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| 3 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Take care to put your example in its proper place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings! |
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| 6 | |
| 7 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1331174600085037400 |
| 8 | %% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 9 | [[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_witch-stake_8804.jpg]] |
| 10 | [[caption-width-right:320:''[[Music/AliciaKeys ♫ She's just a girl and she's on fire... ♫]]'']] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | ->'''''[[AC:"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."]]''''' |
| 13 | -->-- '''[[Literature/BookOfExodus Exodus 22:18]]''', ''Literature/TheBible'' (KJV) |
| 14 | |
| 15 | When a community with a superstitious mindset suspects someone in their midst of magical or otherwise unusual powers, especially if unexplained stuff such as kids disappearing has been happening, their response will usually be to root the person out to [[TheScapegoat take the blame]] and some burning at the stake. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | It's usually a woman or girl in these situations: Sprenger and Kramer, the authors of the infamous ''Literature/MalleusMaleficarum'', explicitly stated that "...this heresy is not of villains, but of villainesses, and thus it is noted so." |
| 18 | |
| 19 | This trope is often the climax of a classical WitchHunt in media, with plenty of TorchesAndPitchforks to go around. These are not historically accurate, for the most part, being depicted in places and times when there were no witch-hunts, or misrepresenting ones that did occur. In particular, one of the most famous episodes of witch-hunting, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials Salem Witch Trials]], featured ''no'' burnings at all. The convicted were hanged — and indeed, those who "confessed" were held to answer more questions and freed when the hunt was stopped. In reality, in England and in English colonies like Massachusetts, burning at the stake was reserved for woman commoner traitors[[note]]Noble traitors of both sexes were [[OffWithHisHead beheaded]]; commoner male traitors were [[RasputinianDeath hanged]], [[CruelAndUnusualDeath drawn]], [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill and quartered]][[/note]], women who killed their husbands (even in self-defense; this was seen as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petty_treason a form of treason]], hence the use of the same punishment) and for heretics. That said, there was some overlap, as heretics were often accused of witchcraft - and other way around - witchcraft was often[[note]]That is, by the 15/16th Century, almost everywhere outside England and its colonies, where witchcraft and heresy remained separate offences.[[/note]] considered a form of heresy. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | The [[TrialByOrdeal "swimming" of witches]], one of the most famous methods of interrogating a suspected witch, had the virtue of being both pointless and redundant. Popular belief makes it out as a MortonsFork, saying that if the woman floated, that proved she was a witch, and they'd pull her out and kill her. If the woman sank, that proved she wasn't a witch... but she'd drown and still be dead. Actually the woman would be tied to a rope: if she did float, they would pull her out, and the fact would be regarded as incriminating. (Of course sometimes they wouldn't do this quick enough, and she'd still drown. "Floating" could also be achieved by trickery with the ropes). If she sank, they would pull her out and clear her of charges. The ducking stool is an unrelated, non-lethal device of punishment where a woman was dunked in cold water for being a public nuisance of some sort. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Also see TheHeretic, who is also a victim of this form of justice, but with a difference: the Witch is sentenced to incineration for deadly supernatural activity, while The Heretic is similarly sentenced to incineration for religious ThoughtCrime. TheWitchHunter is a related trope, although a Witch Hunter is someone who hunts witches professionally, while this trope tends to refer to [[TorchesAndPitchforks an angry mob]]. See also KillItWithFire and related tropes for the logic (such as it is) for this. Often associated with FanaticalFire. For witches who are not literally hot but metaphorically so see HotWitch. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | For the band, see Music/BurningWitches. For the Creator/TiteKubo manga, you'll want to head [[Manga/BurnTheWitch here]]. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | !!As this is a {{Death Trope|s}}, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked spoilers abound]]. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Beware]]. |
| 28 | ---- |
| 29 | !!Examples: |
| 30 | [[index]] |
| 31 | * BurnTheWitch/AnimeAndManga |
| 32 | * BurnTheWitch/ComicBooks |
| 33 | * BurnTheWitch/FanWorks |
| 34 | * [[BurnTheWitch/LiveActionFilms Films - Live-Action]] |
| 35 | * BurnTheWitch/{{Literature}} |
| 36 | * BurnTheWitch/LiveActionTV |
| 37 | * BurnTheWitch/TabletopGames |
