ISBN 978-1-84519-079-8 I II III 9 781845 190798 CUNNING FOLK AND FAMILIAR SPIRITS Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraftand Magic -- EMMA WILBY sussex ACADEMIC PRE S S BRIGHTON. PORTLAND Copyright © Emma Wilby, 2005; 2009; 2010. The right of Emma Wilby to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. 468 10 9 753 First published 2005, reprinted 2009 and 2010, in Great Britain by SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS PO Box 139 Eastbourne BN24 9BP and in the United States of America by SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS 920 NE 58th Ave Suite 300 Portland, Oregon 97213-3786 and in Canada by SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS (CANADA) 90 Arnold Avenue, Thornhill, Ontario L4J IB5 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wilby, Emma. Cunning-folk and familiar spirits : shamanistic visionary traditions in early modern British witchcraft and magic / by Emma Wilby. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-84519-079-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Witchcraft-Great Britain-History-16th century. 2. Witchcraft­ Great Britain-History-17th century. 3. Magic-Great Britain-History -16th century. 4. Magic-Great Britain-History-1 7th century. I. Title. BF1581.W54 2005 133.4'3'094109031-dc22 2005005582 Mixed Sources Product group from well�managed forests and other controlled sources WWw.15(.org (eft no. SGS-COC-24B2 e 1996 forest Stewardship Council Typeset and designed by Sussex Academic Press, Brighton & Eastbourne. Printed by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall. This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS List of Illustrations VI Preface Walking with Spirits - A Cunning Woman's Tale Vlll Acknowledgments XVI Part I Demon and Fairy Familiars: The Historical Context INTRODUCTION TO PART I 3 ONE A Harsh and Enchanted World 8 TWO Cunning Folk and Witches 26 THREE The Magical Use of Spirits 46 FOUR Human and Spirit: The Meeting 59 FIVE The Working Relationship 77 SIX Renunciation and Pact 92 SEVEN Demon and Fairy: The Interface 112 Part II Anthropological Perspectives INTRODUCTION TO PART II 123 EIGHT The Shaman's Calling 128 NINE Spirit Worlds and High Gods 146 Part III The Experiential Dimension INTRODUCTION TO PART III 163 TEN Phantasticks and Phantasms 165 ELEVEN Psychosis or Spirituality? 185 TWELVE The Unrecognized Mystics 199 THIRTEEN Greedigut and the Angel Gabriel 218 FOURTEEN The Freedom of Magic 243 Notes 258 Bibliography 294 Index 303 v ILLUSTRATIONS The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omis­ sions in this list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book. PAGE 9 Cour de fe rme by Jan Siberechts (1662). Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels. PAGE 33 Frontispiece to Popular Errours or the Errours of the people in matter of Physick by James Primrose (1651). The Wellcome Library, London. PAGE 49 Title page to 'A detection of damnable driftes ...' (1579). The British Library (C27.a.8). PAGE 65 Frontispiece to The Discovery of Witches (1647). The British Library (E.388.(2)). PAGE 80 Frontispiece to Pandaemonium, or the Devil's Cloyster by Richard Bovet (1684). The British Library (719.d.24). PAGE 103 The 'Witch of Berkeley' from Cronica Cronicarum ab Initio Mundi ...by Hartmann Schedel (1493). La Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (Res. Qe-55); Fairy Hill from Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus by Olaus Magnus (1555): Book 3, Chapter 10. PAGE 108 Frontispiece from Robin Goodfe llow, his mad prankes and merry jests ... (1639). The Folger Shakespeare Library; A witch feeding her familiars from A Rehearsal! both straung and true ... (1579). The British Library (c.27.a.11). VI ILLUSTRATrONS PAGE 140 Alualuk's spirits from Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos by Knud Rasmussen (1976). Original drawings, the National Museum of Denmark; Healing the Sick. Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives (NAA-30981-c). PAGE 172 Helping spirit from Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos by Knud Rasmussen (1976). Original drawings, the National Museum of Denmark; Demon familiar from The examination and Confession of certayn Wytches at Chensforde ... (1566) Lambeth Palace Library (ZZ 1587. 12. 03); Flight of the Shaman by Jessie Oonark (1970) Stonecut and stencil on paper. 52.0 x 66.8 cm (sheet) cm (imp.) Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto: Gift of the Klamer Family, 1978. Copyright: Public Trustee for Nunavut, estate of Jessie Oonark. PAGE 173 The Witches' Sabbath by Hans Baldung Grien (1485-1545). Chiaroscuro woodcut printed from two blocks in grey and black. Block/image: 37.8 x 26.0 cm (14718 x 10 in.) