SCOTLAND HISTORY

Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: James Vi's Demonology and the North Berwick Witches by Lawrence Normand

Publisher's Synopsis
This volume provides a valuable introduction to the key concepts of witchcraft and demonology through a detailed study of one of the best known and most notorious episodes of Scottish history, the North Berwick witch hunt, in which King James was involved as alleged victim, interrogator, judge and demonologist. It provides hitherto unpublished and inaccessible material from the legal documentation of the trials in a way that makes the material fully comprehensible, as well as full texts of the pamphlet News from Scotland and James† Demonology, all in a readable, modernised, scholarly form. Full introductory sections and supporting notes provide information about the contexts needed to understand the texts: court politics, social history and culture, religious changes, law and the workings of the court, and the history of witchcraft prosecutions in Scotland before 1590. The book also brings to bear on this material current scholarship on the history of European witchcraft.

The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context by Julian Goodare

Publisher's Synopsis
This book is a collection of essays on Scottish witchcraft and witch-hunting, which covers the whole period of the Scottish witch-hunt, from the mid-16th century to the early 18th. It particularly emphasizes the later stages, since scholars are now as keen to explain why witch-hunting declined as why it occurred. There are studies of particular witchcraft panics, including a reassessment of the role of King James VI. The book thus covers a wide range of topics concerned with Scottish witch-hunting - and also places it in the context of other topics: gender relations, folklore, magic and healing, and moral regulation by church and state.

Witches and Witchcraft in Scotland by W. H. Davenport Adams

Publisher's Synopsis
This book is a collection of essays on Scottish witchcraft and witch-hunting, which covers the whole period of the Scottish witch-hunt, from the mid-16th century to the early 18th. It particularly emphasizes the later stages, since scholars are now as keen to explain why witch-hunting declined as why it occurred. There are studies of particular witchcraft panics, including a reassessment of the role of King James VI. The book thus covers a wide range of topics concerned with Scottish witch-hunting - and also places it in the context of other topics: gender relations, folklore, magic and healing, and moral regulation by church and state.

Scottish Witches and Wizards by H. M. Fleming

Publisher's Synopsis
"Scottish Witches and Wizards features true accounts of people accused of witchcraft and sorcery from the perilous times of the Scottish witch-hunts. An accusation, however ill-founded, often led to trial and being burnt at the stake." Described are the reputed powers of witches and wizards - including charms, spells, and demonic pact - how this magic was used, and what happened to those who were accused: some 3,000 people in all.

The Witches of Fife: Witch-hunting in a Scottish Shire, 1560-1710 by Stuart Macdonald

Synopsis
Along the coast of Fife, in villages like Culross and Pittenweem, historical markers and pamphlets now include the fact that some women were executed as witches within these burghs. Still the reality of what happened the night that Janet Cornfoot was lynched in the harbour is hard to grasp as one sits in the harbour of Pittenweem watching the fishing boats unload their catch and the pleasure boats rising with the tide. How could people do this to an old woman? Why was no-one ever brought to justice? And why would anyone defend such a lynching? The task of the historian is to try to make events in the past come alive and seem less strange. This is particularly true in the case of the historian dealing with the witch-hunt. The details are fascinating. Some of the anecdotes are strange. The modern reader finds it hard to imagine illness being blamed on the malevolence of a beggar woman denied charity. It is difficult to understand the economic failure of a sea voyage being attributed to the village hag, not bad weather. Witch-hunting was related to ideas, values, attitudes and political events. It was a complicated process, involving religious and civil authorities, village tensions and the fears of the elite. The witch-hunt in Scotland also took place at a time when one of the main agendas was the creation of a righteous or godly society. As a result, religious authorities had control over aspects of the lives of the people which seem every bit as strange to us today as might any beliefs about magic or witchcraft. That the witch-hunt in Scotland, and specifically in Fife, should have happened at this time was not accidental. This book tells the story of what occurred over a period of a century and a half, and offers some explanation as to why it occurred.

The Gaelic Otherworld: John Gregorson Campbell's Superstitions Of The Highlands And Islands Of Scotland And Witchcraft & Second Sight In The Highlands & Islands by Ronald Black

Synopsis
John Gregorson Campbell (1836-91) was one of a number of outstanding folklorists who collected and published the traditions of their native Highlands and Islands during the second half of the nineteenth century and the first few years of the twentieth. In addition to a trail-blazing introduction which places these Highland beliefs firmly in their social context, Ronald Black provides substantial explanatory endnotes and a comprehensive new index, all of which allow The Gaelic Otherworld to take its proper place as a classic of world folklore.