| 38 | * BurnTheWitch/VideoGames |
| 39 | * BurnTheWitch/WesternAnimation |
| 40 | [[/index]] |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 45 | * In one Advertising/{{Progressive}} ad, one of Flo's ancestors is about to be burned at the stake when she's accused of witchcraft trying to sell the Name Your Price tool. |
| 46 | [[/folder]] |
| 47 | |
| 48 | [[folder:Fairy Tales]] |
| 49 | * The WickedStepmother and WickedWitch from "Literature/BrotherAndSister" gets subjected to this at the end, after her [[spoiler:murder of the titular Sister ''and'' her replacement of her with her own daughter]] are revealed. |
| 50 | * In "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/3ourladyschild.html Our Lady's Child]] / "Mary's Child", the titular Child is a Queen who once lived in Heaven but was kicked out of it for disobeying an order from the Virgin Mary ''and'', whenever the Virgin tried to confront her, refusing to admit her responsibility. The worst punishment is having her three babies taken away by the Virgin for ''yet again'' not wanting to admit her sin; she's mistaken for a witch/ogress who [[OffingTheOffspring killed and ate her kids]] and about to be burned at the stake as such, despite her husband the King's desperate attempts to save her, but at the last moment she repents and mentally admits her wrongdoings. The Virgin forgives the girl and pulls a BigDamnHeroes by summoning a magical rain to extinguish the pyre, then brings the children back and makes sure that the exonerated girl and her family will be happy forever. |
| 51 | * In [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penta_of_the_Chopped-off_Hands "Penta of the Chopped-off Hands"]], the jealous fishwife Nuccia causes lots of trouble to the titular Penta, a once FallenPrincess who had already gone through terrible ordeals (including the loss of her hands) but had managed to start rebuilding her life and marry a local King. She goes as far as writing a false letter from the King that condemned Penta to be burned at the stake, but the King's counselors believe that the King's out of his mind and they send her (and her son) to another realm instead. When the whole deception is revealed, Nuccia is the one burned instead. |
| 52 | * There are several similar fairy tales (Creator/GrimmBrothers' "Literature/TheSixSwans" and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Brothers "The Twelve Brothers"]], Creator/HansChristianAndersen's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Swans "The Wild Swans"]], [[Creator/AsbjornsenAndMoe Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe's]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Wild_Ducks The Twelve Wild Ducks]]" where a princess who's trying to break a spell over her brothers is under one or another circumstances accused of witchcraft (Andersen) or infanticide (Grimms, Asbjørnsen and Moe) and is almost burned at the stake, but her brothers save her and she manages to undo the curses over them. In "The Six Swans", the girl's false accuser [[KarmicDeath gets burned as punishment]]. |
| 53 | [[/folder]] |
| 54 | |
| 55 | [[folder:Film — Animated]] |
| 56 | * In ''Anime/BelladonnaOfSadness'', [[spoiler:this is what happens to the protagonist, the GirlNextDoor-turned-HotWitch Jeanne. Her husband Jean tries to rescue her, but he ends up turned into a HumanPincushion]]. |
| 57 | * In ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'', this is what Elsa and her parents' biggest fear as to what would happen to her should she lose control of her powers as detailed under the troll's vision. Out of fear of this happening, they close the gates and lock Elsa away in her room to hide away her powers and keep it a secret from everyone including her sister. Unfortunately it led her to a miserable life for 13 years which led to her inevitably reveal her powers in front of the whole crown during her RageBreakingPoint and upon realizing what she had done, she flees the kingdom and accidentally plunge the kingdom under an EndlessWinter, resulting in the citizens fearing their new queen, believing that she had intentionally abandoned her own kingdom to famine and starvation. Indeed it seems that they fear and detested her so much that after Anna gets frozen solid as a result of being accidentally struck by Elsa, their response to this is to appoint a foreign prince as their new ruler of the kingdom and immediately complied with his orders to sentence the former queen to death without even bothering to double-check on the legitimacy of his claim and upon seeing Hans about to execute their supposed wicked queen, they seem to have a look joy once the snowstorm has ended due of Elsa being informed of her sister's death because of her actions. |
| 58 | * In the Disney movie, ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'', Esmeralda almost suffers this fate at the hands of Frollo after she refuses to submit to him. (She is not accused of being a witch in [[Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame the original book]]). [[note]] Well, if you want to get picky, she ''was'' accused by a young woman of being a witch, but she was ''charged'' with (and hanged for) being a murderer. [[spoiler:She is, of course, neither.]][[/note]] Interestingly, the crowd seems to rather be on ''her'' side and say so, no doubt at least partly due to Frollo's lengthy sack of his own city in order to find her. |
