Cunning folk: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Practitioner of folk magic in Europe}}

[[File:Cunning Woman.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A model of a 19th-century cunning woman in her house, at the [[Museum of Witchcraft and Magic]] in [[Boscastle]], England]]

 

'''Cunning folk''', also known as '''folk healers''' or '''wise folk''', were practitioners of [[folk medicine]], [[White magic|helpful folk magic]] and [[divination]] in Europe from the [[Middle Ages]] until the 20th century. Their practices were known as the '''cunning craft'''. Their services also included thwarting [[witchcraft]]. Although some cunning folk were denounced as witches themselves, they made up a minority of those accused,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |title=The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present |date=2017 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |pages=24–25 |author-link=Ronald Hutton}}</ref> and the [[commoner|common people]] generally made a distinction between the two. The name 'cunning folk' originally referred to [[Cunning folk in Britain|folk-healers and magic-workers in Britain]], but the name is now applied as an [[umbrella term]] for similar people in other parts of Europe.<ref name="Davies 2003. p. 163"/><ref>[[#Deb94|De Blécourt 1994]].</ref>

 

Names given to folk-healers and magic-workers in Europe include:

* the Finnish and Karelian ''[[tietäjä]]t'' ("knowers")

* the Italian ''[[fattucchiere]]'' ("fixers"), ''[[guaritori]]'' ("healers") or ''[[benandanti]]'' ("good walkers")

* the Slavic ''[[vedmak]]i'' ("warlocks")

* the Spanish ''[[curandero]]s'' ("healers")

* the [[Wales|Welsh]] ''[[Cunning folk in Britain|dynion hysbys]]'' (from [[Welsh language|Welsh]], meaning "cunning men")

 

[[File:Gertrud Ahlgren.jpg|thumb|The Swedish cunning woman [[Gertrud Ahlgren]] of Gotland (1782–1874), drawing by [[Pehr Arvid Säve]] 1870]]

 

 

Many Norwegian<ref name=fol7576/> and Danish<ref name=fol7576/><ref name="H.P. Hansen 1960">H.P. Hansen: Kloge Folk - Folkemedicin og overtro i Vestjylland (Rosenkilde og Bagger 1960)</ref> practitioners of folk magic and medicine would have a copy of the "Svartebok" (or "[[Grimoire|black book]]"), a tome that, according to some, was written by ''[[Cyprianus]]'', that is, the Saint of Necromancers, [[Cyprian of Antioch]], and to others to have been the Sixth and Seventh [[books of the Bible]] (or "Books of Moses" as the [[Pentateuch]] is known in Denmark and Norway) that were left out of the official Old Testament by the learned so that the common folk would not learn the knowledge held within the text.<ref name=fol7576>''Remedies and rituals: folk medicine in Norway and the New Land'' by Kathleen Stokker, Minnesota Historical Society, 2007, {{ISBN|0-87351-576-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-87351-576-4}}. pp. 75–76</ref> A formulary found in a "black book" recovered from a farm near [[Elverum]] contains many formulas such as one for a [[toothache]] that commands the user of the charm to write the words "Agerin, Nagerin, Vagerin, Jagerin, Ipagerin, Sipia" on a piece of paper using a new pen, cut the paper into three small pieces, place the first piece onto the tooth in the evening and in the morning spit the piece into the fire. This should then be repeated with the other pieces.<ref name=fol78>''Remedies and rituals: folk medicine in Norway and the New Land'' by Kathleen Stokker, Minnesota Historical Society, 2007, {{ISBN|0-87351-576-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-87351-576-4}}. p. 78</ref> Another charm used for helping a woman who is having a difficult labour says to take two white lily roots and give them to the mother to eat.<ref name=fol78/>

{{Main|Cunning folk in Britain}}

[[File:Diorama of a Cunning Woman in the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic.jpg|thumb|[[Diorama]] of a cunning woman in the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic]]

The term "cunning man" or "cunning woman" was most widely used in southern England and the [[English Midlands|Midlands]], as well as in [[Wales]].<ref name="Hutton 1999. p. 85">[[#Hut99|Hutton 1999]]. p. 85.</ref> Such people were also frequently known across England as "wizards", "wise men" or "wise women",<ref name="Hutton 1999. p. 85"/> or in southern England and Wales as "[[Conjuration (summoning)|conjurers]]"<ref name="Hutton 1999. p. 85"/> or as "''dyn(es) hysbys''" (knowing man or woman) in the [[Welsh language]].<ref>[[#Dav03|Davies 2003]]. p. 184.</ref> In [[Cornwall]] they were sometimes referred to as "pellars", which some etymologists suggest originated from the term "expellers", referring to the practice of expelling evil spirits.<ref name="Hutton 1999. p. 85"/> Folklorists often used the term "[[white witch]]", though this was infrequently used amongst the ordinary folk as the term "witch" had general connotations of evil.<ref>[[#Hut99|Hutton 1999]]. p. 86.</ref>

