Re: The Wicked OLD Witch
Gwilym
gjg98@aber.ac.uk
Fri May 21 07:37:50 1999
Before I start I just want to say how impressed I am by the quality of this web site. I am a historian, mostly early modern, and Jenny I am so happy to see a pagan site which actualy deals with the historical truth concerning the witchtrials. You have put in a lot of work and the quality is outstanding. So many Pagans aren't interested in understanding the past, they just want a convinent enemy to blame the Christians.*br* *br*: A surprising number of our stereotypes about witches are *br*: twisted recollections of the realities of the Burning Times. *br*:  The "Wicked Old Witch" of our fairy tales is one *br*: of them.*p*: In the early modern period, people didn't live quite as long *br*: as we do, and 50 was considered elderly.  Therefore if it *br*: takes 20-30 years to develop a reputation as a witch, it's *br*: not surprising that many witches were 50 or more years old.*p*I think your explaination has a lot going for it. But on the other hand I think older myths and a deeper level misogony have a great deal to do with it as well. In most of the folklore of European socities there are motifs concerning demonic older women the Calleiach in Gaelic lore, Grendel's mother, the hag in the Mabinogion etc etc, which predate the witchtrials. This level of misogony runs deep the Romans saw evil witches as night haunting old crones for example. I think this sort of idea underlay European witch beliefs until the times of the witch trials turned it from a sterotype into deadly reality.   *p*Gwilym*p*
The Wicked OLD Witch
Jenny
156
Thu Mar 18 10:31:36 1999