| 59 | * Averted in ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'', where [[BigBad the witch]] was executed by hanging. [[spoiler:Then played straight later, when an [[TorchesAndPitchforks angry mob]] decides to kill [[ISeeDeadPeople Norman]] like this, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint as hanging is too uncivilized]].]] |
| 60 | * The Chief of the Indians in ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'' threatens to do this to John, Michael and the Lost Boys if his daughter Tiger Lily, who he believes they kidnapped, is not returned by sunset. |
| 61 | -->'''The Chief:''' Heap big lie. If Tiger Lily not back by sunset...'''burn 'em at stake.''' |
| 62 | * Lampshaded in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'' when the CargoCult water pipe fails to produce water -- the first reaction of one of the townsfolk is to point to Rango and shout "Burn the witch!" |
| 63 | * In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheWitchsGhost'', they believe the title character was a mistaken [[NewerThanTheyThink Wicca]] practitioner. She was actually a witch. |
| 64 | [[/folder]] |
| 65 | |
| 66 | [[folder:Manhwa]] |
| 67 | * In ''Manhwa/TheTarotCafe'', Pamela's mother (a midwife) was accused of witchcraft after the baby she was delivering and the child's mother both died. She confessed to witchcraft just so that she could plead for her daughter's safety and was burned at the stake. Pamela was later accused of witchcraft because she could see the future and because she rejected a creepy old priest's advances on her. Because she'd been exposed to the blood of a dragon, she was immortal and survived. A later story has her kidnapped by a group of religious fanatics who use her tarot cards as proof that she's a witch and try to kill her. Seeing as she's immortal, they don't succeed. |
| 68 | [[/folder]] |
| 69 | |
| 70 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 71 | * In some versions of the ballad "Young Hunting" ([[Literature/ChildBallads Child 47]]; a.k.a. Earl Richard/ Love Henry) the lady gets punished this way for killing her lover. Certain versions also include her trying to pin the murder on her maid, who gets acquitted because she won't burn no matter what the king's men try. |
| 72 | * Music/CreatureFeature mentions this and many other tortures in their song "Here There Be Witches". |
| 73 | * Music/CultureClub's "The War Song" has the line "Like a Philistine, we're burning witches too." |
| 74 | * "Am I Evil?" by Diamond Head (and covered by Music/{{Metallica}}), in which the singer's mother is burned as a witch, setting him on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge that ultimately [[HeWhoFightsMonsters consumes him]]. |
| 75 | * Music/{{Dragonland}}'s "Fire and Brimstone" has a female elf [[spoiler: actually the elven Queen]] being about to be burned at the stake, considered a witch, and saved by the protagonist. |
| 76 | * "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Burn Witch Burn]]" by Music/EgoLikeness. |
| 77 | * "The Curse of Jacques" from Music/GraveDigger's ''Knights of the Cross'', which is about Last Grandmaster of Knights Templar Jacques de Molay, who was burned at the stake during the order's downfall. |
| 78 | * "Burning Times" by Music/IcedEarth refers to the witch hunts. |
| 79 | * The Swedish song "I Lågornas Sken" (In the Fires Light) by Nordman is about a young girl judged to burn at the stake. |
| 80 | * "Burn" from Music/KingDiamond's solo album ''The Eye'' depicts a burning of alleged witch. The eponymous pendant from the title is later found from her ashes. |
| 81 | * "Words of the Witch" by Music/{{Lonewolf}} is a scathing condemnation of the Salem witch trials. |
| 82 | * "Burn the Witch" by Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge. |
| 83 | * Music/{{Radiohead}}'s [[Music/AMoonShapedPool "Burn the Witch"]] features imagery themed around this as a metaphor for paranoia and distrust in modern society. The song had actually been in the works for well over a decade before its eventual release in 2016, and out-of-context lyrics from it were subtly tossed around in promotional material during the 2000's. |
| 84 | * "The Curse", intro track to Music/RunningWild's ''Black Hand Inn'' opens with a trial where a man is condemned to be a heretic and is subsequently burned at the stake. |
| 85 | %%* "Deathaura" by Music/SonataArctica. The BittersweetEnding helps to soften the emotional blow, however. %% Zero Context Example |
| 86 | * Music/TaylorSwift's "I Did Something Bad" from her 2017 album ''reputation'' has the following lines: "They're burning all the witches even if you aren't one/They got their pitchforks and proof/Their receipts and reasons" |
| 87 | * Music/{{Venom}}'s "Don't Burn the Witch" from ''Black Metal''. |
| 88 | * The Music/{{Vocaloid}} song "Witch", sung by Megurine Luka and a few other Vocaloids, has this happening to Luka's character. [[spoiler:She escapes, in probably [[GainaxEnding the most confusing way ever]]]]. |
| 89 | ** In "Flames of Yellow Phosphorus," Rin's character is burned at the stake for killing her father. Subverted because they're not accusing her of witchcraft, they're doing it because she [[{{Irony}} committed arson]]. |
