Weird Sisters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sweden

According to her daughters, Anna and Maria Eriksdotter, Malin had taken them and other children to the legendary island of Blockula to visit Satan on many occasions. Furthermore, when Malin was asked to confess by the court, the Devil appeared beside her, visible to the children, instructing her to not do so.

Upon being ordered by the court to fall to her knees and pray to have the ability to confess, Malin finally did so, and the children reported that the Devil was now no longer visible, although they reiterated their testimony regarding the island of Blockula. Malin's denials only increased her guilt as Satan made it possible for her to withstand interrogation.

Malin was found guilty by a unanimous decision and sentenced by a majority vote to death by being burned alive. A bag of gunpowder would be secured around her neck in order to make her death quicker. She maintained her innocence to the last, and according to reports from witnesses at the burning in the town square of Horterget in Stockholm, she did not scream. Her death in silence provided further proof of her guilt, as witches feel no pain.

Answer: Anna Göldi

Göldi was working for the family of a well-respected Swiss physician in the town of Glarus, when two of the family's children, Annamaria and Susanna began finding pins in their food. As part of Göldi's duties was the preparation of their food, she was suspected and expelled from the household. Following her dismissal, Annamaria became violently ill and Göldi was suspected of using supernatural means to inflict this illness.

She was arrested and due to the belief that only the person causing the illness could stop it, was ordered to make the child well again. When Annamaria started to recover, it hardly helped Göldi's protestations of innocence. After weeks of torture, she finally confessed to witchcraft and was sentenced to death by beheading, a punishment that was carried out in June 1782.

In 2008, officials in Glarus declared the case a miscarriage of justice and Göldi's name was cleared, and in 2017, a museum telling the story of Anna Göldi's life opened in the town.

Answer: The Pendle Witches

Two peasant families that lived near Pendle Hill in Lancashire had long been believed to be witches after the menfolk of the families kept dying. One family was the Device family, headed by octogenarian Elizabeth Southerns (a.k.a. Demdike) and the other, presided over by fellow octogenarian Anne Whittle (a.k.a. Chattox) included Anna Redfearne, daughter of Chattox.

After Aiizon Device, grand-daughter of Demdike, cursed a peddler who became temporarily paralysed, she was arrested and confessed to witchcraft as well as naming Demdike, Chattox and Redfearne as witches.
All four were sent to Lancaster castle to await trial. In the meantime, concerned friends and family, including local gentlewoman Alice Nutter, met to discuss the case. This meeting, which occurred on Good Friday 1612, was deemed by authorities to be a witches coven, and as a result, those present were arrested for witchcraft as well.

Demdike died in prison before the trial began on August 17th, 1612, a trial at which none of the accused were permitted defence counsel. Justice Roger Nowell produced nine-year-old Jennet Device as the key witness for the prosecution. She gave evidence against her own family and other villagers.

Chattox, her daughter, Anne Redfearn, Elizabeth, James and Alizon Device, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Jane Bulcock and her son John were all found guilty of witchcraft and publicly hanged in the town of Lancaster on August 20th, 1612.

In 1998, a petition was presented to UK Home Secretary Jack Straw, asking that the Pendle Witches be pardoned. This request was refused and there are now bus tours and walking trails around the town, allowing visitors to see areas related to the case.

Answer: The Witch of Kings Cross

Norton is remembered as a scandalous bohemian figure, albeit with an amazing artistic talent. Born in New Zealand, her family moved to Australia when she was eight and she attended the Church of England Girls' School at Chatswood, from which she was expelled at age 14 for producing 'depraved' drawings of vampires, ghouls and werewolves thought likely to corrupt the other girls.

Not a great start to life then, but one which certainly pointed toward a future career path. She continued to hone her artistic talents and in 1949 held an exhibition which included such works as 'Lucifer', 'Witches' Sabbath' and 'Individuation'. This resulted is the exhibition being raided by police, and Norton being charged with obscenity, although the charges were dismissed after she provided the court with detailed explanations of her occult symbolism.

In 1952, her book, "The Art of Rosaleen Norton" resulted in her publisher being charged with producing an obscene publication, and it was only available in Australia with many of the sexually explicit images blacked out, while in USA, it was burned by customs officials.

Although she was quite open about her occult beliefs and her devotion to "the Great God Pan", her downfall began when a mentally ill vagrant arrested for a minor offence, fabricated a story in court about her life falling apart after taking part in a Satanic Black Mass run by Rosaleen Norton. Although these allegations were completely untrue, the tabloid press picked up on them, dubbed her "The Witch of Kings Cross" and found ever more lurid exclusives to print, no matter whether they were true or not.

Norton died in Sydney in 1979, of colon cancer, a pagan to the end, and a plaque dedicated to her now sits in Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross.

Answer: Sybil Leek

Considering the fact that Leek is one of the more modern witches in this quiz, it is quite difficult to separate fact from fiction in tales of her life. Among her claims were the close association with Aleister Crowley since age nine, who allegedly mentored her, although none of Crowley's writings make any mention of Leek or her family. She also claimed that the vandalism of a church near her home was carried out by a black magician whom she, as a white witch, had healed of illness. She also claimed that during WWII she was employed by the British government, who were keen to utilise her powers of witchcraft and astrological understanding, leading to her preparing the chart which convinced Hess that a solo flight to Scotland in order to attempt to negotiate a peace deal with UK was a good idea.

