Alpine Witchery

(Nimue, review)

This is a brilliant book by Christian Brunner, exploring witchcraft trials in the Austrian Alps. Records from these trials provide a lot of material we can learn from about what people were thinking and doing in terms of historical witchcraft. It’s a great read and I very much enjoyed it.

This book illustrates a number of really important points. It conveys the way in which folk magic and tradition was part of everyday life. Most people dabbling in folk magic considered themselves Christians. There isn’t a big divide between witches and Christians.

The book also lays out the historical context both for the kinds of magic people were doing, and the ways in which witch trials were happening. The complexities and politics of witch hunts are explored in a really helpful way. It also very usefully tackles the relationship between culture, place and witchcraft. The magic here is very specific, relating to the land and the challenges it causes, to human struggles, and ideas about how everything works. Those connections are really important.

Christian explores how these spells would work in a modern context. The short answer is that many of them make little or no sense. Our lives are very different from the lives of people using this magic. Our needs are different, our resources are different, our science is different. Much of this does not apply to us. Some of it can be translated into effective action suitable for modern people. This isn’t really a book about extracting usable spells from the historical record. It is a book about magic, and how situational that really is.

This is a fascinating and well researched book, which I recommend for anyone interested in the history and folklore this explores. It’s a good counterpoint to popular modern myths about witch trials and historical witchcraft. It’s also rich with fascinating asides that take you in many directions.

You can find more on the publisher’s website – https://www.llewellyn.com/product.php?ean=9780738777672&srsltid=AfmBOorEuMcD_pZl5oQOWlIr-Z4-GZ6wymivKeMIxIyXlhluJKBIHXgA