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Bequest of W. G. Russell Allen (69.1064). PAGE 182 A cunning man in a trance from Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus by Olaus Magnus (1567), Book 3, Chapter 17. University of Pennsylvania; Untitled Ledger Drawing, Galloping, Littleman, Kiowa or Sweetwater, Cheyenne, December 1894-January 1895. Pencil, ink and crayon on paper. Buffalo Bill Historical Centre, Cody, Wyoming: Gift of Mr and Mrs Joseph M. Katz (48.59.8). PAGE 227 Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons by Martin Schongauer (1470-75) Engraving. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, 1950. PAGE 235 The Annunciation from Albrecht Durer's Small Passion series (1510); Joan Prentice and her familiars, from The Apprehension and confession of three notorious Witches ...(158 9) Lambeth Palace Library (ZZ 1597.15.03). PAGE 248 Death and the Child from the Dance of Death series by Hans Holbein the Younger (1523-26); Frontispiece from The history of Tom Thumb ...by Richard Johnson. Imprinted at London: [by A. Mathewes?] for Tho: Langley, 1621. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (PML 45444). Vll PREFACE Walking with Spirits A Cunning Woman's Tale At the Edinburgh assizes, November the eighth, 1576, a Scotswoman named Bessie Dunlop was tried fo r sorcery and witchcraft. 'f A wife and mother, Bessie had been arrested several months previously at or near her home in the parish of Dairy, Ayrshire, and taken before the Bishop of Glasgow. Th e Bishop had considered her case either grave or problem­ atic enough to send her to a higher court. By the time she reached the Edinburgh assizes Bessie had been imprisioned fo r many weeks and had undergone several interrogations. 1 At this fi nal hearing she stood in a crowded courtroom while her previous confessions were read out before the judge, the jury, and a press of onlookers, and recorded in meticulous detail by the assize clerks.2 Their records state that: ,- The confession reproduced here is a copy of the transcription of the original trial records made by the Scottish historian, Robert Pitcairn, in the early nineteenth century. I have made some minor modifications to Pitcairn's text in order to make it more acces­ sible to the modern reader. The punctuation and spelling has been modernized wherever possible. Obsolete words for which an exact translation can be found have been changed to their modern equivalent, such as 'thow: you' or 'quhen: when'. Antiquated words and phrases for which I have not found a precise enough transla­ tion have been retained, alongside a conjectural interpretation in parentheses, and are glossed on their first appearance only. Occasionally words have been parenthesized to clarify the grammatical sense of a phrase or passage. [J Square brackets enclose words or phrases added by me to clarify the sense of passage. ['-J Square brackets containing a word or phrase preceded by an asterisk enclose a conjectural translation of an obscure word or phrase. [?J Square brackets containing a word or phrase preceded by a question mark indi­ cates that the meaning is very obscure and that the translation amounts to an educated guess. Vlll PREFACE ELIZABETH or BESSIE DUNLOP, spouse to Andrew Jack in Lyne,3 [is] accused of the using of Sorcery, Witchcraft and Incantation, with Invocation of spirits of the devil, continuing in familiarity with them at all such times as she thought expedient [and] dealing with charms and abusing the people with [the] devilish craft of sorcery forsaid by the means after specified. [She] used these [magical practices for] diverse years bypast, specially at the times and in [the] manner following: 1. IN the first, That forasmuch as the said Elizabeth being asked4 by what art and knowledge she could tell diverse persons of things they tynt [?lost] or were stolen away, or help sick persons she answered al1d declared that she herself had no kind of art nor science for to do, but diverse times, when any such persons came ather [?] to her she would ask one Tom Reid, who died at Pinkie,s as he himself affirmed, who would tell her whenever she asked. 2. ITEM, She being asked what kind of man this Tom Reid was, declared he was an honest well ['fquite/very] elderly man, grey bearded, and had a grey coat with Lombard sleeves of the old fashion, a pair of grey breeches and white stockings gartered above the knee, a black bonnet on his head, cloise [?close] behind and plain before, with silken laces drawn through the lippis ['fedges] thereof and a white wand in his hand.