I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed Daughters of the Witching Hill and am super excited to be part of this blog tour.
I will also be hosting a giveaway, so make sure to enter...details at the end of this post!
Without further adieu I bring you...
How the Pendle Witches of 1612 differ from the more familiar Salem Witches of 1692
While 17th century Salem, Massachusetts was a fairly homogenous Puritan society, Lancashire was anything but. Despite Henry VIII’s sacking of Whalley Abbey and the laws of religious conformity passed by his daughter Elizabeth I, the Reformation was slow to take root in this remote part of Northern England. Many influential families of the gentry remained stubbornly Catholic in the face of persecution and death. Moreover, in the viewpoint of many Protestants, witchcraft and Catholicism were conflated. “No part of England hath so many witches,” Edward Fleetwood wrote in his 1645 pamphlet describing Lancashire, “none fuller of Papists.” Even Reginald Scot, one of the most enlightened men of the English Renaissance, thought the act of transubstantiation, the point in the Catholic mass where it is believed that the host becomes the body and blood of Christ, was an act of sorcery.
Cunning woman Mother Demdike’s charms are recorded in the 1612 trial transcripts and mirror the ecclesiastical language of the pre-Reformation Church. Her incantation to cure a bewitched person, quoted by the prosecution as evidence of diabolical magic, is a moving and poetic depiction of the passion of Christ as witnessed by the Virgin Mary. Here is just a short passage from the long charm:
What is yonder that casts a light so farrandly,
Mine owne deare Sonne that’s naild to the Tree.
This text is very similar to the White Pater Noster, an Elizabethan prayer charm Eamon Duffy discusses in his landmark book, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England: 1400-1580.
It appears that Mother Demdike, born in Henry VIII’s reign, at the cusp of the Reformation, was a practitioner of the kind of quasi-Catholic folk magic that would have been fairly common in earlier generations. The Old Church embraced many practices that seemed magical and mystical. People believed in miracles. They used holy water and communion bread for healing. Candles blessed at the Feast of Candlemas warded the faithful from demons and disease. People left offerings at holy wells and invoked the saints in their folk charms. Some rituals such as the blessing of wells and fields may have Pagan origins. Indeed, looking at pre-Reformation folk magic, it seems difficult to untangle the strands of Catholicism from the remnants of Pagan belief which had become so tightly interwoven. Keith Thomas’s social history Religion and the Decline of Magic is an excellent study on how the Reformation literally took the magic out of Christianity.
But it would be too simplistic to say that Mother Demdike was merely a misunderstood practitioner of Catholic folk magic. When interrogated by her prosecuting magistrate, she freely confessed, even bragged about her familiar spirit, Tibb, who appeared to her in the guise of beautiful young man. Bess’s description of her decades-long partnership with Tibb seems to reveal something much older than Christianity.
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PTTP has 1 copy to giveaway!
Leave a comment with your email address to enter.
Open to US and Canada entries only.
Only one entry per person.
Giveaway ends on April 22nd.
Leave a comment with your email address to enter.
Open to US and Canada entries only.
Only one entry per person.
Giveaway ends on April 22nd.
Good luck to all and thanks again to Mary Sharratt!
Ye, please enter me. I'm interested in any other good Salem witch books -- I haven't read one that I can remember. Thank you.
ReplyDeletekimbaldwin74 (at) yahoo (dot) com
This book sounds really good. Please enter me.
ReplyDeleteamandarwest at gmaildotcom
Hi Mary,
ReplyDeleteI am so happy to see you blogging here. I first found you and your books through Author Buzz. I put your books on my tilting pile of TBR books. :) I have since moved them to the top of my list. :)
Congrats on the new release. Please enter me.
Carol L.
Lucky4750@aol.com
Am happy to comment as the first post! I think I am the first!!! Please count me in for this wonderful book. As usual your giveaways are fabulous.
ReplyDeletemystica123athotmaildotcom
I can't wait to read Daughters of the witching. It sounds awsome.
ReplyDeletearoudenbush@yahoo.com
Great Guest post! I would like to enter!
ReplyDeletestarmetaloak@gmail.com
I am so interested in reading this novel. The relationship between the "witches" and the Catholic church is intriguing. Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteI have bee waiting anxiously for this one to be released. It sounds wonderful.
ReplyDeletePlease enter me.
fmlj94[at]yahoo[dot]com
I'm dying to read this! I did my final research paper in college on Salem and witches. Please enter me - mclean416(at)gmail(dot)com.
ReplyDeleteThanks!!
Sounds interesting! Please include me! Thanks
ReplyDeletedcf_beth at verizon dot net
I would love to read Daughters of the Witching Hill it sounds like a good read.
ReplyDeletenancysoffice at gmail dot com
Thanks for offering a copy. I have always been interested in the Salem hysteria that surrounded their witch trials so this would be a good choice.
ReplyDeleteseknobloch(at)gmail(dot)com
Though I've always wanted to, I've never actually read a book about the historical witch trials. This sounds like it would be a very great book and interesting story to read. Definitely count me in. :D
ReplyDelete~Briana
thebookpixie[at]yahoo[dot]com
Oh enter me please. I love to read books on Salem and witches. Sounds good.