| 90 | * "Burning The Witches", the title track from the debut album by Warlock, released in 1984. |
| 91 | * Witchfinder General, "Burning a Sinner". Also, "Witchfinder General". |
| 92 | * Both subverted and played straight with two songs off the Music/RobZombie album 'Educated Horses'. 'American Witch' subverts the trope with the line "We all hang high - 20 innocents" (referencing the twenty victims of the Salem Witch Trials), while 'Lords of Salem' plays it straight and subverts it with the line "Burn me and hang me". |
| 93 | * "Witches Burn" by Music/ThePrettyReckless is about a woman who's finished with the misogynistic Puritan society she lives in and is fine with being being burned as a witch for murdering the men who've wronged her. |
| 94 | [[/folder]] |
| 95 | |
| 96 | [[folder:Mythology and Religion]] |
| 97 | * The passage of [[Literature/BookOfExodus Exodus]] 22:18 from Literature/TheBible (and its quite popular King James variant mentioned as the page quote) was used to justify many a WitchHunt back in the bad old days. It should be noted, however, that the meaning of "witch" or "sorceress" back then primarily referred to someone who used bad and injurious magic, rather than all magic. And some scholars have argued that the passage really referred to poisoners rather than magic users. |
| 98 | * The legendary origin of the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrina_crista-galli ceibo]]'' tree and flowers is tied to this trope. It says that as the Spanish ''conquistadores'' explored the lands of what's now UsefulNotes/{{Argentina}}, the Guarani tribe opposed them fiercely; one of their biggest enemies was Anahí, an ActionGirl who used to be an ugly but kind FriendToAllLivingThings MysteriousWaif, but TookALevelInBadass to defend her people. When the Spanish finally captured poor Anahí, they burned her at the stake; according to different versions either [[DefiantToTheEnd she sang a last song as she burned to death]] and her charred corpse became a ''ceibo'' tree in the morning, or the flames refused to touch Anahí and she slowly turned into into a ''ceibo'' in front of the conquerors. |
| 99 | * Defied in Myth/NorseMythology, when the gods try to kill an evil witch named Gullveig by burning her. Three times they tried... |
| 100 | [[/folder]] |
| 101 | |
| 102 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 103 | * ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresSouvenirProgramme:'' Referenced with a vengeful ghost of a woman killed centuries ago. In her time a man was looking for witches. When he quite predictably couldn't find any, he updated the definition of "witch" to any sufficiently unattractive woman who owned a cat. When he couldn't even manage ''that'', he started holding beauty contests. The prize for losers was a cat... |
| 104 | * ''[[Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook That Mitchell and Webb Sound]]'': Open-Mic Night at the Little Inn just outside Castle Dracula goes very wrong when the winner is a Roma woman. The superstitious villagers take it poorly and try to burn her. |
| 105 | [[/folder]] |
| 106 | |
| 107 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 108 | * ''Theatre/TheCrucible'', a play which has as its running theme the Salem witch trials, and was written, very tellingly, during the [[RedScare communist witch-hunts]] in America, is actually an aversion -- they don't burn the witches, instead hanging them, as was actually done in the trials. |
| 109 | * In ''Theatre/FiniansRainbow'', Sharon is charged with using witchcraft to [[ColorMeBlack turn a white man black]], and her lover Woody of aiding and abetting her, in accordance with a 17th-century state law against witchcraft. ("Don't you think it's a little obsolete by now?" Woody says.) The pair are saved from the flames by the JustInTime reversal of her wish. |
| 110 | * The opera ''Königskinder'' has a witch who is burned by a rampaging PowderKegCrowd sometime in between the second and third acts. |
| 111 | * ''Theatre/TheLadysNotForBurning'' by Christopher Fry. The evidence against her is laughable, but the town's officials can see she's well-to-do, and if they convict her, they can confiscate her property. But there's that pesky ex-soldier who insists he ''murdered'' the man she supposedly bewitched.... |
| 112 | -->''"Though we administer persuasion with great patience, she admits nothing. And the man won't stop admitting. It really makes one lose all faith in human nature."'' |
| 113 | * Part of the {{Backstory}} in Creator/GilbertAndSullivan's ''Theatre/{{Ruddigore}}''; the ancestor of the Baronets of Ruddigore was cursed by a witch he was burning. |
| 114 | * ''Theatre/IlTrovatore'' by Verdi, anyone? Everything began with a witch burning, and the daughter of one of the UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} victims taking revenge for it... |
| 115 | * ''Theatre/WhichWitchTheMusical'': The second act is all about Maria being convicted as a witch and sentenced to be burned on the stake. |
| 116 | * ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'''s "March of the Witch Hunters" is pretty self-explanatory. The citizens of Oz hunt for Elphaba, egged on by Madame Morrible. |
| 117 | [[/folder]] |
| 118 | |
