Letters On Demonology and Witchcraft eBook Sir Walter Scott
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The book takes the form of ten letters addressed to Lockhart, the epistolary mode permitting Scott to be both conversational in tone and discursive in method. In these, Scott surveys opinions respecting demonology and witchcraft from the Old Testament period to his own day. As a child of the Enlightenment, he adopts a rigorously rational approach to his subject. Supernatural visions are attributed to 'excited passion', to credulity, or to physical illness. The medieval belief in demons is based on Christian ignorance of other religions, leading to the conviction that the gods of the Muslim or Pagan nations were fiends and their priests conjurers or wizards. In the post-Reformation period, the primitive state of science and predominance of mystical explanations of natural phenomena fed fear of witchcraft. In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, witches were hunted with near-hysterical zeal. Examining Scottish criminal trials for witchcraft, Scott notes that the nature of evidence admissible gave free reign to accusers and left the accused no chance of escape. Prisoners were driven to confess through despair and the desire to avoid future persecution. Scott also observes that trials for witchcraft were increasingly connected with political crimes, just as in Catholic countries accusations of witchcraft and heresy went together. Advances in science and the spread of rational philosophy during the eighteenth century eventually undermined the belief in supernatural phenomena, although pockets of superstition remain. Scott's account is amply illustrated with anecdotes and traditional tales and may be read as an anthology of uncanny stories as much as a philosophical treatise.
Letters On Demonology and Witchcraft eBook Sir Walter Scott
Published two years before Scott's death in 1832, this work is practically a meta-analysis of stories of witch-trials and persecutions mostly based in Europe with a few stories detailing the supporting or contrasting events as seen in Scandinavian countries and the Americas. Scott takes the position that the human mind is a fragile thing, imagination creates all kinds of scary things and if those culpable of their crimes were to behave rationally this wouldn't have, and shouldn't have happened. Succinctly - "every generation of the human race must swallow a certain measure of nonsense."Filled with interesting terminology it can be a fairly taxing read, as Scott seems to have a proclivity to be long winded and seldom winds a story down in timely fashion. He also doesn't fear the use of incredibly superfluous detailing of the events and persons involved.
Bridging the gap, Scott covers very well the transition from tribalism, mythology and lore to the intervention of Christianity, Christianities sectionalism and the resultant over-zealous persecution of person's believed to be witches / warlocks and the closed-minded, torturous methods used to inexcusably extract confessions from frightened people who were usually murdered (let`s call it what it is, people) after confession in hopes that it would end their torture - and murdered anyway if they didn`t self-incriminate until the last documented execution in Scotland in 1722. The belief was that they were guilty - based upon hearsay and the unwillingness of juries or prosecutors to speak for their defense. To have spoken in defense of a witch / warlock would only suggest that you, yourself, were in league with that person and their nefarious practices... so one can clearly see, this era, this often forgotten mar on the histories of Europe and America was little more than a campaign of fear and distrust. Of particular interest in the Calvinistic desire to persecute zealously simply because the Catholics were prone to let witches exist and were believed to be in league with the devil (the existence of the `devil' was, is, and will always be good business for the church - best friend they've ever had).
Scott also discusses legerdemain - magic, slight of hand and trickery being seen as types of witchcraft. Ranked with this are holistic medicine practitioners, and those who've fallen from the grace of the church (heathens or pagans).
Terms and concepts of particular interest (to myself):
- Ephilates: the sense impressions (real) that intrude upon and are incorporated into dreams. The mind rapidly creates a story to surround it (if one is interested in the concept: Freud should be read).
- Blue Devils: phantoms seen as a result of constant intoxication.
- Naiads: Sea nymphs, generally of two types: Evil, toward sea-men or beneficent unless her jealously is provoked.
- Bhargeist: a specter, commonly associated with last name `Dobie' and the bearer of said name.
- Skald (Norse): Believed that to seek information and power from the Gods was a noble pursuit; not an impious endeavor as it would be in the Christian mind.
- Ourisk (Celtic): a melancholy spirit usually lives removed from mankind.
- Fairies (Finnish); Kobold (German); Bogle (Scottish); Goblin (British): all are generally mischievous but not necessarily evil. The worst done by a Fairy is child-napping to off-set the quota of their own kind that have to give to the devil annually.
- `Damnum minatum, et malum secutum': a curse issued, followed by an event relating to the curse.
Means of torture:
- `Pricking': an effort to find `the devils mark', a pricked spot where the person who has the needle shoved into them evinces no reaction.
- Total extraction of finger / toe nails.
- Forced sleeplessness and no reprieve from the means of torture.
- Leg loading: from a sitting position, propping up the heels leaving the knees unsupported and putting heavy weights upon the joint. Would persist until a confession were forced or the knees broke backward.
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Letters On Demonology and Witchcraft eBook Sir Walter Scott Reviews
I love just about anything Scott writes and this did not disappoint!
difficult to understand
Education
Great book by Sir Walter Scott. Not a lot on demonology,but a whole lot on the witch trials and witchcraft.
Never received this book
I love anything by Walter Scott but this was basically history of oppression against women herbalists,etc.very sad. I was hoping for poetry or fiction but as Sir Walter says,The light is most where shades are deepest.
Walter Scott wrote a series of letters in the later years of his life on the possibility of ghosts, demons, fairies and witches. He did some thorough research and cited his sources. This was written in the early 1800s which makes it a valuable contemporary account.
Some highlights include individual case accounts of witchcraft trials including the Salem witch trials, talk of ghost sightings being related to alcohol abuse and abuse of nitrous oxide as a drug, and fascinating talk on why the Catholic Church at one time tolerated witches.
This is a very easy to read well structured book which I find is a valuable historical record.
Sharp eyed fans of Diana Gabaldon's "outlander" series will be delighted to find a reference to a witch by name who shares a name with a famous witch in the novels . I'm assuming Ms. Gabaldon may have read this book as a resource!
Anyway if you have a love of witchcraft history and the paranormal then this book is for you.
Published two years before Scott's death in 1832, this work is practically a meta-analysis of stories of witch-trials and persecutions mostly based in Europe with a few stories detailing the supporting or contrasting events as seen in Scandinavian countries and the Americas. Scott takes the position that the human mind is a fragile thing, imagination creates all kinds of scary things and if those culpable of their crimes were to behave rationally this wouldn't have, and shouldn't have happened. Succinctly - "every generation of the human race must swallow a certain measure of nonsense."
Filled with interesting terminology it can be a fairly taxing read, as Scott seems to have a proclivity to be long winded and seldom winds a story down in timely fashion. He also doesn't fear the use of incredibly superfluous detailing of the events and persons involved.
Bridging the gap, Scott covers very well the transition from tribalism, mythology and lore to the intervention of Christianity, Christianities sectionalism and the resultant over-zealous persecution of person's believed to be witches / warlocks and the closed-minded, torturous methods used to inexcusably extract confessions from frightened people who were usually murdered (let`s call it what it is, people) after confession in hopes that it would end their torture - and murdered anyway if they didn`t self-incriminate until the last documented execution in Scotland in 1722. The belief was that they were guilty - based upon hearsay and the unwillingness of juries or prosecutors to speak for their defense. To have spoken in defense of a witch / warlock would only suggest that you, yourself, were in league with that person and their nefarious practices... so one can clearly see, this era, this often forgotten mar on the histories of Europe and America was little more than a campaign of fear and distrust. Of particular interest in the Calvinistic desire to persecute zealously simply because the Catholics were prone to let witches exist and were believed to be in league with the devil (the existence of the `devil' was, is, and will always be good business for the church - best friend they've ever had).
Scott also discusses legerdemain - magic, slight of hand and trickery being seen as types of witchcraft. Ranked with this are holistic medicine practitioners, and those who've fallen from the grace of the church (heathens or pagans).
Terms and concepts of particular interest (to myself)
- Ephilates the sense impressions (real) that intrude upon and are incorporated into dreams. The mind rapidly creates a story to surround it (if one is interested in the concept Freud should be read).
- Blue Devils phantoms seen as a result of constant intoxication.
- Naiads Sea nymphs, generally of two types Evil, toward sea-men or beneficent unless her jealously is provoked.
- Bhargeist a specter, commonly associated with last name `Dobie' and the bearer of said name.
- Skald (Norse) Believed that to seek information and power from the Gods was a noble pursuit; not an impious endeavor as it would be in the Christian mind.
- Ourisk (Celtic) a melancholy spirit usually lives removed from mankind.
- Fairies (Finnish); Kobold (German); Bogle (Scottish); Goblin (British) all are generally mischievous but not necessarily evil. The worst done by a Fairy is child-napping to off-set the quota of their own kind that have to give to the devil annually.
- `Damnum minatum, et malum secutum' a curse issued, followed by an event relating to the curse.
Means of torture
- `Pricking' an effort to find `the devils mark', a pricked spot where the person who has the needle shoved into them evinces no reaction.
- Total extraction of finger / toe nails.
- Forced sleeplessness and no reprieve from the means of torture.
- Leg loading from a sitting position, propping up the heels leaving the knees unsupported and putting heavy weights upon the joint. Would persist until a confession were forced or the knees broke backward.
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