coinciding with the Council of Basel.

Which American folklorist published Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches in 1899?

Leland claimed the manuscript came from a woman in a Tuscan group of witches worshipping Lucifer and Diana.