| 119 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 120 | * Invoked in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc''. When Celestia "Celes" Ludenberg is proved to be the one who first manipulated Hifumi into killing Kiyotaka and then killed him, she is sentenced to execution via being burned at the stake. This is actually the ''perfect'' way to die in Celes's opinion, as WordOfGod said that she wanted a very romanticized and dramatic death like those in the novels, so she is rather gleeful ([[StepfordSmiler at least publically]]) as the pyre is lit under her feet and she waits for the fire to consume her, hands steepled and looking up dramatically... But since her executioner is '''[[{{Troll}} Monokuma]]''' after all, he then subverts the trope via summoning a huge firefighter truck at the very last moment ''and [[DeathByAmbulance ramming it into Celes's pyre, killing her]]''. |
| 121 | * ''VisualNovel/TheHouseInFataMorgana'': |
| 122 | ** [[spoiler:Michel]] impaled to death and then crucified for three days and finally burnt at the stake as he was accused of being a devil's child due to [[spoiler:being intersex and thus believed to be cursed]]. |
| 123 | ** [[spoiler:The White-Haired Girl]] is killed as a result of this in the [[spoiler:second]] door. |
| 124 | * This turns out to have been the fate of the vengeful spirit in ''VisualNovel/TheLetter''. She was accused of having used witchcraft, including using it to kill Lady Charlotte's husband, and was sentenced to be burned at the stake, a fate that she took to silently. |
| 125 | [[/folder]] |
| 126 | |
| 127 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 128 | * Mye and Hex were drowned as witches proving their innocence in ''Webcomic/CharbyTheVampirate'' before being resurrected as zombie slaves by an actual magic user. |
| 129 | * In ''Webcomic/TheCummoner'', Vilga is condemned just for admitting to being a witch. She manages to escape [[DistractedByTheSexy in her own fashion]]. |
| 130 | * ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': |
| 131 | ** It is stated that minor Sparks in rural areas were often treated as witches and burned. Considering the fact that a Sparky "witch" could probably make those herbal concoctions work, and that Sparkyness usually equals at least periodic insanity, they were probably on the money as often as not. |
| 132 | ** Also subverted. Early in the story, the protagonist is told that girls with the Spark are especially vulnerable, and tend to just... disappear. Readers later find out that, rather than being killed as witches, most of them were probably kidnapped by Sturmhalten soldiers, so that Prince Aaronev, a Spark himself, could use them for his experiment to bring back the Other. Including his own daughter. |
| 133 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Hooky}}'' this is a risk for witches, despite being illegal. |
| 134 | ** [[spoiler: Dani]] was narrowly rescued from a pyre after being mistaken for a child-killing witch. |
| 135 | ** Angela Wytte was also a near-victim (saved only by intervention of the king), but was pushed over the DespairEventHorizon by the experience. |
| 136 | ** [[spoiler: Dorian]] is burned as a witch. [[spoiler:Or so everyone, including his twin Dani, thinks. In reality, Damian magically makes a wick-clone of his younger brother, and Dorian escapes.]] |
| 137 | * Celina, a witch in ''Webcomic/{{Imp}}'' has her house burned down after a priest visits her home town and convinces them she's a devil worshiper. |
| 138 | * In ''Webcomic/KnightsOfBuenaVista'', Weselton's role in ''Frozen'' has been upgraded, from bigot against sorcerers, to apparent witch hunter. |
| 139 | ** [[spoiler:This is a SubvertedTrope. He doesn't hunt magic users to stop evil. He does it because he's a [[PowerCopying Mage Reaver]], and this provides a cover for his actions.]] |
| 140 | * In ''Webcomic/LatchkeyKingdom'', the citizens of Hilla blame the [[CourtMage Castle Witch]] (currently Svana) and start grabbing torches and kindling every time there's a crisis. "Lenne gets a Hat" reveals that to become a licensed witch in Hilla, you need to be able to accept your death gracefully or else be [[RunOrDie very fast]]. |
| 141 | * In ''Webcomic/NoRestForTheWicked'', the villagers [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/03-05.html blame Clare]] for their disappearing children and intend to burn her. |
| 142 | ** On the other hand, Perrault [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/03-63.html reminds]] November of this after they found [[LosingYourHead cutting the witch's head off didn't work]]. |
| 143 | * In ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'', [[http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0097.html Angelo's Kids do this to their opponents.]] |
| 144 | * ''Webcomic/ScandinaviaAndTheWorld'': |
| 145 | ** A variation occurs in [[http://humon.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2avbmz this]] comic in which Denmark and Norway sit Sister Finland ("the witch") on a burning maypole as part of a midsummer celebration. |
| 146 | ** [[https://satwcomic.com/what-comes-around-goes-around Another comic]], illustrating the early Church's stance on witchcraft, had King Europe accuse Queen Europe of being a witch, only for the Pope to burn ''him'' for heresy. |
