(Jennifer Forester, photos by Rogers)
As part of the Halloween season, Hood College’s English 259 course held a reenactment of a Medieval European witch trial on Oct. 27.
The course, which is entitled “Medieval Magic and Mysticism,” studies literature involving witchcraft and the growing fear of it between the years 400-1800 C.E. The class prepared for the reenactment throughout the month of October.
The reenactment lasted from 1 to 2 p.m. in room 131 of Hodson Science and Technology Center.
“Finding the time and space to do it was kind of a challenge,” Dr. Heather Mitchell-Buck, the instructor of the course, said.
According to Mitchell-Buck, she did not act as a gatekeeper for the reenactment’s content. “I helped facilitate some discussions in the creation of the project. But, I was there not to make suggestions, but mostly just to keep the conversation going and keep it productive.”
The reenactment will serve two purposes according to the class – to demonstrate to Hood students everything they learned over the first half of the semester, and to highlight the continued existence of one-sided “witch trials” today.
Mitchell-Buck said that she believed the historical witch trials still had relevance today. “Think about any time you see people accused of something without sufficient evidence in support of that, or you see a community looking to blame someone who is different from themselves for something that they don’t entirely understand.”
Peter Routson, Kassandra Stout, and Grant Kane
Logan Samuels, a student in the course, agreed with Mitchell-Buck’s sentiments. “I think it can play into today,” she said. “I would like to say we don’t slip up as much as we do, but there are definitely some biases when it comes to trials with celebrities and politicians.”
Samuels’ role in the reenactment was to decide each sentence for the “accused” individuals.
Samuels compared the sentencing of witch trials to court cases today, where the wealthy and powerful would often go free with little to no punishment. In keeping with the references to modernity, she said that modern humor would be written into the script.
In contrast, Ashley Trovato, another student in ENGL 259, did not hold the same views on modern relevance. “The scare isn’t even relevant at all,” she said. She pointed towards the modern focus on science and acceptance of customs that would have been mistaken for witchcraft as signs of societal progress.
Trovato, who designed the propaganda and handout flyers for the reenactment, said she hoped people would still take the event seriously.
The reenactment itself carried on the theme of false accusations and distrust of outsiders. Of the three people accused (a priest, a noblewoman, and an old midwife), only the latter was convicted and executed, while the former two received light sentences.
The audience received verdicts of their own on cards handed out before the show began. Opening them after the Q&A panel revealed a unique accusation and verdict based on hearsay, with punishments ranging from fasting to being set on fire.
It was not the first time Mitchell-Buck’s class held a witch trial reenactment. In 2013, her Magic and Mysticism class reenacted both a pre-Protestant Reformation and post-Protestant Reformation trial.
The class was overall excited for the production on Tuesday.
“I hope it’s a good Halloween event,” Samuels said. “I think it’s just going to really be unique, and I’m excited to see what happens.”
Likewise, Mitchell-Buck expressed her enthusiasm for the efforts of her students. “It is going to be awesome,” she said. “I think there’s all kind of social relevance to this today.”
Ultimately, she said that she hoped the audience would understand where the fear and prejudice of the time period came from. “I hope that they get a little nuanced sense of what went into this than what we get from Monty Python,” she said.