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Witchcraft
In Witchcraft, folklorist Clary Croft explores the many examples of witchcraft identified in the Maritimes and explains their cultural origins-Scottish, Mi'kmaq, Acadian, German, among others. He finds examples of spells, charms, and superstitions involving everything from animal horns and blood to salt and milk. Croft also traces witchcraft's more official history from the Maritimes' first witch trial in 1684 the trial of Jean Campagna followed by others throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. A thoroughly researched history of an often-misunderstood practice, Witchcraft is a rich source of Maritime folklore."
176 pages, Paperback
First published August 30, 2010
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About the author
Clary Croft
11 books1 followerClary Croft is a folklorist, writer, and entertainer. He is the author of several books, including Witchcraft, Helen Creighton: Canada’s First Lady of Folklore, A Maritimer’s Miscellany, and Celebrate: The History and Folklore of Holidays in Nova Scotia. Clary lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 10, 2017
I only bought one book in Nova Scotia, which is pretty disciplined for me. The book in question was Witchcraft: Tales, Beliefs, and Superstitions from the Maritimes by Clary Croft, which I bought at a museum gift shop in a historic house in Dartmouth, because that's how I do things (it was not, as far as we were told, a witch's house).
This book is not by Helen Creighton, who is apparently the No. 1 Canadian folklorist and the person whose books I should be buying, but Mr. Croft is her student and Witchcraft quotes her stuff extensively, so now I've got more reading material should I decided I need to learn all the Canadian folklore, which I will get right on after learning all the folklore from a bunch of other countries too.
The book is short and contains a lot of short tales about random supposed witchings in and around Nova Scotia, PEI, and New Brunswick. Most of the stories are from the 19th century or the earlier 20th century, but some legends go back much longer. People familiar with witch beliefs from any of the six main cultures that settled in the Maritimes or with Native American shamanistic beliefs will see some familiar stuff in the tales collected. A lot of reported instances of witchcraft have to do with people being suspected of hexing their neighbor's cows and other livestock, though mostly cows. Other stories are about people getting mysteriously sick, for a value of "mysteriously" that probably means "We hadn't invented good medical practices yet." Many of the ways of breaking spells fall into a couple of themes, some of which were pretty familiar to me—Bible-related stuff such as quotes or using the physical book as a protective talisman; blocking windows or doors with brooms or iron bars, burning stuff—but other types of cursebreaking that popped up over and over again I hadn't heard of before. Putting needles and pins into things was a big one; Maritime anti-witchcraft lore also seems to have a bit of a thing about using bottles of urine (sometimes from the bewitched human and sometimes from bewitched cows/horses/etc.; on some occasions, from the suspected witch). A widely held belief seems to be that when someone does a counter-spell to break a spell or out a witch, the witch will try to borrow or beg something from the person casting the counter-spell; if the witch is given what they ask for, the charm will be broken.
A good number of the stories involve witches who are men; this is not enormously unusual, but it seemed to me like this collection had a higher proportion of male witches than one usually hears about.
Overall the book was an interesting look into a bunch of folklore I didn't know anything about, which is just what I wanted from it; it also seems like the kind of thing that will be fun to mine for writing ideas, which is a nice bonus.
Originally posted at Put a pin in it.
This book is not by Helen Creighton, who is apparently the No. 1 Canadian folklorist and the person whose books I should be buying, but Mr. Croft is her student and Witchcraft quotes her stuff extensively, so now I've got more reading material should I decided I need to learn all the Canadian folklore, which I will get right on after learning all the folklore from a bunch of other countries too.
The book is short and contains a lot of short tales about random supposed witchings in and around Nova Scotia, PEI, and New Brunswick. Most of the stories are from the 19th century or the earlier 20th century, but some legends go back much longer. People familiar with witch beliefs from any of the six main cultures that settled in the Maritimes or with Native American shamanistic beliefs will see some familiar stuff in the tales collected. A lot of reported instances of witchcraft have to do with people being suspected of hexing their neighbor's cows and other livestock, though mostly cows. Other stories are about people getting mysteriously sick, for a value of "mysteriously" that probably means "We hadn't invented good medical practices yet." Many of the ways of breaking spells fall into a couple of themes, some of which were pretty familiar to me—Bible-related stuff such as quotes or using the physical book as a protective talisman; blocking windows or doors with brooms or iron bars, burning stuff—but other types of cursebreaking that popped up over and over again I hadn't heard of before. Putting needles and pins into things was a big one; Maritime anti-witchcraft lore also seems to have a bit of a thing about using bottles of urine (sometimes from the bewitched human and sometimes from bewitched cows/horses/etc.; on some occasions, from the suspected witch). A widely held belief seems to be that when someone does a counter-spell to break a spell or out a witch, the witch will try to borrow or beg something from the person casting the counter-spell; if the witch is given what they ask for, the charm will be broken.
