Tell Me My Future

Screen shots are from James Bond, 007 Live and Let Die (1973).

An Annotated Copy of Advanced Potion-Making

Harry was without a textbook for the magic portion class was used an old copy of the text, which just so happened to be annotated by the student who had come before him.

Screenshot is from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Christopher Drawlight and the Les Cinque Dragownes

Christopher Drawlight was an odious character who took advantage of whoever he could and there was now some talk of using the statutes in the Cinque Dragownes to indict Christopher Drawlight. There are at least two edicts within the statutes that could be used to bring charges against Drawlight.

1. Evil Tending: magic with an inherently malevolent purpose.
2. Pretending to be a magician or pretending to act on behalf of a magician

Drawlight was one of the two persons that Johnathan Strange encountered when he stepped out from the mirror if you remember from my previous post, he had been traveling on the King's Roads. Drawlight was there seeking spells from people for a fee, these spells were supposing being commissioned by Mr. Norrell. This of course was not a fact at all, Drawlight had found another way to defraud his acquaintances.

It is a shame that Drawlight was found out because the long list of spells that Mrs. Bullworth wanted would have been very lucrative for Drawlight.

Here is a short list of spells that the vindictive Mrs. Bullworth wanted commissioned:

• Sir James Southwal, gout
• Miss Elizabeth Church, to have her engagement called off
• Mr. Bullworth, to be bitten by dogs
• Mrs. Bullworth, senior, a) to be drowned in a laundry tub, b) to choke to death on her own apricot preserves, c) and to be baked accidently in a bread oven…

Take note of the preferred outcomes of the spells. It is especially horrifying how three recommendations were made for her ex-mother in-law. Some-how Mrs. Bullworth would have liked all three of these calamities to befall her ex-mother in-law.

Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

Post #53

Les Cinque Dragownes

Les Cinque Dragownes was a tribunal created by John Uskglass, during the middles ages to help in the regulation of English magic.

The crimes the Cinque Dragownes tried were the following:

1. Evil Tending: magic with an inherently malevolent purpose
2. False Magic: pretending to do magic or promising to do magic which one either could not or did not intend to do
3. Selling magic articles, like rings, hats, coats, shoes, etc. to people who could not be expected to control those powerful articles
4. Pretending to be a magician or pretending to act on behalf of a magician
5. Teaching magic to a unsuitable person

Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

Post #52

Traveling on The King’s Roads

Johnathan Strange had used the King’s Roads to locate Drawlight and popped out of the mirror that hung above the very two-seater that Drawlight and Mrs. Bullworth had been conversing. Having concluded his interview with Drawlight, Strange walked the five miles from Hampstead to Soho-square. It was quite late when Strange arrived home. He found that he had company at the house. Along with his wife Arabella, there was Sir Walter and Colonel Grant. The later two had been contacted by Strange’s wife after Strange had been away for some time.

Strange was asked if he had indeed found the Kings Roads and he explained what he add had found:

“I do not have the words to describe it. All that Norrell and I have done is as nothing in comparison! I wish I could give you an idea of its grandeur! Or its size and complexity! Of the great stone halls that lead off in every direction! I tried at first to judge their length and number, but soon gave up. There seemed no end of them. There were canals of still water on stone embarkments. The water appeared black in the gloomy light. I saw staircases that rose up so high I could not see the top of them, and others that descended into utter darkness. Then suddenly I passed under a bridge that crossed a dark empty landscape. The bridge was so vast that I could not see the end of it. And everywhere in the halls and on the bridge, I saw his likeness.”

Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

Post #51

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Revised on: 9.18.21

John Uskglass and the Restoration of English Magic

“I have never heard of him,” said Childermass. Vinculus looked at him with amusement, “Off course not. You have lived your life in the Mayfair magician’s pocket. You only know what he knows. “So! Said Childermass, stung. “That is not so very trifling is it? Norrel is a clever man and Strange another. They have their faults, as other men do, but their achievements are still remarkable. Make no mistake; I am John Uskglass’s man; or would be, if he were here. But you must admit that the restoration of English magic is their work, not his.”“ Their work, scoffed Vinculus! "Theirs? Do you still not understand? They are the spell of John Uskglass’s doing. That is all they have ever been. And he is doing it now!”

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, Suzanna Clarke

Post #51

Trees Speak to Stone; Stones Speak to Water

“When a young girl slipped on the ice and fell through the roof of a hot-house a young man, named Joseph Abney saved the girl by using magic. He used Martin Pale’s Restoration and Rectification¹ spell to mend the broken bones and Teilo’s Hand² to stem the flow of blood.”

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¹‘Restoration and Rectification is a spell which reverses the effects of a recent calamity.

²Teilo’s Hand is an ancient fairy spell which can halt the flow of all sorts of things. This spell presumably is named after the fairy who first taught a English magician how to use it.‘