This books explores varying conceptions of the Nightmare hag, mara, in Scandinavian folk belief. What began as observations of some startling narratives preserved in folklore archives where sex, violence and curses are recurring themes gradually led to questions as to how rural people envisaged good and evil, illness and health, and cause and effect. At closer reading, narratives about the mara character involve existential themes, as well as comments on gender and social hierarchy. This monograph analyses how this female creature was conceived of...
This books explores varying conceptions of the Nightmare hag, mara, in Scandinavian folk belief. What began as observations of some s...
This book redresses popular interpretations of concealed objects, enigmatically discovered within the fabric of post-medieval buildings. A wide variety of objects have been found up chimneybreasts, bricked up in walls, and concealed within recesses: old shoes, mummified cats, horse skulls, pierced hearts, to name only some. The most common approach to these finds is to apply a one-size-fits-all analysis and label them survivals and apotropaic (evil-averting) devices. This book reconsiders such interpretations, exploring the invention and reinvention of traditions regarding building magic. The...
This book redresses popular interpretations of concealed objects, enigmatically discovered within the fabric of post-medieval buildings. A wide variet...
This book provides a history of witchcraft in the territories that compose contemporary Romania, with a focus on the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. The first part presents aspects of earthly justice, religious and secular, analysing the codes of law, trials and verdicts, and underlining the differences between Transylvania on one hand, and Moldavia and Wallachia on the other. The second part is concerned with divine justice, describing apocalyptic texts that talk about the pains of witches in hell, but also the ensembles of religious painting where, in vast compositions of the Last...
This book provides a history of witchcraft in the territories that compose contemporary Romania, with a focus on the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries...
This book provides a historical and socio-legal investigation into the prevalence of litigation arising from cursing and interpersonal hostility in the under-explored region of Northwest England during a period of acute socio-economic crisis in the seventeenth century. Contributing to the scholarship of magic and witchcraft, it shows the complex circumstances of the world of healing and harming using customary knowledge such as magic and folk medicine as it is variously presented in the documents of the legal system. While primary sources such as pamphlets have usefully informed numerous...
This book provides a historical and socio-legal investigation into the prevalence of litigation arising from cursing and interpersonal hostility in...
This book addresses the varied performances of magic in medieval and early modern Scandinavia. It provides a comprehensive review of the rapidly expanding field of European magic and specifically discusses performances of magic in the pre-modern north. By employing innovating methodologies and covering a wide temporal range, the book offers a uniquely interdisciplinary approach to the study of magic in the pre-modern North. In addition, the minority-driven contributions, written by an international group of dynamic and diverse scholars, complement one another to highlight the...
This book addresses the varied performances of magic in medieval and early modern Scandinavia. It provides a comprehensive review of the ...
This is a historical and anthropological study of the myth of the werewolf aimed at reflecting on the metamorphoses of evil and understanding the long evolution of a mythical structure. Legends and folklore allow us to explore the brutal bestiality of a figure loaded with sexuality, eroticism, and desire. From ancient times to the present day, the tragic narrative universe of a strange and dangerous wild world is unfolded, with elements of tenderness, that has contributed to defining the profile of civilization as its opposite. The myth was contaminated with religious fanaticism when...
This is a historical and anthropological study of the myth of the werewolf aimed at reflecting on the metamorphoses of evil and understanding the l...
