scholarly journals Animal Transformation in Early Modern English Witchcraft Pamphlets

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Paweł Rutkowski
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Witch ◽  
Witch Hunts ◽  
Traditional Component

Animal metamorphosis was a traditional component of witchcraft beliefs during the European early modern witch-hunts, during which it was taken for granted that witches could and did turn into animals regularly in order to easier do evil. It must be noted, however, that the witch-turned-animal motif was much less common in England, where witches did possess the shape-shifting abilities but relatively rarely used them. A likely reason for the difference, explored in the present paper, was the specifically English belief that most witches were accompanied and served by familiar spirits, petty demons that customarily assumed the shape of animals. It seems that the ubiquity of such demonic shape-shifters effectively satisfied the demand for magical transformations in the English witchcraft lore.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Laura Kounine
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
The Body ◽  
History Of Emotions ◽  
Current State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Germany ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Witch ◽  
Witch Hunts

This Introduction sets out the intentions of this book: to use the rich witch-trial records from the early modern duchy of Württemberg in south-western Germany to explore the central themes of emotions, gender, and selfhood. It provides an overview of the key historiographical debates on witchcraft persecutions in the early modern period, and suggests new questions that need to be asked. It also provides a methodological and theoretical framework in which to address these questions, and provides an overview of the current state of the field of the history of emotions, and, by drawing on psychological approaches to listening to self-narratives, it suggests ways in which historical studies of emotions can be pushed further by incorporating the body and subjective states. It also sets out the legal, political, and religious framework of the Lutheran duchy of Württemberg, in order to put the witch-hunts in this region into context.

Languages of defence

2018 ◽  
pp. 85-123
Author(s):  
Laura Kounine
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Death Sentence ◽  
Social Standing ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
The Witch ◽  
The Many ◽  
Witch Hunts

Studies seeking to understand the emotional and psychological dynamic of the witch-hunts have most often focused on why someone accused of witchcraft might confess to this crime. To understand how the witch was imagined in early modern culture and thought, we also need to pay attention to the many trials that did not end in a death sentence. The notion of resistance is thus crucial in understanding the crime of witchcraft. This chapter explores how men and women sought to defend themselves on trial, and how witnesses presented evidence. It argues that there were variegated and sometimes conflicting identifications in establishing someone as ‘good’ as opposed to ‘evil’, identifications which were inextricably bound to cultural understandings of gender, age, and social standing. Approached this way, understandings of what constituted witchcraft and the ‘witch’ appear far more contested and unstable than has previously been suggested.

scholarly journals To Converse with the Devil? Speech, Sexuality, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sierra Rose Dye
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Power And Control ◽  
The Witch ◽  
And Control ◽  
Witch Hunts ◽  
The Devil

In early modern Scotland, thousands of people were accused and tried for the crime of witchcraft, many of whom were women. This paper examines the particular qualities associated with witches in Scottish belief – specifically speech and sexuality – in order to better understand how and why the witch hunts occurred. This research suggests that the growing emphasis on the words of witches during this period was a reflection of a mounting concern over the power and control of speech in early modern society. In looking at witchcraft as a speech crime, it is possible to explain not only why accused witches were more frequently women, but also how the persecution of individuals – both male and female – functioned to ensure that local and state authorities maintained a monopoly on powerful speech.

scholarly journals Shakespeare and Witchcraft in Neil Gaiman’s Marvel 1602

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Ádám Márton Kling
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Book Series ◽  
Graphic Narrative ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Central Topic ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
The Witch ◽  
Political Pamphlets

Representing the cultural phenomenon of witchcraft and showcasing liminal existence was of great importance in the literature of 16-17 -century England. From political pamphlets to Shakespearean stage plays, the character of the witch and the marginalized have become a central topic of conversation in early modern texts. The primary goal of this research paper is to examine how Neil Gaiman’s comic book series, Marvel 1602 adapts aspects of certain early modern English works to create a graphic narrative that explains liminality and the modern ‘witchcraze.’

