At the moment I'm writing a series of books with a friend of mine about the Salem Witch trials. We're not going exactly by the history of the Salem Witch Trials, were just using Salem and witch's as the storyline. At the moment I haven't done very much research as i dont really know how to go about doing research. I know you should read and look up on the subject your writing on, but I dont know what I'm supposed to be looking for. What information I should be gathering. I'd also like to ask if anyone knows of any good websites and books that would be good research matierals for anything about Witch Trails and Witch's themselves? Thanks. xxFrostyxx
Ok I have done a bit of research on this particular topic once before and here are some of the links that I visited for a little bit of imformation. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials http://www.iath.virginia.edu/salem/home.html http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/salem.htm These are just a few of the sites that I used. If I can find any more information for you I will let you know. Possibly these links may help you out, not sure though. http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/amethystbt/witchcrafthistory.html http://www.paralumun.com/witchcraft.htm Well hope it helps a little. ~Torana
Hey ladyfrost I just wrote a short story for a contest in another forum. It is all about witch trials and witche initiations and festivals. Here are some things you should think about-which way do you want the witches to die-most common were burning at the stake, hangings, and drowning them in rivers when they were tied up. Look up the 8 sabbats of the year and the full moon esbats. Look up the archetypal elements-earth air fire water (spirit-if you want to include that-I did because it is apart of the pentegram they wear and worship with) Look up what they wore-usually naked for festivals. who do they worship? how to cast a circle Altar tools maybe look up some ancient witch chants ie "it would be better to rush upon my blade and perish than to make the attempt with fear in thy heart" find out what yrs the most witch hunts and trials were going on -i think it was 1700 a.d. but also before and after. For my location I chose Scotland-Durnoch-because that was where the last witch was put to death.(janet Horne) Look up the weather and scenery in the place you are wanting. I wrote my story in diary form and had a lot of fun writing it like that. Hope I was some help to you. I unfortunately dont remember the sites I went to for the research but I went through google. If you would like to read my story just pm me. One more thing- you can look up wiccans(which is modern day witches, but I think the old school witches are called lineaged wiccans and They practise the "old religion" good luck!
Have a look at the play "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller. I don't think it's completely accurate, but it's a very good play, set in the Salem Witch Trials.
Thank you all very much, all your help is much appriciative and it has made things for me alot easier. wordwizard I'd love to read your short stories, PM it to me if you'd allow me to read it, thanks. I'd have a look at the links that you have supplied me Torana, thanks for them by the way. And Bandzai I'll deffinitely look at the Crucible...I'm pretty sure we had to do a book report and movie review on this in High School. Thanks all. xxFrostyxx
for more, just google for whatever aspect of the subject you want info on... and you can get pictures from the 'google image' option, if you need them for reference... btw, the plural of 'witch' is 'witches'... no apostrophe, which is only for forming the possessive... ;-) love and hugs, maia
Sorry, I'm an apostrophy whore, I can't help myself...but I am trying lol. And thanks for the suggestions. xxFrostyxx
I remember doing that for AS level drama. D= Dear God it was excrusiating... Look up things about possesion. That's a key factor in the crusible. Also, now this. None of the people tried as witches were witches and the majority picked out people that were odd or different who they wanted to get rid of to be these witches. The people who tried them made false accusations and faked being under spells and stuff to get them hanged.
.witch.witch.she's.a.witch. Alice In Wonderland, thank you for adding that, knowing me I would have forgotten all about that little piece of information [that everyone should know about the witch trials] and burnt one of my 'real' witches. .the.other.side.of.dark. My series of books is set during the time of the Witch Trials, but it's actually revolved around real witches and the way they had to live their lives in secret because of the burnings, drownings and hangings or people accused of being witches. It's actually a mixture of things as throughout the books their are Indians [Native Americans], Lycanthropes [as at the same time or around the same time many people were being killed for be werewolves] and other mythical things. I dont know how well it will go but I'm going to give it a try. .hang.her.burn.her.drown.her.she.be.witch!. Can I ask, should I use just one way to kill a witch [burning, hanging, drowning] or use a variety to show off all the terrible way's people were treated back then? xxedenxx
it's up to you... no one else can say which would work best... it depends on what you're writing and what you want to accomplish by writing it... what would work in an article won't necessarily be best for a novel...
Most witches were hung. The drowning thing was a way of finding out if someone was a witch. About the 'real witch thing' some people believe they are witches... So I with hold judgement on if they exist or not.
.fence.siter.extraordinaire. I have to admit that I'm on the fench when it comes to if Witches are actually real. I think they are to an extend, but not like how they depict in TV and Movies [Charmed, Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic]. But then when I start thinking about it I wonder if maybe all the strange things that happen in the world such as Witches, Telepathics, Telekenetics etc are just people who had tapped into the 90% of brain power we never use. I've always thought that all of us had out own special ability [nothing like X-Men or Heroes] just something we were able to do because we used ALL of our brains instead of just 10%. xxFrostyxx
I did it for GCSE English. I thought it was actually one of the better pieces of literature we did, to be honest. We were made to do a dramatic reading of it, and my friend was playing John Proctor. He wasn't particularly well at the time, and the teacher had a go at him for not putting emotion into it, so for his next line he stood on the table and screamed "GOD IS DEAD!!!" It was genius! But we got into rather a lot of trouble for it. Ah, good times.
I'm a decedent of one of the judges (not cotton mather). I'd check out the Essexs society of Salem/Beverly. The were not Wiccans so I don't think the wheel of the year applies-- However since they were European the same holiday calendar was used basically anyway, so it wouldn't be bad to know. I've been around Wiccans for years (am one in fact). They had nothing to do with the people who were hung (not burned) in Salem. Arthur Miller's play is still the most realistic look at the affair. The witch trials in America happened many years after witches were no longer hunted for in Europe. They say it was caused by mass hysteria among a group of girls who were possibly trying to cover something up. (Miller guessed it was some sort of an affair). If you want to look into the really gruesome witch trials, look at what they did in Germany. That is where a lot of Burning took place. And remember, Joan of Arc was Burned as a Witch. (They did something called spiking, in which the victim of the burning is actually killed with a spear a bit after the actual burning began-- most people couldn't take watching a person burning to death). Witches are real. Of course. But the people they were burning were not witches. They were generally eccentric women without a man to protect them. Witch hunts were a kind of Social Security. Get rid of people who had no support. Usually old lonely women.
I've been reading up on brain use and frankly most of our brain is used for storage, so it would not "do" anything. A great part of the brain is used for things like typing, use of fingers, vision and the rest. If you were actually to use all of your brain at the same time, you'd wear it out. It sleeps you know. You have to rest it and the activity moves to another area. If you've ever seen scans of actual brain activity in progress you see that only tiny portions of it can be used at once. Thank goodness too because that way if you are brain injured over time, the neural paths can re-route, and you actually can live a somewhat normal life, but with less storage.
Thanks for the edit. Sorry, I wasn't looking. And yes, If I was a corpse, I'd been good looking (not for long though)
