Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Amezarak 975 days ago
Witch did not imply woman in former centuries. For example, if you take a look at the "witches" executed during the Salem witch trials, many of them are men, including the alleged ringleader; George Burroughs, George Jacobs, John Proctor, John Williard, and Samuel Wardwell were all convicted and executed for witchcraft. Others were also tried and punished or imprisoned until trial. This holds true in Europe as well.

Your narrative doesn't really work well at all here for other reasons either - some of these were powerful men who were accused by women or slaves, not representatives of the patriarchy.

Here for instance is the arrest warrant for George Burroughs, in case you want to see the specific wording: https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n22.html

This is why Tolkien used the word "witch" for the Nazgul - "witch-king" was not an oxymoron.