Some Modern Books on Witchcraft

From the later fifteenth century, which brought forth that monumental vade mecum of the witch hunter, the Malleus Maleficarum, to our own day, writings on witches and witchcraft have been of a sort to bewilder the curious inquirer, who is beset by the conflicting presentations of jurists, theologians, doctors, historians, anthropologists and popular writers ranging from honest description to the horrific and sensational. Delving deeper into the writings of the authorities, he may be further confused by an incredible variety of aspects of occultism, of devils and demons, of incubus and succubus, of believers and sceptics. The expressed attitudes to witchcraft vary from holy indignation or superior incredulity to openly asserted belief. In the various accounts the declared practitioners of witchcraft range from ancient, mumbling beldames through all ages and types to the belle dame sans merci of ballad and romance, from the surreptitious dealer in love potions or death by image magic to today's overt and indeed proud claimant of membership in a currently existing witch coven.' Most baffling of all to any quest for precision in definition, history or interpretation of witchcraft is the strength of emotional excitement frequently aroused by this subject. From early to modern times, this theme has been a storm-centre for polemical literature, often subjective and personally acrimonious to an inordinate degree. Forty years ago, in 1921, Dr Murray threw a pebble in the pool and stirred the waters of scholarly and popular speculation with her book, The Witch Cult in Western Europe. In this she propounded the thesis, based on less-known chronicles and verbatim reports of

Art · Literature · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History

• Margaret Murray

  Jacqueline Simpson•Folklore•1994

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• The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology

  Arthur Freeman, Rossell Hope Robbins•Journal of American Folklore•1960

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