A good number of the stories involve witches who are men; this is not enormously unusual, but it seemed to me like this collection had a higher proportion of male witches than one usually hears about.
Overall the book was an interesting look into a bunch of folklore I didn't know anything about, which is just what I wanted from it; it also seems like the kind of thing that will be fun to mine for writing ideas, which is a nice bonus.
Originally posted at Put a pin in it.
October 29, 2019
Some interesting stuff here. Fooling around with the idea of writing fiction and wanted to see what has gone on historically in my region in the area of folklore of this kind. Book was fast paced and largely based on much of the findings of folklorist Helen Creighton. Quite a number of the stories centred around events in farming communities and things that happened with farm animals. Lots of content but much of it very similar. Maybe that’s all there is, stories of how cows stopped milking etc. Was well paced but repetitive. Towards the end when purported witches were named it became much more interesting. Wish there had been more of that.
October 28, 2020
A look at witching in the Maritimes. Hoped for more tales.
March 5, 2023
It’s very interesting that many scholars or explorers cited have “Mc” last names. Celtic, Germanic peoples are indeed good storytellers! Maritimes is a fantastic area. The writer in the end shared his own story of running into a tractor driver and eventually talked to his father who was the witness of a trail. I thought it was a great story of how things that are supposed to be revealed will be revealed.
I'm surprised that this book has such a low review. It is meant to be academical rather than a fun storybook, and it did a good job by laying the stories out logically and help us see why and how they could have happened. The disconnection and mistrust of neighbours was really the cause of all the fuss and sometimes tragedies. It reminded me again that science did a good job in the last century to chase away ignorance.
I'm surprised that this book has such a low review. It is meant to be academical rather than a fun storybook, and it did a good job by laying the stories out logically and help us see why and how they could have happened. The disconnection and mistrust of neighbours was really the cause of all the fuss and sometimes tragedies. It reminded me again that science did a good job in the last century to chase away ignorance.
April 18, 2014
Meh. I guess I should have read the title a little better. I was expecting more "tales" about witchcraft, and it ended up being more just vague beliefs and stories that often didn't really go anywhere. People in a town in Nova Scotia suspected this old woman of witchcraft and...yeah, who knows? Maybe she was a witch. She moved away and no one saw her again. This is the kind of story I mean.
Also, this was pretty heavy on the Nova Scotia...I guess that's not so weird, but I was promised "the Maritimes" and it seemed like there were maybe one or two stories from PEI and I don't remember much at all from New Brunswick.
One thing I did like was the "superstitions" part. This serves as a nice little collection of weird anti-witch practices from long ago. Tying herring skin around one's wrist to ward off witches, nailing a horseshoe to the house with the ends sticking out from the wall, wrapping new pins in red flannel and putting them in a jar with pee, a witch who cursed a "John Wesley cup" so drinking from it made a baby cry...so many weird little superstitions! I would like a book that just collects odd superstitions like this from around the world.
Also, this was pretty heavy on the Nova Scotia...I guess that's not so weird, but I was promised "the Maritimes" and it seemed like there were maybe one or two stories from PEI and I don't remember much at all from New Brunswick.
One thing I did like was the "superstitions" part. This serves as a nice little collection of weird anti-witch practices from long ago. Tying herring skin around one's wrist to ward off witches, nailing a horseshoe to the house with the ends sticking out from the wall, wrapping new pins in red flannel and putting them in a jar with pee, a witch who cursed a "John Wesley cup" so drinking from it made a baby cry...so many weird little superstitions! I would like a book that just collects odd superstitions like this from around the world.
January 12, 2013
Very interesting look at folk-lore and it's relation to witchcraft within the Maritime Provences (Mainly Nova Scotia. Some PEI & New Brunswick also). Easy reading, finished the majority of the book within a few hours. Very interesting to realize the differences in folk-lore and tale telling from the 1900's (or earlier) and today. Good book if your interested in the topic.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews