Macbeth vs Time Travellers

[jack]

Macbeth: So how will I die?
Time Traveller 1: Let's just say, no man born of woman will kill you
Time Traveller 1: *elbows other time traveller significantly and nods meaningfully*
Macbeth: Oh, come on. That doesn't really mean anything. I could fall off my horse and die.
Time Traveller 2: I don't think you'll have to worry about that.
Macbeth: So I'll just die of old age.
Time Traveller 2: Oh, well, not necessarily.
Macbeth: Seriously guys, if you're not giving me a straight answer, I'm just assuming you're messing with me with loopholes.
Time Traveller 1: OK, OK.
Time Traveller 2: OK, let me be straight. For at least 500 years you will definitely not die of old age, of disease, of accident, or even being, like, being stabbed from behind, or anything similar.
Macbeth (suspiciously): And I will not be killed by anyone "of woman born"?
Time Traveller 1: Nope.
Time Traveller 1: Not, like, angels or chimeras or wild animals or such either.
Macbeth: Hmmmmm.
Time Traveller 2: Look at it like this. You will not die AT ALL, until Burnham Wood gets up and walks to Dunsinane *snickers*
Time travellers: *high five*

Because it seems like for the witches thing to make sense they need to (a) know what would specifically happen but (b) be messing with Macbeth, or have a vested interest in telling him something but still have things happen that way.

I'm reminded of one of Piers Athonies, where a computer oracle was made that could tell the future, but could potentially choose *which* future as long as the predictions it made were true. For instance, it told the protagonist that X would try to kill him -- but that only happened because the protagonist tried to kill it first.

Inspired by the tumblr post:

writing-prompt-s: You’re teleported to 44 BCE Rome in your everyday street clothes. You’re brought before Caesar and he believes you might be from the future, hoping to bring him fortune. One day he questions you, asking "How Do I Die?"

calamitouserebus: "Surrounded by friends"

Comments

[ptc24]

Recently my parents and I went to the cinema to see a live broadcast of Verdi's opera version of Macbeth. In that one it's pretty clear that the witches are in league with dark powers, probably the devil.

There's a very early scene where the witches ask each other what they're up to, one of them is plotting disproportionate revenge on the husband of some woman who chased her off (Verdi adds: "to hell", which raises the question of how she's here now, but whatever). Another one has been out killing swine, which maybe there's something suspicious there, or maybe she just wanted some bacon. A bit of googling suggests that killing domestic animals was a fairly standard accusation about witches.

I'm guessing this is fairly standard Malleus Maleficarum-era thought about witches. (Incidentally earlier Christian thought seems to have varied - I remember reading that in the early medieval period (i.e. the dark ages) the official belief was "don't be stupid and superstitious, witchcraft isn't real, people who burn supposed witches should be punished for murder" and somewhere between then and now things went a bit crazy. Some people blame the printing press.)

There's another reading that says that the witches are agents of an all-powerful being bent on causing scenes of great woe: the playwright.

[marnanel]

"Ancient legends tell of the creation of the world by these Implementors, who directed the running of great engines which produced this world and others strange and wondrous, as a test or puzzle for others of their kind."