Late 16th century Venice, where a woman can be a nun, a wife or a courtesan. For Veronica Franco, the free spirited girl scorned by because of her lack of wealth, the choice is an obvious one…
Scottish Witchcraft: Background and Practices
July 12, 2015 By
Witch hunting became intensified in many parts of Europe during the Protestant Reformation, and especially so in Scotland.
Witchcraft on the High Seas: The Voyage of King James and the North Berwick Witch Trials
May 31, 2015 By
Being a man with a strong curiosity, James was personally involved with the witch trials, which was unusual for a monarch. More than one hundred people were arrested and accused.
Ritualized Violence against Sorcerers in Fifteenth-Century France
May 10, 2015 By
These tales of violence and sorcery reveal interesting interactions with renowned sorcerers in villages that had not yet become involved in the witch hunts that were beginning to break out in the mountains in eastern France
BOOKS: Medieval Ireland
March 17, 2015 By
In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, here are some great books on medieval Ireland!
Witchcraft Trials In Sweden: With Neighbours Like These, Who Needs Enemies?!
January 19, 2015 By
Everyone has “that” neighbour on their floor, or street who they’d secretly love to move to Mars and never see again. Well, the Early Modern Swedes had a way of dealing with those kinds of nasty neighbours…
Trolls in the Middle Ages
January 6, 2015 By
Where did trolls come from? What did medieval and early modern people think of trolls? How did the concept of the modern day troll evolve?
How Witches Looked in Medieval Art
December 13, 2014 By
I recently visited the British Museum and enjoyed their Witches and Wicked Bodies exhibit which runs until January 11th, 2015. It displays art depicting witches from the middle ages up to the late nineteenth century. This post looks at a few late medieval interpretations of witches and the artists behind these works.
Crafting the witch: Gendering magic in medieval and early modern England
November 2, 2014 By
This project documents and analyzes the gendered transformation of magical figures occurring in Arthurian romance in England from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries.
10 Terrifying Reads for Halloween!
October 23, 2014 By
Here are some spooky medieval books for you to celebrate with over Halloween!
Constructing the Wicked Witch: Discourses of Power in the Witch-Hunts of Early Modern Germany
September 7, 2014 By
For the people of early modern Germany, the witch was not the cackling menace of fairytales or myth, but a real-life scourge on society that needed to be purged from their lives.
The American Dark Ages and the Terrorist Witch in Season of the Witch
July 21, 2014 By
In this article we argue that medieval films are not to be analyzed according to their faithfulness to the known historical sources, but that they can only be fully analyzed by understanding medievalist codes, traditions and (filmic) intertextuality.
Plague and Persecution: The Black Death and Early Modern Witch Hunts
January 27, 2014 By
The century or so from approximately 1550 to 1650 is a period during which witch-hunts reached unprecedented frequency and intensity. The circumstances that fomented the witch- hunts—persistent warfare, religious conflict, and harvest failures—had occurred before, but witch-hunts had never been so ubiquitous or severe.
The Contemporary Evidence for Early Medieval Witchcraft-Beliefs
January 21, 2014 By
This article has two main aims. One is to bring to a wider audience a small group of early medieval texts pertinent to the history of witchcraft…
Devil Worship in the Middle Ages
December 6, 2013 By
Probably the most reasonable explanation of the Devil worship phenomenon at this time is a combination of both of these hypotheses. Lingering ideas of pre-Christian cults of Diana and the Homed God became entwined with the doctrine of the Catholic Church concerning evil.
Sorcery at court and manor: Margery Jourdemayne, the witch of Eye next Westminster
October 29, 2013 By
One of the most sensational episodes of the mid-fifteenth century was the trial for treasonable witchcraft of Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester. As the wife of a royal duke, Humphrey of Gloucester, uncle to the young Henry VI, she not only moved in the highest circles but, since the king was still unmarried, was also amongst the first ladies in the land.
Why Cats were hated in Medieval Europe
October 2, 2013 By
Cats in medieval Europe mostly had a bad reputation – they were associated with witches and heretics, and it was believed that the devil could transform himself into a black cat.
When Witches Communed with Fairies
September 20, 2013 By
The late sagas Gundarsson goes on to mention are written after conversion to Christianity, so we see a shift in the way alfs are viewed by the Norse during pre and post conversion periods.
The Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyteler
July 26, 2013 By
In 1324, Richard Ledrede, bishop of Ossory, declared that his diocese was a hotbed of devil worshippers. The central figure in this affair was Alice Kyteler, a wealthy Kilkenny woman who stood accused of witchcraft by her stepchildren.
Blood beliefs in early modern Europe
June 29, 2013 By
This thesis focuses on the significance of blood and the perception of the body in both learned and popular culture in order to investigate problems of identity and social exclusion in early modern Europe.
Sexuality in the Natural and Demonic Magic of the Middle Ages
March 27, 2013 By
Throughout the Middle Ages – especially the later Middle Ages – ideas of magic played a large part in the formation of deviant sexual behaviours and it was believed that magic played a main role in sexual malfunctions and abilities.
The Light was retreating before Darkness: Tales of the Witch hunt and climate change
March 10, 2013 By
Little by little, out of the old conviction —pagan and Christian— of evil interference in atmospheric phenomena evolved the belief that some people may use malign sorcery to set off whirlwinds hail, frosts, floods and other destructive weather events.
Myths and mandrakes
March 4, 2013 By
Others, however, began to wonder whether the possession of roots might not bring them success in other areas as well—wealth, popularity, or the power to control their own and other people’s destinies, and took to wearing them as good luck charms.
Anaphrodisiac Charms in the Nordic Middle Ages: Impotence, Infertility, and Magic
January 16, 2013 By
This essay, however, looks to explore, not this seductive form of charm magic, but rather its opposite, ie charm magic that prevents the consumption of a relationship, or that makes a fruitful union impossible.
The Beginning of Card Games
January 14, 2013 By
Records of card playing begin to appear in Europe about the year 1300. The cards in use in the preceding century were in the
hands of the wandering gypsies who came across the mountains of southern Europe, from whence no one knew.
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