Cunning Folk Life in the Era of Practical Magic

Tabitha Stanmore

eBook - 2024

"Rich and lively."—New York Times Book Review A vibrant look at an unsettled and strangely familiar time that overturns our assumptions about the history of magic.Imagine: it's the year 1600 and you've lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe they've been stolen. Perhaps your child has a fever. Or you're facing a trial. Maybe you're looking for love or escaping a husband. What do you do? In medieval and early modern Europe, your first port of call might have been cunning folk: practitioners of "service magic." Neither feared (like witches), nor venerated (like saints), they were essential to daily life. For people across ages, genders, and social ranks, practical magic was a cherished resour...ce for navigating life's many challenges.In historian Tabitha Stanmore's beguiling account, we meet lovelorn widows, dissolute nobles, selfless healers, and renegade monks. We listen in on Queen Elizabeth I's astrology readings... more