| 147 | * In ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'', a young woman [[https://somethingpositive.net/comic/trolling-for-goths-pt-3/ boasts of having been burned to death in Salem]] in another life for [[AnachronismStew being a Wiccan]], but that [[HeroicSacrifice she died praising Wicca and the Goddess]]. Davan, of course, [[DeadpanSnarker tears her story apart]]. In three panels. |
| 148 | * In ''Webcomic/WelcomeToChastity'' the town Chastity used to be the site of many witch burnings. Turns out one of the women burned was an actual witch. She revived herself and got some payback on the town inhabitants. |
| 149 | * In the world of ''Webcomic/{{Witchy}}'', everyone has some degree of magic power, but society burns witches who possess too much power. |
| 150 | [[/folder]] |
| 151 | |
| 152 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 153 | %%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbYlvTyc28I&feature=relmfu This]] from ''WebVideo/FiveSecondFilms''. %% Weblinks are not examples |
| 154 | * Being burned as a witch is Film/MaryPoppins's nightmare according to a ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' Photoplasty: [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_334_24-nightmares-famous-fictional-characters_p24/#8 24 Nightmares of Famous Fictional Characters]]. |
| 155 | * ''WebAnimation/IfDisneyCartoonsWereHistoricallyAccurate'': A suspected witch is shown being burned at the stake while the singing princess blames her for a recent outbreak of the plague. |
| 156 | * The hunting and burning of witches is the one of the main themes of the online roleplaying game ''VideoGame/TheInquisitionLegacy''. |
| 157 | * ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'' has a literal example where Malty's second execution in the original webnovel is by being burned at the stake, and she had been given a MeaningfulRename to "Witch" by that point. |
| 158 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation'': [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6097 SCP-6097]] is described as a HumanoidAbomination physically similar to an elderly woman, which possesses a long, rodent-like tail, with a third eyeball at its tip. After being caught abducting several infants from their homes in the fictional settlement of [[SalemIsWitchCountry Brownsborough, Massachusetts]], she is executed by the townspeople, who first try burning her, which ultimately fails, so they resort to decapitating her instead, with dire results. |
| 159 | * On the ''Website/NightmareProject'', one dreamer has a nightmare where his wife is raped and then burned by an angry mob lead by a witch-like crone. |
| 160 | * In ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'', said word-for-word multiple times by [[CloudCuckoolander Tristan]], who [[RunningGag remains convinced]] that Duke Devlin is a witch. |
| 161 | -->'''Tristan:''' He must be a witch! [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail He turned me into a newt]]! ''({{beat}})'' I got better. |
| 162 | [[/folder]] |
| 163 | |
| 164 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 165 | * Translation: |
| 166 | ** Interestingly, the passage quoted at the top of this page, from the King James Version, is actually a rather iffy translation. The term "witch" is a more recent invention of the English language, and of course no particular method of execution was prescribed. The word used in the original language roughly translates to "sorceress" with "[[MindRape one who twists the minds of others]] for personal gain" connotations. Though rulers described as serving God often stamped out ''all'' practitioners; this is why Saul had trouble finding one when he decided to actually consult one. |
| 167 | ** Another translation renders the word as ''prostitute''. Sacred prostitutes often served the god(desse)s of the nations opposing Israel. They were seen as trying to tempt God's people away from him. Some may have practiced sacred rites. |
| 168 | ** It's also possible that the original word was ''poisoner'', as there was overlap between the Greek and Latin words for "poisoner" and "witch"; King James was [[TheWitchHunter rather obsessed with witchcraft]], which may have influenced the translation. |
| 169 | * In UsefulNotes/AncientGreece and AncientRome, there were things that ''could'' be considered witch-hunts[[note]]Keep in mind that our modern conception of what a "witch" is [[NewerThanTheyThink actually developed around the Reformation era]][[/note]], but their word for "witch" could also be translated as "poisoner" (see, the above section on the KJV). In fact, it's possible they were interchangeable concepts back then. |
| 170 | ** Perhaps the first victim of witch-hunting in history we know the name of was an ancient Greek woman named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoris_of_Lemnos Theoris of Lemnos]] (4th. century B.C.E./B.C.). She was executed with her children. |
| 171 | ** Livy ([[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0155%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D18 Ad Urbe Condita Libri VIII, xviii]]) records an instance of 170 women being burned for poisoning (witchcraft?), who were blamed for causing mass illness. Livy records that this is the scale of this persecution was never before seen in Rome at that point. |
