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A review by mburnamfink
The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present by Ronald Hutton
5.0
The Witch is a stunning examination of the mythological figure of the the witch, and the the destructive origins of the European witchcraft trial, using a deeply cross-cultural and historical examination.
Green Lung-Woodland Rites because \m/.
Unlike some of the other reviews here, I do not have a relevant academic background, but I do have an academic background, and I appreciate Hutton's historiographic approach. It's essentially impossible for a modern academic to accept at face value the literal factuality of the witch. While tens of thousands of people were tried and executed, none of them were in fact Satanically empowered magical workers. Worse, the area of study is divided between historical studies of European witchcraft and anthropological studies of current African witch trials, which are still killing people. Interdisciplinarity is hard.
Hutton opens by framing two very common mytho-social figures. The witch is a malevolent magic user who undermines the community in secret: blighting farms, causing illness, killing animals and children. And the service magician is someone empowered to protect people from supernatural threats, including witches, and is paid to intervene and protect people.
Hutton's journey begins in antiquity, where Egyptian religious ritual provides a framework for manipulating divine power that gets filtered through other Mediterranean and Near Eastern belief systems; Mesopotamian, Persian, Jewish, Greek, and eventually Roman. The Romans believed in curses and they believe in striga, malevolent female magicians who could transform into birds and drank blood. A cosmopolitan society still concerned with Roman vs foreign values, witches were accused of using foreign magic to undermine Roman emperors, and thousands were put to death, mostly in the 3rd century.
Witchcraft disappeared for a thousand years, though the Middle Ages saw the rise of new magical traditions. In the British Isles, faery courts blended Celtic legend with chivalric codes. The Italians imagined the benedicta, woman who brought blessings to those who respected them. And the Germans had the wild hunt, a ghostly procession of dead souls that could harm those caught up in it.
Witch trials as a social concern didn't really arise until the 1420s, when reformist Benedictine monks in Switzerland began to press for renewed, orthodox faith. Non-Christian elements, including ancient forms of ritual magic preserved in an educated counter-culture, and revitalized by closer links to the Near East due to the Crusades, were the target along with peasant culture. As Europe fell into schism between Catholic and Protestant, social enemies became labeled as part of heretical satanic cult. The fallout killed thousands.
Hutton's thesis is a direct counter of older, mostly discredited ideas that European witchcraft represented some kind of legacy paganism, either a continuation of Siberian shamanism or an undocumented matriarchal religion. Rather, witch trials are a response to massive political and social unrest, filtered through an imaginative Early Modern popular culture which drew on pre-Christian and Christian iconography. The accused in the trials were in no ways part of any organized faction or cult, even if they confessed so under torture.
Hutton book's is systematic and comprehensive. Evidence in this kind of folkloric field is a scanty thing, but I buy his conclusions. However, this is an academic tome that is not friendly to a beginner, and there may be other books. I felt particularly adrift with the lack of an exemplary witch trial, some concrete moment to hand the broad historical trends around. Still, very impressive and a worthy addition to my knowledge.
Green Lung-Woodland Rites because \m/.
Unlike some of the other reviews here, I do not have a relevant academic background, but I do have an academic background, and I appreciate Hutton's historiographic approach. It's essentially impossible for a modern academic to accept at face value the literal factuality of the witch. While tens of thousands of people were tried and executed, none of them were in fact Satanically empowered magical workers. Worse, the area of study is divided between historical studies of European witchcraft and anthropological studies of current African witch trials, which are still killing people. Interdisciplinarity is hard.
Hutton opens by framing two very common mytho-social figures. The witch is a malevolent magic user who undermines the community in secret: blighting farms, causing illness, killing animals and children. And the service magician is someone empowered to protect people from supernatural threats, including witches, and is paid to intervene and protect people.
Hutton's journey begins in antiquity, where Egyptian religious ritual provides a framework for manipulating divine power that gets filtered through other Mediterranean and Near Eastern belief systems; Mesopotamian, Persian, Jewish, Greek, and eventually Roman. The Romans believed in curses and they believe in striga, malevolent female magicians who could transform into birds and drank blood. A cosmopolitan society still concerned with Roman vs foreign values, witches were accused of using foreign magic to undermine Roman emperors, and thousands were put to death, mostly in the 3rd century.
Witchcraft disappeared for a thousand years, though the Middle Ages saw the rise of new magical traditions. In the British Isles, faery courts blended Celtic legend with chivalric codes. The Italians imagined the benedicta, woman who brought blessings to those who respected them. And the Germans had the wild hunt, a ghostly procession of dead souls that could harm those caught up in it.
Witch trials as a social concern didn't really arise until the 1420s, when reformist Benedictine monks in Switzerland began to press for renewed, orthodox faith. Non-Christian elements, including ancient forms of ritual magic preserved in an educated counter-culture, and revitalized by closer links to the Near East due to the Crusades, were the target along with peasant culture. As Europe fell into schism between Catholic and Protestant, social enemies became labeled as part of heretical satanic cult. The fallout killed thousands.
Hutton's thesis is a direct counter of older, mostly discredited ideas that European witchcraft represented some kind of legacy paganism, either a continuation of Siberian shamanism or an undocumented matriarchal religion. Rather, witch trials are a response to massive political and social unrest, filtered through an imaginative Early Modern popular culture which drew on pre-Christian and Christian iconography. The accused in the trials were in no ways part of any organized faction or cult, even if they confessed so under torture.
Hutton book's is systematic and comprehensive. Evidence in this kind of folkloric field is a scanty thing, but I buy his conclusions. However, this is an academic tome that is not friendly to a beginner, and there may be other books. I felt particularly adrift with the lack of an exemplary witch trial, some concrete moment to hand the broad historical trends around. Still, very impressive and a worthy addition to my knowledge.