What is certain is that following the repealing of the "Witchcraft Act" in UK in 1951, she was one of the first women to openly admit her art and encourage discussion regarding it. She founded the "Witchcraft Research Association" in 1964 and appeared on TV, as well as giving newspaper and magazine interviews, usually with her jackdaw, Mr. Hotfoot Jackson, perched on her shoulder. By mid 1964, following adverse publicity and public derision, she relocated to the USA, where she became a media personality, publishing over 60 books and an astrological magazines as well as appearing on many TV shows before dying a millionaire in 1982. Following her death, her message continues to be spread by her sons, Stephen and Julian, who were both said to have inherited her psychic gifts.

Answer: Having sex with the Devil

Merga Bien, from Fulda in Germany, was a wealthy, outspoken woman with two dead husbands behind her when she argued with her new husband's employers. This may have been her downfall, which led to the accusations and subsequent conviction for witchcraft, as during the time of the European Witch Trials of the early 17th century, women were expected to be subservient to men. Any woman that dared to speak her mind was often branded a witch, with the Devil being blamed for giving her the courage to speak out. A long-running, well-publicised argument with her husband's employers put not one, but several nails in her coffin, so to speak.
While held awaiting trial, her loving husband pleaded for her release on compassionate grounds as she was pregnant, but this hardly helped her cause as authorities decreed that after 14 years of childless marriage, there was only one way a woman such as her could become pregnant. Merga was forced to confess that she had indeed had sex with the Devil.

Among Bien's other confessions in what was a textbook open-and-shut case were the fact that she had murdered a previous husband as well as her children by him and also a member of the family of her husband's employer and she had attended and taken part in a Sabbath of Satan.

Answer: King James VI of Scotland

It was not unusual in the 16th century for any woman who had healing skills or medical prowess to be branded a witch, and so it proved for Agnes Sampson, a midwife from Keith in Scotland. A local maid, Gillis Duncan, who had a healing ability, was accused of being a witch. When tortured to provide a confession, she named over 70 people who were her "co-conspirators", one of which was Sampson.

Following a fierce storm which occurred while he was returning to Scotland from Denmark, James VI was convinced witchcraft was responsible. Sampson was questioned about it, initially denying all involvement. Suspected of lying, she was stripped and had all bodily hair shaved as it was common knowledge at the time that the Devil generally marked his followers. Her accusers found his mark upon "her priuities" (her privates), following which she confessed to causing this storm by way of a spell and the throwing of a dead cat into the sea.

Sampson was garrotted and burned at the stake in 1591, but even today it is said that her ghost can be seen, bald and naked, wandering Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.

Answer: Maryland

Little is known of Moll Dyer, other than the legend which has been circulating since at least the late 18th century. According to the legend, Dyer was an old hag, shunned and feared by locals who harvested plants from local woodland which she then sold to townsfolk who were too afraid to deny her. When a bitter winter storm descended so fierce it froze cattle and sheep in their fields, she was branded a witch and the cause of the storm.
Incensed, the townsfolk lit torches and burned her shack while she was inside, but she managed to escape into the winter's night and fled the town, or so the locals thought. Several days later when a boy, searching in the snow for cattle, came across her frozen body upon the rock with one arm raised to the heavens as if cursing the town.

Since that day, again according to legend, the land surrounding her cabin remains barren. Strange weather patterns, including an unusually high number of lightning strikes, have befallen the town.

In 1972, Moll Dyer's rock was moved from its original site to the lawn in front of St. Mary's County Historical Society building. But beware: it is claimed that due to the Dyer's curse, people who approach the rock will become dizzy and eventually faint.

Answer: Belvoir Castle

Of the answers given, only Belvoir Castle is still standing in all its glory, and it was here, that the Flowers family, comprising mother Joan and daughters Margaret and Philippa, all known to be herbal healers were employed. Following accusations of theft, the family were dismissed by the Earl of Rutland, and shortly after, in 1613, his eldest son Henry died. In 1620, second son Francis also became ill and died and the Earl had the family arrested, suspecting witchcraft.

While being transported to Lincoln gaol, mother Joan asked for holy bread, and in an attempt to prove her innocence, stated that something so blessed could not be consumed by a witch. Unfortunately for her daughters, their fate was sealed when she choked and died on the first bite.

At trial, Philippa confessed for all three of the family, claiming that they had stolen a glove belonging to young Henry, given it to their mother. She had then dipped it in boiling water, stroked it along the back of her familiar, a cat named Rutterkin, and pricked it, while saying incantations which had caused his death.

Margaret was hanged at Lincoln Castle in 1619, while Philippa, whether through drugging her guards or witchcraft, managed to escape and lived in Kent until her death.

In the village of Bottesford, near Belvoir Castle, there is a monument to the Earl, on which is inscribed, "In 1608 he married ye lady Cecila Hungerford, daughter to ye Honorable Knight Sir John Tufton, by whom he had two sons, both of which died in their infancy by wicked practises and sorcerye".

Answer: Imprisonment

Over two hundred people were accused of witchcraft during these infamous trials, but only thirty were found guilty, of which 19 were hanged and one was pressed to death.

Tituba was well-versed in magical practices from her native Barbados and admitted telling tales of this and voodoo to her child accusers. She also admitted making witch-cakes after beaten by her owner, Samuel Parris.

Despite her confessions though, there was never any proof that she had done any of these things and she managed to confuse her confessors by mentioning "riding sticks to different places" and talked of beings with the head of a woman, two legs, and wings.

The grand jury eventually declined to indict Tituba, writing "ignoramus" on her paperwork, indicating she was found not guilty due to a lack of evidence, but even after this she remained in jail, as her owner refused to pay her jail fees. After languishing in prison for almost a year, she was sold to a new owner for the price of these fees, and almost nothing is known of her following her release.