| 172 | ** In 81 B.C.E./B.C., the Roman legislator Sulla passed the ''Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficiis'', which prohibited occult practices along with posession of harmful poisons. |
| 173 | * UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc, who led the French army during UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar, was eventually captured by the Burgundians. She was put on trial for [[TheHeretic heresy]] in a KangarooCourt, was found guilty, and burned at the stake. |
| 174 | * In RealLife, the methods for dealing with suspected witches varied greatly between areas and eras: |
| 175 | ** During [[TheHighMiddleAges the Middle Ages proper]] witchcraft wasn't a major crime -- 'cunning folk' were practitioners of low-level magic that were generally not persecuted legally, unless they were accused of cheating their customers out of the supposed effects of the magic sold. Lethal magic was treated essentially as a subsection of poisoning, and punished accordingly with death, though not by burning, while lesser offenses could only lead to a fine or corporal punishment. Only with TheLateMiddleAges and TheCavalierYears, especially with the publication of the infamous ''[[Literature/MalleusMaleficarum Malleus]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum Maleficarum]]'' did the mass witch hunts begin. Prior to this, the Church's position was largely that witches were not even real - or rather, that magic was not real, simply illusions of the Devil[[note]]In fact, belief in witches was condemned as Pagan and worthy of capital punishment at the Council of Paderborn (785 C.E./A.D.)[[/note]]. The ''Malleus'' itself was banned when it came out as the heretical ravings of a lunatic, but unfortunately enthusiastic amateurs got a hold of it anyway, causing a boom among both Catholic and Protestant laymen. |
| 176 | ** After the Reformation witch-hunts gained rapid popularity on both sides of the fence, as religious paranoia rose to ridiculous degrees. Most of the witch-trials were performed by secular courts or minor clergy with little idea how to perform any actual investigation, though in Protestant countries even higher levels of clergy sometimes got themselves involved. UsefulNotes/MartinLuther was recorded saying something to the effect of: "I would gladly burn them myself." |
| 177 | ** In England and America, witches were usually simply hanged, and sometimes burned ''[[RasputinianDeath post mortem]]'' to prevent them from coming [[TheUndead back as undead]]. However, in continental Europe, burning alive was a very popular method of execution for witches and heretics alike -- the distinction between the two was often narrow, to say the least. Not until Henry IV's statute "De Heretico Comburendo" was burning authorized in England as a punishment for heresy, and this sentence was rarely passed. Interestingly enough, getting convicted of witchcraft didn't mean an automatic death sentence. In England and Wales, the vast majority of those accused of witchcraft were pardoned. Apparently people liked a good trial, but couldn't be bothered to actually carry out the sentence. |
| 178 | ** UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition actually refused to do this after the late-16th century, and even before then they were rather lax on witchcraft, very rarely ending in true executions. The Grand Inquisitor himself pronounced the tales of mass "sabbats" unlikely and unsupported by any evidence (it was considered much more credible that testimonies of people hosting Satanic meetings in the woods were probably just lustful sinners celebrating regular orgies, sometimes with the help of rudimentary [[HookersAndBlow party drugs]]), and stated that any person claiming to be a witch was either a liar or clinically insane. Even if declared witches, most accused actually survived with only "minor" torture and fairly small official punishment; execution itself was so rare that it caused its few cases, such as the UsefulNotes/ZugarramurdiWitchTrials, [[StreisandEffect to be spectacularly publicized]], which probably contributed to the legend that the Inquisition was having its hands full on the witch-killing topic. The Inquisition was more concerned about Jews and Moors, in particular the remnant population of Muslims in Spain: Castile-Leon had only conquered Granada in 1492, so the region and its Muslim people were something of an ongoing problem for the Christian rulers until the last of them were ethnically cleansed in the early 17th century. That said, this probably didn't stop non-Royal and non-Church town authorities (i.e. about 2/3 of all towns) or angry mobs from holding witch trials and hanging 'witches', despite the Inquisition's efforts to impede it. |
| 179 | * In Iceland, from 1625-1683, 21 people were executed by burning after being accused of witchcraft (which could include just keeping magical talismans in their homes). All but one of these people were male, as men were believed to be the only people capable of being witches in Icelandic society. There's an interesting, albeit somewhat cheesy, museum dedicated to Icelandic witchcraft in the 17th century in the town of Hólmavík, in the West Fjords. |