ReplyDeletejricciut@hotmail.com
I have wanted this book ever since I first heard about it, and somehow I just can't get my hands on one.. can you fix that for me please and Pick me? Pretty please?!
ReplyDeletethx!!
marieburton2004 at yahoo dot com
Thanks for the chance! :D
ReplyDeletetabbylewis at hotmail dot com
I love witches--please enter me.
ReplyDeleteminoubazaar AT gmail.com
I have been greatly looking forward to reading Mary's book. (I already know I'll love it.) And since so many here share my interest, I'd like to invite those interested in having a new perspective on the Salem witch-hunt to read my novel, "The Afflicted Girls." Thanks, Amy.
ReplyDeleteSounds like more came over on the Mayflower than we first thought.....
ReplyDeleteplease enter me
thank you
kaiminani at gmail dot com
Great post Amy...makes me want to read about Salem Witches. As long a book is not scary then I'm in :D
ReplyDeleteJust added this giveaway to my sidebar as well. Thanks, Roberta
rlphilbr13@aol.com
I'd love it! Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeletes.mickelson at gmail dot com
Thank you so much for hosting me, Amy. And thank you all for your comments!
ReplyDeleteAmy please enter me in this giveaway. I love this kind of stuff! Witches are so cool!
ReplyDeleteYou know my email :-).
Yay I have been wanting to read this, please enter me.
ReplyDeletemsjessicamae(at)gmail(dot)com
I would love to be entered Amy! I loved reading before about the Salem witch trials and knew that there were other similar events, but haven't read anything about them. Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteThis one looks great. Would love to win! HPelkey1982@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteThis one sounds great! Please count me in.
ReplyDeletechristinezeg(at)gmail(dot)com
Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteRachelhwallen@gmail.com
I've always been intrigued by the Salem Witch Trials. Please enter me in the giveaway.
ReplyDeletewolfcarol451(at)gmail(dot)com
Ooh, please enter me! Thanks for the guest post and giveaway :)
ReplyDeletefitz12383(at)hotmail(dot)com
Fascinating time period. Love to read this book.
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rally_thade17@hotmail.com
Thank you for the interesting post. Charges of witchcraft has always been interesting. The catch all charge that is virtually impossible to refute. It is sad the number of people that died and suffered due to false charges. LI'm sure linking Catholicism to witchcraft made it easier to persecute the Catholics and take their property.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting book. I look forward to finding out more about it and reading it.
librarypat AT comcast DOT net
I like this author's post. I find this to be an interesting story based on actual transcripts and the women who practiced "witchcraft". I did notice that several of the previous comments were people saying they were excited to read a book on the Salem Witches and the famous trials. This book was set in England 80 years prior to that time period!
ReplyDeleteThanks for making this book a giveaway.
jhstubbs (at) msn (dot) com
oh boy coldruns and bats, aaa I WOULD LOVE TO WIN
ReplyDeleteI put my spell on you I will win
rosepedal60@gmail.com
thanks for the opportunity to read this wonderful book :)
ReplyDeletekarenk
kmkuka at yahoo dot com
this book sounds fantastic. great guest post, its an interesting topic. please enter me, thanks :)
ReplyDeletenaidascrochet@yahoo.com
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/
I'd never heard of the Pendle witches, but Daughters of the Witching Hill sounds incredibly interesting. I'm fascinated by folk magic - especially when merged with aspects of the Catholic church that would be so eager to root out any other form of spiritual belief.
ReplyDeletePlease enter me - caramellunacy at gmail
Thank you for hosting the giveaway.
ReplyDeletePlease enter me - marcia [at] printedpage [dot] us
This sounds like a book I know I would enjoy! Please enter me! Thank you!
ReplyDeletemittens0831 at aol dot com
Thank you for the giveaway! =)
ReplyDeletesliugarcia@gmail.com
Oh, I'd love to read this - I'm fascinated by the way societies handled their uncertainties and power imbalances by accusing women of witchcraft.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway opportunity!
teabird17[at]yahoodotcom
Count me in! vvperesk@gmail.com
ReplyDelete"Catholic folk magic..." quite intriguing. Please count me in.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
cyeates AT nycap DOT rr DOT com
I love books based on the witch hunts of the 15th & 16th centuries. Please count me in. Thanks!
ReplyDeletegevin13{at}gmail{dot}com
Great guest post! I've been reading a lot about this book and it's one that I definitely will be acquiring, unless I win your giveaway! *fingers crossed*
ReplyDeletemiller4plusmore(at)bellsouth(dot)net
would love to be included in this giveaway. thanks!
ReplyDeleterubs.escalona [at] gmail.com
Please enter me! I hope to win!
ReplyDeleteamberr610[at]gmail[dot]com
I've read so many good things about
ReplyDeleteMary Sharratt & this book has gotten some fantastic reviews, I'd love to read the story!
Luvdaylilies at bellsouth dot net
Please enter me in this giveaway!
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Sarah E