Witches, wizards and wonders
Wirksworth Wizarding Day 2024
They gathered. Wizards, witches, young students, aged crones, occasional babies, the venerable and the unspeakable.... And I was there, spilling a hat full of stories...Wirksworth Wizarding Day was back! This is always a lovely day and I miss most of the action....I heard about magical markets and the excitement of buying wands, about places to eat, a London Double-decker bus to get on....lizards, snakes and dragons to meet (I suspect that was before the actual moment when anticipation was running high). Someone had seen a Dementor. Someone else wrote a spell to turn people into zebras and was going to go and sit in the market place and try his spell. We reckoned if people didn't change on the outside they might change on the inside and find themselves sitting down to meals of grass....
And I was there telling stories: a day of non-stop tale-spinning, yarn-calling, and spell-shaking. Tales of mystery, malice and strangeness: a reminder that we live in a world full of wonders and enchantment even if we don’t see witches, wizards, and dragons as often as we might wish
In the aftermath, scraps of wizarding books were found on the floor, in corners, tucked for secrecy into recesses or hidden under chairs...We thought we should share them...
Wherever possible original spelling has been retained
WIZARDING DAY SPELLS
FANGTOOTH by Sia
Do not even go neer to a Fangtooth or it will eat you bit by bit. first your feet then your legs and soon and soon. There are not that many left in the wild. there is one left but it is the most dangerous
SLYTHERIN
Sly, cunning and mysterious
Like snakes we are
You can't hide from us
Though you have a lightning scar
Harsh and mean we'll be
Even if you do fight back, or
Run, or fly away
In the end, you'll
Never win
 |
| Peter the grobllin |
To turn into a black panther
Although this is written as a single recipe, it feels like 2 voices: try it with one person reading the yellow words and a helpful friend (who is rather worried!) reading the black!
Put black lizard tales
And poisoned frogs inside (a cauldron)
No-one has every survived
The potion won't be easy
Herbs and spices will not help (but stir anyway)
Eyes from a hungarian horntail (finish the brew)
Run for your life!
FROG SPELL
Get a caldron
and fill it with water
add 3 layers of brown paint
add stinking socks
add a newt's eye
boil for ages
Drink.
Start hopping.
A Summoning Spell
From deep ponds, I call you
from Rippling stream, I call you
Out of garden wall and flowerbed, i call you.
Great creatures of a damper world
Squat before me now!
As the moon rises and
Night draws in and the
Darkness fills the world
Touch my enemies with nightmares,
Once a night,
And every night,
Disturb their sleep with
Slime.
POTION OF TRANSFORMATION
This brews a lotion to rub on a wizard’s feet and turn him or her into something else.
No-one has ever watched this potion in action and been able to report back on what it does!
Take
1 long tail of a rat, and
2 handfuls of crushed snail shells, throw in
3 bones, well-chewed by a dog, and
4 egg cups of graveyard dust
5 whole chillis will make the brew strong and
6 cups of water will fill the cauldron but
7 matches are needed to light the flame
Brew the cauldron
Over a dried moss flame, and stir with an
Ivy-wood spoon and never, ever
Lick that spoon!
Wirksworth Wizarding Day is an annual event in October that transports the small town of Wirksworth in Derbyshire into a more magical realm
Find out more: https://www.wizardingday.com/
https://www.facebook.com/wizardingday/
With many thanks to Coach House Studios for giving us such a lovely space for stories and to all the eager ears (and associated bodies) who joined us for storytelling, who shaped spells, who laughed, groaned and
were suitably (or unsuitably) excited by everything!
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