The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present

by Ronald Hutton

Overview

Why have societies all across the world feared witchcraft? This book delves deeply into its context, beliefs, and origins in Europe’s history

"Traces the idea of witches far beyond the Salem witch trials to beliefs and attitudes about witches around the world throughout history.”—Los Angeles Times

The witch came to prominence—and often a painful death—in early modern Europe, yet her origins are much more geographically diverse and historically deep. In this landmark book, Ronald Hutton traces witchcraft from the ancient world to the early-modern stake.
 
This book sets the notorious European witch trials in the widest and deepest possible perspective and traces the major historiographical developments of witchcraft. Hutton, a renowned expert on ancient, medieval, and modern paganism and witchcraft beliefs, combines Anglo-American and continental scholarly approaches to examine attitudes on witchcraft and the treatment of suspected witches across the world, including in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Australia, and North and South America, and from ancient pagan times to current interpretations. His fresh anthropological and ethnographical approach focuses on cultural inheritance and change while considering shamanism, folk religion, the range of witch trials, and how the fear of witchcraft might be eradicated.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300238679
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	10/02/2018
Pages:	376
Sales rank:	239,311
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ronald Hutton is professor of history, University of Bristol, and a leading authority on ancient, medieval, and modern paganism, the history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the global context of witchcraft beliefs.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vi

Author's Note ix

Introduction xiii

Part I Deep Perspectives

1 The Global Context 3

2 The Ancient Context 44

3 The Shamanic Context 74

Part II Continental Perspectives

4 Ceremonial Magic - The Egyptian Legacy? 99

5 The Hosts of the Night 120

6 What the Middle Ages Made of the Witch 147

7 The Early Modern Patchwork 180

Part III British Perspectives

8 Witches and Fairies 215

9 Witches and Celticity 243

10 Witches and Animals 262

Conclusion 279

Appendix 289

Notes 293

Illustration Credits 345

Index 346

Editorial Reviews

For anyone researching the subject, this is the book you’ve been waiting for.”—Washington Post

“Magisterial . . . Hutton concerns himself with the bad, black version of the craft that has terrified poor souls for centuries. His approach blends a broad geographic sweep with the detailed attention of microhistory.”—Kathryn Hughes, Guardian

“[A] panoptic, penetrating book.”—Malcolm Gaskill, London Review of Books

“What he has done very valuably, though, is to put what most of us know already into a far wider context, both geographically and historically. It’s up to us then to examine our own notions of witches and witchcraft—no longer threatening, but still perfectly familiar.”—Wall Street Journal

“Hutton, a leading authority on paganism and witchcraft, traces the idea of witches far beyond the Salem witch trials to beliefs and attitudes about witches around the world throughout history.”—Los Angeles Times

“Comprehensive . . . Highly recommended for readers interested in witch trials, European folklore, and the history of magical beliefs and practices.”—Library Journal, starred review

“Hutton's exhaustive book explores historical histrionics that resulted in violence against (predominately) women accused of witchcraft.”—Shelf Awareness

"This book [provides] a broad, inclusive, and insightful survey on the witch figure and how these ideas inform the witch trials, while also suggesting provocative shifts for the field at large."—Cimminnee Holt, Reading Religion

"An engrossing journey through the world of witches and witchcraft. Highly recommended for those fascinated by the nature and extent of the notorious European Witch Trials."—Tony Robinson  

"Eloquent, historically grounded, and global in reach, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the social and political context of witchcraft and the manipulation of supposed supernatural powers."—Timothy Darvill, OBE, author of Prehistoric Britain

"Few historical concepts come as imbued with horror and intrigue as that slippery figure of the witch. Ronald Hutton has turned his considerable expertise to this always-current subject, illuminating the late Medieval and early modern idea of witches and witchcraft. Readers looking for a rigorous interdisciplinary approach to the history of witchcraft will devour this book."—Katherine Howe, New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

“The book we have all been waiting for.”—Diane Purkiss, author of The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-century Representations
 

From the Publisher

“The history of witchcraft and its persecution makes for compelling, often terrifying reading. . . what makes [Hutton’s] history unique is it provides a much longer – and broader – perspective. The Witch draws upon previously neglected anthropological and ethnographic findings to set the origins of witchcraft and its subsequent persecution in an ancient and global context.”—Tracy Borman, Literary Review

Literary Review - Tracy Borman

“There are several over-familiar images that we jump to when we think of witches, even today: the hat, the broom, the cauldron. Yet this scholarly, engrossing take on the witch travels across centuries and continents to prove that it is a figure that is both more pervasive and more diverse than we might expect.”—History Revealed

History Revealed

★ 09/01/2017
In this comprehensive study of the factors leading to the European witch hunts of the late Middle Ages and early modern era, Hutton (history; Univ. of Bristol; Pagan Britain) draws upon research in history, anthropology, and folklore studies to pinpoint the characteristics of the typical witch figure and to identify global occurrences of the archetype. The author then narrows his focus to Europe and the Near East, tracing factors over time that contributed to the development of a widespread fear of satanic witches believed to threaten both the safety of local communities and the stability of the Christian faith. Cultural traditions of nocturnal female demons combined with a criticism of elite ceremonial magic to create this concept, which Hutton identifies as the primary catalyst for the vicious persecutions that spread across the continent beginning in the late Middle Ages. Particularly fascinating are Hutton's findings regarding the lack of a strong fear of witches in the Celtic areas of Britain, where an enduring belief in fairies diverted the blame for uncanny misfortunes away from practitioners of alchemy. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers interested in witch trials, European folklore, and the history of magical beliefs and practices.—Sara Shreve, Newton, KS

Library Journal