Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Volume 6 - (Witchcraft and Magic in Europe (Paperback)) by Bengt Ankarloo & Stuart Clark (Paperback)

About the Book

The third volume features a major new history of the origins and development of English "Wicca" and an account of the circumstances in which the term "Satanist" has been used to label individuals or groups.

Book Synopsis

The roots of European witchcraft and magic lie in Hebrew and other ancient Near Eastern cultures and in the Celtic, Nordic, and Germanic traditions of the Continent. For two millennia, European folklore and ritual have been imbued with the belief in the supernatural, yielding a rich trove of histories and images.

A series that combines traditional approaches of political, legal, and social historians with critical syntheses of cultural anthropology, historical psychology, and gender studies, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe provides a modern, scholarly survey of the supernatural beliefs of Europeans from ancient times to the present day. Each of the six volumes in the series contains the work of distinguished scholars chosen for their expertise in a particular era or region.

Witchcraft today continues to play a role in European societies and imaginations. This concluding volume includes a major new history of the origins and development of English "Wicca" and an account of the circumstances in which the term 'Satanist' has been used to label individuals or groups. The widespread prevalence of such phenomena proves the contemporary reality of beliefs in witchcraft and its threats.

Other volumes in the series Witchcraft and Magic in Europe:
Ancient Greece and Rome
The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Biblical and Pagan Societies
The Middle Ages
The Period of the Witch Trials

Review Quotes

"Although the volumes are intended mainly for scholars, there is much in them to interest the common reader."-- "New Yorker"

"One of the best scholarly books available covering modern pagan beliefs and practices."-- "Rûna"

About the Author

Bengt Ankarloo is Professor of History at Lund University, Sweden. Stuart Clark is Professor of History at the University of Wales, Swansea.