This book brings together twelve studies that collectively provide an overview of the main issues of live interest in Scottish witchcraft. As well as fresh studies of the well-established topic of witch-hunting, the book also launches an exploration of some of the more esoteric aspects of magical belief and practice.
Chapter 1. Scotland’s First Witch-Hunt: The Eastern Witch-Hunt of 1568–1569
Chapter 2. The Countess of Angus’s Escape from the North Berwick Witch-Hunt
Chapter 3. Exporting the Devil across the North Sea: John Cunningham and the Finnmark Witch-Hunt
Chapter 4. The Witch, the Household and the Community: Isobel Young in East Barns, 1580–1629
Chapter 5. Witch-Hunting in Scotland, 1649–1650
Chapter 6. Reputation and Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century Dalkeith
Chapter 7. Outside In or Inside Out: Sleep Paralysis and Scottish Witchcraft
Chapter 8. ‘We mey shoot them dead at our pleasur’: Isobel Gowdie, Elf Arrows and Dark Shamanism
Chapter 9. Flying Witches in Scotland
Chapter 10. The Urban Geography of Witch-Hunting in Scotland
Chapter 11. Executing Scottish Witches
Chapter 12. Decline and Survival in Scottish Witch-Hunting, 1701–1727
Bibliography of Scottish Witchcraft