Summary
It’s spooky season! Witches have been around–and feared–since the Middle Ages. We discuss their history, unexpected ties to Judaism, and their little (or large and wolfy) dogs, too.
Annotations
1/ See also: Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett. Book 1 of the collected Sandman (I think they get summoned in issue 2) by Neil Gaiman.
2/ Sourcery, by Terry Pratchett.
For more on the inquisition, et al, see episode 9, starting at note 18.
3/ The witch of Endor: 1 Samuel 28.
4/ Morgan Le Fay. We talk more about Merlin, Morgause, et al in a future episode.
5/ Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, now a major motion picture (and future episode, stay tuned).
6/ In Terry Pratchett, the witches’ roles are typically given as “the maiden, the mother, and the other one.”
7/ For more on the Jewish hat (Judenhutte), see episode 10, note 39.
For more on the robes, see episode 25, note 19 on the Lucerne Passion Play and its director, Renward Cysat.
8/ Sara Lipton, Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography.
9/ Episode 29 is our episode on dogs, and episode 30 is our episode on cats.
10/ For more on the iconography of Jewish women, see Sara Lipton, “Where Are the Gothic Jewish Women? On the Non-Iconography of the Jewess in the Cantigas de Santa Maria,” Jewish History, vol. 22, no. 1/2, The Elka Klein Memorial Volume (2008), pp. 139–177.
Also see episode 25, note 15.
11/34:40: C.f. Henry IV, pt. 1:
Falstaff: Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a
thief.
Prince: No, thou shalt.
Falstaff: Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I’ll be a brave
judge.
Prince: Thou judgest false already. I mean thou shalt
have the hanging of the thieves, and so become a
rare hangman.
Falstaff: Well, Hal, well, and in some sort it jumps
with my humor as well as waiting in the court, I
can tell you.
Prince: For obtaining of suits?
Falstaff: Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman
hath no lean wardrobe.
12/ Witches of Subeshi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies
13/ For more on a lot of the following information, see Davidson and Canino “Wolves, Witches, and Werewolves: Lycanthropy and Witchcraft from 1423 to 1700,” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 2.4 (8) (1990), pp. 47–73.
Also Charles Zika, The Appearance of Witchcraft: Print and Visual Culture in Sixteenth-Century Europe.
Richard Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300–1500.
14/ 42:30: James I–Lore did a good podcast on this–see episode 138 (Foresight).
Dr Who episode “The Witchfinders.”
15/ The early modern sources I’ve mentioned include:
Flagellum Maleficorum by Petrus Mamoris (roughly 1462).
De Lamiis et Phitonicis mulieribus by Ulrich Molitor (published in 1489).
The vastly more famous Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer (1486).
16/ The 1460 sermon preached by Pierre le Broussart is discussed in Zika 61–63. The images are also in Zika.