Description
Until now studies on the history of witchcraft and sorcery have been largely from the Anglo-Saxon perspective. This study attempts to show how that approach has blurred our understanding and definition of the issues involved, and sheds new light on witchcraft in England. What had hitherto been seen as peculiar to England is now shown to be characteristic of much of northern Europe. In ending the Anglo-Saxon monopoly of witchcraft studies, this book takes into account major new developments in the historiography of witchcraft - in methodology and in the chronological and geographical scope of the studies.
Table of Contents
- Part 1 Witchcraft, law and theology: witchcraft and Catholic theology
- Protestant demonology - sin, superstition and society
- inquisitorial law and the witch. Part 2 Origins of the witches' Sabbath
- the nature of the Sabbath
- Satanic myths and cultural reality
- "fantasticall and devilishe persons" - European witch-beliefs in comparative perspective
- "the ladies from outside" - an archaic pattern of the witches' Sabbath. Part 3 Witch-hunting in Scandinavia and other peripheries: Hungary - the accusations and the universe of popular magic
- Estonia - werewolves and poisoners
- the crusade against idolatory
- Sweden - the mass burnings (1668- 1676)
- Finland - the male domination
- Denmark - the sociology of accusations
- Norway - the criminological context
- Iceland - sorcerers and paganism
- Portugal - a scrupulous inquisition. Part 4 Conclusions: Scandinavian witchcraft in Anglo-American perspective
- the comparative approach to European witchcraft.
by "Nielsen BookData"