Between the end of the Middle Ages and the late 18th century, over 50,000 Europeans were persecuted, tortured and executed on charges of witchcraft. The pogrom was triggered by the book 'Malleus Maleficarum', published in 1486. Its detailed instructions for persecuting and annihilating alleged witches triggered a mass hysteria.

An analysis of the sources of inspiration that fed the imagination of the British writer, poet and philologist J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973), great master of epic fantasy.