Monday, November 14, 2011

Daily Trivia #516 Wizards of a Wordy Place


This one comes from a die-hard fan of Harry Potter, SLR:

Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in 
medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion that they did catch a 
real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizard would perform a 
basic Flame-Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, 
tickling sensation. Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burned so much that she allowed 
herself to be caught no less than forty-seven times in various disguises. 

A paragraph cited from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which describes hunting and tracking of the (non-existent) witches in an unmentioned era.

Connect with the above para with the factual description below:

Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned. All twenty-six who went to trial before this court were convicted.
The two courts convicted twenty-nine people of the capital felony of a particular supposed crime. 
Nineteen of the accused, fourteen women and five men, were executed by hanging. 
One man, Giles Corey, refused to enter a plea and was crushed to death under heavy stones in an attempt to force him to do so. 
The episode is one of the most famous cases of mass hysteria, and has been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, lapses in due process, and local governmental intrusion on individual liberties.

Should be a simple google query but, for the sake of quizzing, please comment with your best guess.  :)
And best of luck for the end sems to everyone!

3 comments:

  1. The second para talks about the Salem witch trials.
    Don't have any idea as to the connect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JK Rowling apparently adopted the idea of witch burning mentioned in the prisoner of Azkaban from the Salem Witch trials...

    ReplyDelete

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