scholarly journals Of “You” and “Thou,” Lips and Pilgrims in the Translation of Romeo and Juliet’s “Shared Sonnet”: A Hands-On Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-35
Author(s):  
Anca Ignat ◽  
Alexandru M. Călin
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Romeo And Juliet ◽  
The Third ◽  
Language History ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hands On ◽  
The Difference

Abstract It is not a recent discovery in the field of language history that the address pronouns thou and you were not, in Shakespeare’s time, used indiscriminately. If the speaker did have a choice between the two forms, that choice was by no means random, idiosyncratic or arbitrary, but always dictated by the social, relational or attitudinal context of a speech act. Nonetheless, all 20th-century Romanian translations of Romeo and Juliet (and of other Shakespearean plays) – from Haralamb Leca’s rather loose rendering (1907) to Ștefan-Octavian Iosif’s and to Virgil Teodorescu’s more refined versions (1940 and 1984, respectively) – seem to ignore the difference in associative meaning between the two forms, which is sometimes essential for a correct assessment of the relationships between characters. The latest Romanian translation of the play, which we have jointly submitted for publication within the Shakespeare for the Third Millennium project (William Shakespeare. Opere XIII, 2018) acknowledges the importance of the various associative meanings that the two pronouns carry and strives to restore these meanings to the text, though not without difficulty, given the rather restrictive form of the original, i.e. iambic pentameters, often with strict rhyme schemes. Thus, focusing on the well-known “shared sonnet” as one of the most relevant instances of pronoun alternation in the play, our paper discusses the uses of you and thou in Early Modern English and sets out to assess how much is lost in 20th-century translations, to show how our own translation restores the associative meanings of the two pronominal forms and finally to exemplify how we managed to overcome translation difficulties entailed by the metrical and stylistic demands of the text.

scholarly journals “Charming Sorcerers” or “Soldiers of Satan”? Witchcraft and Magic in the Eyes of Protestant/Calvinist Preachers in Early Modern Hungary

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildiko Sz. Kristof
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Witch ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Village Life ◽  
Witch Hunts ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
The Devil ◽  
Early 18Th Century

The present study is the translation of Chapter 3 of the book of Ildikó Sz. Kristóf, entitled “Ördögi mesterséget nem cselekedtem.” A boszorkányüldözés társadalmi és kulturális háttere a kora újkori Debrecenben és Bihar vármegyében (“I have not done any diabolic deeds.” The Social and Cultural Foundation of Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Debrecen and Bihar County) published in Debrecen, Hungary in 1998. The book examined the witch-hunting in Bihar county and its largest city, the headquarters of the Calvinist church in Eastern Hungary between 1575 and 1766. During this period, 217 trials were conducted against 303 accused, and the book explored the social and religious foundations of the accusations. The witch-hunts in Bihar county were of rather small size (1–3 accused per annum) and intensity. A possible explanation for this relative mildness could be provided by a complex consideration of legal, religious, and local social circumstances. Chapter 3, published here in English, discusses Hungarian Calvinist demonology which remained rather sceptical about the concepts of diabolical witchcraft (e.g., the “covenant” or pact with the devil, the witches’ attendance at regular meetings (sabbath), etc.) throughout the early modern era. The author has studied several Calvinist treatises of theology published between the late 16th and the early 18th century by the printing press of Debrecen, those, for example, of Péter Mélius (1562), Tamás Félegyházi (1579), Péter Margitai Láni (1617), János Kecskeméti Alexis (1621), Mátyás Nógrádi (1651), Johannes Mediomontanus (1656), Pál Csehi (1656), István Diószegi Kis (1679; 1681), Gellért Kabai Bodor (1678) and Imre Pápai Páriz (1719). According to her findings, Calvinist demonology, although regarded the wordly interventions of the devil of limited scope (excepting, perhaps, the Puritans of the 1650s/1680s), urged the expurgation of the various forms of everyday magic from urban and village life. The suspicion of witchcraft fell especially on the practitioners of benevolent magic (popular healers/”wise women”, midwives, fortune-tellers, etc.) who were presumed to challenge and offend divine providence. The official religious considerations sometimes seem to have coincided with folk beliefs and explanations of misfortune concerning, among others, the plague epidemic in which witchcraft played an important role.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document