| 180 | * A common misconception, even in Massachusetts, is that the victims of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were burned, when in fact, most were hanged, with the exception of Giles Corey, who was pressed to death (i.e., had a large board the size of a door laid on top of him and then rocks were piled onto the board, till he suffocated. He got special treatment because he refused to enter a plea and was found in contempt of court. [[DefiantToTheEnd He just told them to add more weight]]). He was actually trying to spare his family the loss of his property, which would happen on a conviction of witchcraft (as was inevitable). Under common law, no trial could be held if the accused would not enter a plea. "Pressing" under heavy stones was the method used to force this out of one that refused to. Giles died, but he did so legally innocent and his family inherited his land. |
| 181 | * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbain_Grandier Urbain Grandier]], a French Catholic priest in Loudun who was accused of a diabolical pact and causing a whole convent of nuns to become possessed. His case is notable in having inspired a book by Creator/AldousHuxley (''The Devils of Loudun''), a film by Creator/KenRussell (''Film/TheDevils''), and an opera by Krzysztof Penderecki (''Die Teufel von Loudun''). |
| 182 | * In Sweden, about 300 "witches" were burned between 1668 and 1676. Most of them admitted to having committed witchcraft, and were rewarded by being decapitated before the burning. The only one to be burned alive was Malin Matsdotter, to whom this was punishment for refusing to admit anything. Before she was burned alive, she noticed that one of her daughters (the one that had accused her) stood in the crowd and told her and everyone present that her daughter now belonged to the devil. She (reportedly) did not scream when she was burned. It was probably due to a sack of gunpowder being placed around her neck out of mercy.\ |
| 183 | \ |
| 184 | The Swedish trials ended with the church, who had been against the trials from the beginning but forced to prosecute them due to the sheer number of accusations, declaring that all witches had forever been exorcised from Sweden. They then proceeded to publically torture and burn [[HoistByHisOwnPetard some of the accusers]] (most of which where in their teens!) saying that they were the last remaining witches. |
| 185 | * In Germany, the trial of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pappenheimer_family Pappenheimer family]], considered to be ''the worst witch trial'' in German history. Don't read the article if you have a weak stomach. [[spoiler:The parents and the eldest sons were to be executed together with two other men. The bodies of the men were torn six times each with irons, Anna's breasts were cut off and rubbed in the faces of her adult sons, the skeletons of the men were broken on the wheel, the father was subjected to impalement on a pike, and finally, they were burned at the stake. ]] |
| 186 | * The Würzburg witch-trials. Over the course of six years, ''nine hundred people'' were burnt as witches in Germany, including many children, some as young as ''four''. |
| 187 | * One of the first recorded convictions of witchcraft in Europe occurred in Ireland in 1324 and involved [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Kyteler Alice Kyteler]], a wealthy [[WidowWitch four-time widow]] accused by the local bishop and gossips of [[BlackWidow poisoning her former husbands]] for their estates, sacrificing animals to demons, heresy, sorcery and having sex with an [[SuccubiAndIncubi incubus]]. In reality, she was probably only guilty of [[TheScrooge moneylending]], which piss-poor Middle Ages folk would have deeply resented. Something of an aversion, in that it was Kyteler's servant, [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique Jack Bauer'd]] into giving a possibly false confession, who was burned at the stake, while Kyteler herself fled to the continent and promptly disappeared from history. Her former house, in which authorities allegedly found such items as "body parts of an unbaptized infant; evil powders; communion wafers imprinted with satanic images; the fingernails and toenails of corpses boiled in the skull of a robber; candles made of human fat", is now a popular local pub. |
| 188 | * An utterly bizarre example occurred with the death of the two last [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_auk Great Auks]]; apparently the last two individuals were killed because their capture occurred at the same time a storm came, leading the sailors to think the birds were witches. |
| 189 | * In Denmark, a holiday based around the history of burning witches (St John's Eve) has been a tradition. Of course, no real person is used, but a scarecrow-like-doll that looks like a stereotypical witch is burned instead. It's also more like a bonfire with a doll stuck in it. |
| 190 | * A similar folk tradition exists in the Czech Republic, on the [[UsefulNotes/{{Walpurgisnacht}} Walpurgis Night]] (30th of April). |
| 191 | * [[http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/05/amnesty-calls-for-action-after-new-guinea-witch-burnings/ 2013 goings-on in Papua New Guinea]]. |
| 192 | [[/folder]] |
| 193 |
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