The class I'm taking in Stirling is not exactly what I had been anticipating, but I do think it's given me some ideas about where to go with my research. Plus, her syllabus has a huge bibliography that she actually went over with me, identifying books that she think could be particularly helpful for my project. She also compiled a source packet with copies of excerpts from a few different types of sources. It's not super expansive, but still useful.
She split the structure of the class into four sections, one for each week:
1. The meaning of witchcraft
2. Witches in the community
3. Witchcraft and popular culture (including fairy belief)
4. Witchcraft and gender
For each section, she does a lecture, answering questions outlined on the syllabus, then we have group presentations and discussions. The class was split up so that everyone does a group presentation, and there are one or two groups per week. The presentations are either on an article/book of secondary research, or on an extract from a primary resource. I did mine in the 3rd week on the Robert Kirk's 1691 "The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies," which I talked about in the last post. It's a really interesting book, and just situation in general (Protestant minister describing the existence of fairies in Scotland). And remember, Scottish Protestantism was much more akin to hard-line Calvinism than any other type. He was ridiculed by most who read it, especially in London, and it added to the conception that people in the Highlands were primitive and superstitious. The publication was seen as a regression away from the increasingly scientific age that was developing and basic Protestant principles. From Kirk's perspective though, he was writing an essay that proved that fairies were real because he knew that if people questioned the existence of fairies, they would question the existence of witches, and demons, and eventually God himself. In his own logic, he was protecting the Christian faith and preventing the problem of atheism.
The class has given me a better understanding of how the witch phenomenon in Scotland was in part a product of merging traditional ("pagan") folklore with Christianity, and how the Reformation helped fuel the search. It's also helped me get rid of the pop culture pre-conceptions I've developed about witches and the witch hunts. They were not exceptionally different than most other people in their towns, and they had active roles within their communities, often sought out by their neighbors for help. There was this concept of "limited good," whereby people believed that there was only so much good fortune to go around, and that you had to maximize the amount you would get, even with the knowledge that it might be taking some away from other people. This maximization process is often where magic and rituals came into play, mostly carried out to protect against bad fortune.
Later I'll write about my chat with Dr. Miller about the direction of my project.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Scottish Fairies
For the past week, I've been working on the 1000-word paper due for my Witchcraft in Scotland class. She gave us a couple of questions to chose from, and I went with one about, "To what extent can Scottish fairies be considered evil." It was actually really interesting, because fairy belief was a very long-standing bit of folklore for Scots, but after the Reformation it got linked with demons and witches. It pops up a lot in witch trial confessions. I think it's also a way to tie in the role of Scottish folklore to the the history of the witch phenomenon by understanding how and why such a previously unquestioned belief was suddenly changed and even attacked by some. I think this could correlate with the fact that the Christian religion seemed to people to be something equally as unquestioned a belief, only to fall from grace to the attacks of Luther, Calvin, Knox and other Protestants. So working on the paper was actually pretty helpful-- even though it's really hard to convince yourself to work on a paper when Scotland is just outside...
On Friday, we took our class excursion. We went to Aberfoyle, which is were Rev. Robert Kirk lived and preached for his adult life, and also where he is said to have had encounters with the fairies. He's the one that went seeking answers about the fairies, and published "The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies" in the late 1600s. Obviously, it's incredibly rare that a Protestant minister would also not only believe in the fairies, but attempt to share their world with other Scots. In the essay, he pretty much just tries to lay out the 'facts' about fairies and their realm in a very scientific way, explaining their bodily make-up, the hierarchical society, their weapons, their lifespans, etc. So in Aberfoyle, we saw Robert Kirk's grave, and we walked up Doon Hill (aka, the Fairy Hill), where he supposedly walked up every morning and communed with the fairies. The legend is that one morning during his walk he collapsed/vanished, and his soul was taken by the fairies (as is a common fairy behavior). Apparently when his grave was unearthed a long time ago his body was gone, therefore meaning he is still trapped within the fairy realm. The walk up Doon Hill was really cool. It's covered in green forests, ideal for fairy life I guess. At the top is a clearing, which is supposed to be where he came in contact with the fairies, and people have lefts "clooties" all over the trees in the clearings. Clooties are cloth or ribbon that have been tied to trees as an offer to the fairies, and usually have the person's wish written on them.
After that, we drove along to where there is a stone monument just next to the road. It's inscribed with the words, "Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch." My professor said that nobody is sure who originally built the monument, or even who currently maintains it (every so often the words are painted over to keep them from wearing off). She also said that nobody has yet found any records of a witch named Maggie Wall from that area, so she thinks that either the records are waiting to be found, or else that the monument is meant for witches in general under a fictional name. Either way, it's pretty cool, and it's also interesting that 1657 is just before the really intense witch panics occurred in Scotland following the Restoration.
On Friday, we took our class excursion. We went to Aberfoyle, which is were Rev. Robert Kirk lived and preached for his adult life, and also where he is said to have had encounters with the fairies. He's the one that went seeking answers about the fairies, and published "The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies" in the late 1600s. Obviously, it's incredibly rare that a Protestant minister would also not only believe in the fairies, but attempt to share their world with other Scots. In the essay, he pretty much just tries to lay out the 'facts' about fairies and their realm in a very scientific way, explaining their bodily make-up, the hierarchical society, their weapons, their lifespans, etc. So in Aberfoyle, we saw Robert Kirk's grave, and we walked up Doon Hill (aka, the Fairy Hill), where he supposedly walked up every morning and communed with the fairies. The legend is that one morning during his walk he collapsed/vanished, and his soul was taken by the fairies (as is a common fairy behavior). Apparently when his grave was unearthed a long time ago his body was gone, therefore meaning he is still trapped within the fairy realm. The walk up Doon Hill was really cool. It's covered in green forests, ideal for fairy life I guess. At the top is a clearing, which is supposed to be where he came in contact with the fairies, and people have lefts "clooties" all over the trees in the clearings. Clooties are cloth or ribbon that have been tied to trees as an offer to the fairies, and usually have the person's wish written on them.
 |
| Clooties |
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| Kirk's grave |
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| Minister's tree |
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| Maggie Wall's Monument |
After that, we drove along to where there is a stone monument just next to the road. It's inscribed with the words, "Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch." My professor said that nobody is sure who originally built the monument, or even who currently maintains it (every so often the words are painted over to keep them from wearing off). She also said that nobody has yet found any records of a witch named Maggie Wall from that area, so she thinks that either the records are waiting to be found, or else that the monument is meant for witches in general under a fictional name. Either way, it's pretty cool, and it's also interesting that 1657 is just before the really intense witch panics occurred in Scotland following the Restoration.
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