Owen Davies

This classic study remains the definitive account of witchcraft and magic in the centuries following the witch trials. The Witchcraft Act of 1736 brought an end to witch trials in Britain. But just because the law had changed didn’t mean people had stopped believing. Fear of witches and faith in magic persisted, and people suspected of witchcraft continued to appear in court until the early twentieth century, though by then it was their persecutors who were being put on trial. In this book, Owen Davies traces the history of witches and magic in Britain from 1736 to 1951, when the Fraudulent Mediums Act finally erased the concept of witchcraft from the statute books. He reveals the grip that the supernatural continued to exert on the people of England and Wales in a period when the forces of progress were thought to have vanquished such beliefs. Exploring how the population coped with the threat of witches once there was no longer any legal redress, and how accusations of witchcraft took shape during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Davies provides a fascinating glimpse into a lingering world of supernatural belief.

A gripping guide to the weird yet everyday world of British folklore. In this ground-breaking book, two leading experts provide the definitive guide to British folklore past and present. Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook explore folklore in all its remarkable variations, from village rituals and fairy tales to UFO legends and internet fanfiction. Travelling through a landscape of witches, wizards and wicker men, they reveal how folklore has been researched and written about in the past and show how it continues to be lived in the present. At the same time, they provide the reader with a valuable toolkit for understanding how to interpret the diverse examples given. The book’s key message is that folklore is much more than the fossilised remains of a distant, rural past. Folklore is and always has been ubiquitous, dynamic and political. It is a living tradition that draws from many sources, including migrant communities, and is forever being renewed and updated. -- .