Tag Archives: witches

Enter the Gothspeare: Shakespeare and the Witchcraft Trials

Posted on 15th June 2016 by Sam George

Shakespeare’s writing career began as the witch trials reached their peak in the 1580s and 1590s. It is interesting to speculate as to what personal experience or knowledge of the trials he might have had and to make a relationship … Continue reading →

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Witches in Contemporary Culture

Posted on 7th May 2016 by William the Bloody

We’ve been pursuing witch related themes for a while now; I think this is becoming a central line of research for OGOM. This is a very interesting essay by Moze Halperin on the power of contemporary witch narratives, such as … Continue reading →

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Burn the Witch

Posted on 3rd May 2016 by William the Bloody

I’ve just been alerted to this by a friend. The music alone is wonderful; the subject and the brilliant video make it a must for OGOM. We were chatting below about disco and Gothic; Sam commented there about folk Gothic … Continue reading →

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Disco Magic

Posted on 1st May 2016 by William the Bloody

But what I’m dancing to tonight, when I’m not swirling in the air on my besom, is this great generic mutation of Mussorgsky–very apt for the hedonism of the 1970s New York club scene.

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Disney’s Walpurgisnacht

Posted on 30th April 2016 by William the Bloody

Witches and magical transformations are themes that OGOM will be pursuing over the next year or so. Disney’s wonderful adaptation of Walpurgisnacht in Fantasia (1941) makes full use of the potential of cinematic technology to depict the transformative powers of … Continue reading →

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Walpurgisnacht: Musical and textual variations

Posted on 30th April 2016 by William the Bloody

Sam has posted some fab items on witches below to celebrate Walpurgisnacht, so I’d better follow suit before dawn arrives and the wild partying has to end. The Walpurgisnacht motif has inspired artists in all sorts of media. It’s a … Continue reading →

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It’s Walpurgisnacht – get your broomstick ready!

Posted on 30th April 2016 by Sam George

Today is Wapurgisnacht, a night of dark celebrations, also known as Hexennacht or witches night!! I am going to retweet some of our witchy posts from the blog but here are some pictures of the dark sabbath from the archive … Continue reading →

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The Witch and Fast Anchor Film Festival 2017

Posted on 25th March 2016 by William the Bloody

An opportunity for up-and-coming film makers to submit entries to this festival and perhaps win an award. This site also features a review by Charlotte Haley of Robert Eggars’s current film The Witch: A New England Folk-Tale; Charlotte draws briefly … Continue reading →

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‘Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble’: Witches, Magic and Demons @TheJohnRylands

Posted on 15th March 2016 by Sam George

I have been blogging quite a lot lately about witches and magic books. I wrote on the Renaissance magician John Dee in ‘It’s a kind of Magic’ and offered some critical thoughts on ‘Sexualising the Witch’ in response to recent … Continue reading →

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Night of the Gorgeous Goth Girls: A Paranormal Romance

Posted on 13th March 2016 by William the Bloody

I’ve done a little retouching and extending to my poem, which envisages a comic Walpurgisnacht scene, with witches wildly celebrating their creativity. It’s a homage to lecturers and students of the Gothic and fantastic. Not sure if it quite works; … Continue reading →

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