Witchcraft, magic and culture, 1736-1951 / Owen Davies.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Davies, Owen, 1969-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Magic--Great Britain.
• Witchcraft--Great Britain--History.
• Witchcraft.
• History.
• Magic.
• Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xii, 337 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press, 1999.

Summary:

• Most Studies of witchcraft and magic have been concerned with the era of the witch-trials, a period that officially came to an end in Britain with the passing of the Witchcraft Act of 1736. However, the fear of witches remained prevalent, and the resort to magic and magical practitioners persisted long after this law was passed. Suspected witches continued to appear in British courts up until the early twentieth century, though by then it was their persecutors who were being punished.
• For the first time, this book traces the history of witchcraft and magic from 1736 to the year 1951, when the passing of the Fraudulent Mediums Act finally erased the concept of witchcraft from the statute books. The reader will discover the extent to which witchcraft, magic and fortune-telling influenced the thoughts and actions of the people of England and Wales in a period when the forces of 'progress' are often thought to have vanquished such beliefs.

Contents:

• 1 Educated Attitudes Towards the Popular Belief in Witchcraft and Magic 1
• The denial of witchcraft and the defence of property 2
• Witchcraft: an anachronism in the 'Age of Enlightenment' 7
• Continuing religious interest in witchcraft 11
• Possession, religion and spiritualism 18
• Witchcraft and insanity 39
• Reforming the popular mind 44
• The legal debate over the Witchcraft and Vagrancy Acts 61
• 2 Witchcraft and Popular Justice 79
• The decline of witchcraft prosecutions 79
• Authority's role in the persecution and prosecution of witches 83
• Swimming: the popular adoption of a continental practice 86
• The continued resort to figures of authority and their response 100
• Witch-mobbing as an act of folk justice 106
• Witch-mobbing, the parish constable and the coming of the new police 109
• 3 Witchcraft, Magic and Popular Literature 120
• Literacy and literature 121
• Broadsides 124
• Chapbooks 130
• Prophecy 142
• The witch and the Devil 147
• Almanacs 153
• Anti-superstition literature 157
• 4 The Witch 167
• Witches, folklore and belief 168
• Characteristics of the archetypal witch 174
• Fairies, flying and shape-shifting 184
• The witch in court 193
• Origins of accusations 201
• Bewitchment and social space 207
• 5 Occult Practitioners 214
• Cunning-folk 214
• Astrologers 229
• Astrologers of London 236
• Fortune-tellers 246
• The reinvention of fortune-telling 250
• Gypsies 258
• Fortune-telling and the First World War 266
• 6 Declining Belief in Witchcraft 271
• Measuring declining belief 272
• Cultural change and the retiring witch 278.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

• 0719056551
• 071905656X

OCLC:

41338629