 

 

 

Some of the spells and charms that had been used in the [[Anglo-Saxon paganism|Anglo-Saxon polytheist]] era continued to be used following [[Christianization]]. However, as historian Owen Davies noted, "although some such pre-Christian magic continued, to label it pagan is to misrepresent the people who used it and the context in which it was used."<ref>[[#Dav03|Davies 2003]]. p. 185.</ref>

 

 

 

Whilst across England, many people were accused of witchcraft by members of their local communities and put on trial, the cunning folk very rarely suffered a similar fate. It was unusual for a cunning man or woman to actually be accused of witchcraft; in the county of [[Essex]] for instance, whereas around four hundred people had been put on trial for witchcraft, only four of those were identifiably cunning folk.<ref>[[#Dav03|Davies 2003]]. p. 13.</ref> However, many of the professional witch-hunters and theologians continued to proclaim the cunning craft as being the same as witchcraft, with them both being caused by the Devil.

 

==Germany==

The belief in ''cunning folk'' and the use of "[[white magic]]" to be used for healing and as protection against "[[black magic]]" was once widespread in Germany;<ref name=roth/><ref>''Lucifer ascending: the occult in folklore and popular culture'' Bill Ellis, University Press of Kentucky, 2004, {{ISBN|0-8131-2289-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8131-2289-2}}</ref> however, during the early modern period such practices gradually became less accepted by the authorities, partly because the belief in "white magic" was viewed by the church authorities to be contrary to Biblical teachings and partly due to the loss of revenues for certain groups such as [[barber-surgeons]] and [[physicians]], as was the case in [[Rothenburg ob der Tauber]] in which periodical action was taken against users of "white magic". The usual punishment was banishment rather than execution as was common for others convicted of [[witchcraft]] and the use of "black magic" <ref name=roth>''Witchcraft narratives in Germany: Rothenburg 1561-1652'' Alison Rowlands, Manchester University Press, 2003 {{ISBN|0-7190-5259-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7190-5259-0}}, pp. 72–73</ref>

 

 

==Ireland==

 

 

Male practitioners also existed, primarily providing traditional cures. They were known as ''fear feasa'' ("man of knowledge") or ''lucht pisreoga'' ("people of traditions").

 

== Italy ==

 

 

Italian cunning craft was, and continued to remain rooted in the country's [[Roman Catholicism]], which is evident from the use of charms and prayers, which often call upon the aid of saints.<ref>[[#Mag09|Magliocco 2009]]. p. 104.</ref> Such magical practitioners also widely believed that they dealt with spirit beings, both benevolent (who would aid them) and malevolent (whom they would have to combat). The latter included the unquiet dead as well as supernatural [[witches]] who were believed to cause harm to people, whilst the former included ancestors, the helpful dead and [[saints]], who could help defeat these malevolent entities.<ref>[[#Mag09|Magliocco 2009]]. pp. 117–118</ref> Magical tools were also utilised by Italian cunning-folk, and whilst these varied between both regions and practitioners, these commonly include fiber ropes or cords to bind, knives or scissors to cut away illness, and mirrors and weapons to reflect or scare away malevolent spirits.<ref>[[#Mag09|Magliocco 2009]]. p. 120.</ref>

==Russia==

{{Main|Zagovory}}

 

The traditions survived into the Christian era, largely through a process of [[syncretism]] and Christianization of the traditional rites, in which images of, and lore about, [[Jesus]] were added to the existing traditions. For instance, a healing would now be done in the name of Jesus, citing a story from the Bible.<ref name=Aleksandrov204>{{Cite book |last=Aleksandrov |first=Aleksei |title=777 Zagovorov I Zaklinanii Russkogo Naroda |publisher=Lokid |year=1997 |isbn=5320002157 |location=Moscow |language=ru|pages=204, 521}}</ref><ref name=Agapkina366>{{Cite book |last=Agapkina |first=Tatiana |title=Vostochnoslavyanskie lechebnye''zagovory'' v sravnitel'nom osveshchenii: Syuzhetika i obraz mira |year=2010 |location=Moscow |language=ru|page=366}}</ref>

 

 

== See also ==

 

==References==

{{Reflist|30em}}

 

 

 

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunning Folk}}

[[Category:Cunning folk| ]]

[[Category:European folklore]]

[[Category:Former health care occupations]]

[[Category:Witchcraft in Italy]]