Abstract
Scattered throughout Danish collections of local legends and folk beliefs we find short statements about what witches can and cannot do. They have been repeated again and again in daily conversation, every time talk turns to witches. The problem of proving the existence of this ‘catechism of witch lore’ is that it has been filtered out, both by trial interrogators and by the collectors of folklore. The beliefs that have taken form in the catechism closely conform to the experiences people have had in reality. The so-called witch families are harsh testimony to how literally people believed that witchcraft was inherited. Remarkably, the witches and their opposite numbers, the wise folk, manage fine without the aid of the Devil.
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Notes
- 1.
Jens Kamp, Danske Folkeminder (Odense, 1877), 417.
- 2.
Evald Tang Kristensen, Danske Sagn, Vol. 6.2 (Århus, 1901), 1.
- 3.
Just Mathias Thiele, Den danske Almues overtroiske Meninger (Copenhagen, 1860), 180.
- 4.
Gustav Henningsen, Heksejægeren på Rugård: De sidste trolddomsprocesser i Jylland 1685–87 (Randers, 1991), 29.
- 5.
Inger M. Boberg (ed.), Dansk Folketro, samlet af Jens Kamp (Copenhagen, Danmarks Folkeminder 51, 1943); Evald Tang Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, Vol. 4 (Kolding, 1880), esp. 397–401 and Vol. 9 (Kolding, 1888), esp. 70–74; H. F. Feilberg, Ordbog over jyske almuesmål, Vol. 4 (Copenhagen,1886–1914); id. [ed. G. Henningsen], Folklore Indeks (Åbo, Nordic Folklore Library 1, 1992), esp. fiche 28, nos. 20117–420; Gustav Henningsen, Manual til H. F. Feilbergs Folklore Indeks, 2 (Åbo, Nordic Folklore Library 1, 1994).
- 6.
C.W. von Sydow, ‘Folklig dit-tradition: Ett terminologisk utkast’, Folkminnen och Folktankar, (24, 1937), 216–32; English version ‘Popular Dite Tradition. A terminological outline’, in Selected Papers on Folklore (Copenhagen, 1948), 106–26.
- 7.
Kristensen, Danske Sagn, 274 no. 1038.
- 8.
Cf. Jens Christian V. Johansen, ‘Da Djævelen var ude…’: Trolddom i det 17. århundredes Danmark (Odense, 1989).
- 9.
R. Broby-Johansen, Med Broby på Sydfyn, Langeland, Tåsinge, Ærø og Samsø (Copenhagen, 1979), 72.
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Henningsen, G. (2018). The Catechism of Witch Lore in Twentieth-Century Denmark. In: Barry, J., Davies, O., Usborne, C. (eds) Cultures of Witchcraft in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present . Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63784-6_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63784-6_11
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