Athlone history of witchcraft & magic in Europe – serie

Here the oldest roots of European concepts of witchcraft and magic are surveyed, examining magical incantations and rituals against witchcraft in Mesopotamia, attitudes to it in the Old Testament and later Jewish tradition, and beliefs and legends in pre-Christian Scandinavia.

Between the age of St. Augustine and the sixteenth century reformations magic continued to be both a matter of popular practice and of learned inquiry. This volume deals with its use in such contexts as healing and divination and as an aspect of the knowledge of nature's occult virtues and secrets.

The 15th to 18th centuries were a period of witchcraft prosecutions throughout Europe. This volume attempst to summarise the history of the trials in a new way - according to the types of legal systems involved. It also examines the continued practical use made of magic, the elaboration of demonological theories about witchcraft and magic, and the further development of scientific interests in natural magic through the 'Neoplatonic' and 'Hermetic' period. Amongst the topics included here are superstition and belief in high and popular culture, the place of medicine, witchcraft survivals in art and literature, and the survival of persecution.

Witchcraft continues to play a role in the modern European imagination and in its cultures. This book brings together studies of its most important modern manifestations, including a new history of English Wicca, and satanic abuse mythology.

The oldest roots of the European concepts of witchcraft and magic lie in the Hebrew and other cultures of the ancient Near East and in the Celtic, Nordic and Germanic Societies of the North and West. The authors of this volume survey three crucial aspects of this earliest phase of development. These are the role of magical incantations and rituals against witchcraft in Mesopotamia in the last three millennia BC, the attitudes to witchcraft and magic in the Old Testament and in later Jewish tradition, and the beliefs and legends associated with trolldomor (witchcraft) in pre-Christian Scandanavia.

This series looks at the history of witchcraft and magic in Europe from the earliest times to the present day. This volume looks at the Middle Ages.