A JOURNEY INTO WITCHCRAFT BELIEFS
The history of witchcraft is complex, and often raises more questions than it answers. Where did witches come from? And did they always arrive on broomsticks? We asked Professor Diane Purkiss to take us inside the minds of ordinary people and intellectuals in medieval and early modern England to reveal how the figure of the witch was born.
Travel with us from the pre-Christian world to the burial mounds of the English landscape, where an underworld of elves, demons and familiars came alive in the popular imagination. Out of these murky beginnings, we discover how the witch became the subject of the chilling persecutions of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Most people think that witches are a Christian invention. But the idea of the witch who flies in the night and draws power from dark cosmic forces to work her ill will on others pre-dates Christianity, probably by many centuries.
In Homer’s Odyssey (c.800 BC), Circe – who turns men into animals – is described as a witch, and Plutarch refers to witchcraft in his treatise On Superstition (c.AD 100). Illicit magic features heavily in Roman law statutes, some of which are passed down to the Christian world. However, many of those early laws were really laws against sorcery, which unlike witchcraft can be beneficial, and which requires special skills, tools and words.
Archaeologists have found hundreds of ancient Greek curse tablets, which the Greeks called katares, ‘curses that bind tight’, and they appear to have invented them, with a great number focused on sporting competitions or legal contests. The inscribed tablets were left in graves, wells or fountains, where the dead could better work their magic.

A scene from Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ in a 1550 painting by Pellegrino Tibaldi, showing Circe transforming men into animals© DeAgostini/Getty Images
How did the figure of the witch emerge?
In later centuries, constant attempts to defeat heresy brought to light a number of figures who were difficult to reconcile with Christianity. Such figures were typically created without reference to witchcraft at all, but led to the creation of the figure of the heretic witch.
One such figure was peculiar to the western Alps. She was the female embodiment of winter, a female figure often called Bertha or Perchta or Befuna. She punished social disobedience and rewarded ‘goodness’. She was always portrayed as an old hag, because she represented cold and winter. It did not take long for intellectuals to note her resemblance to the witches with whom they were familiar from classical literature.
Slowly, and in bits and pieces, the idea of the witch emerged. Very broadly speaking, a witch is a person who employs magical entities, which may include powers she carries within her body, to harm other people. She doesn’t have to be female. She certainly doesn’t have to have a hat and a broomstick. She has to be marred, lopsided. She has to be like the dead: hard, infertile – and she has to hate. The dead hate the living and the witch hates as they do. There is no particular moment when this popular idea is formulated.

A woodcut depicting Frau Perchta, based on a 1486 manuscript of ‘Flowers of Virtue’ by the Austrian poet Hans Vintler
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History of Witches

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Witches were perceived as evil beings by early Christians in Europe, inspiring the iconic Halloween figure.
Images of witches have appeared in various forms throughout history—from evil, wart-nosed women huddling over a cauldron of boiling liquid to hag-faced, cackling beings riding through the sky on brooms wearing pointy hats. In pop culture, the witch has been portrayed as a benevolent, nose-twitching suburban housewife; an awkward teenager learning to control her powers and a trio of charmed sisters battling the forces of evil. The real history of witches, however, is dark and, often for the witches, deadly.
Table of Contents
- The Origin of Witches
- ‘Malleus Maleficarum’
- Salem Witch Trials
- Are Witches Real?
- Book of Shadows
- Sources
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Witchcraft and witches in the UK: Exploring 14 famous witch trials and stories
Learn more about some of Britain’s most famous witches and wise men in our historical guide.
Wise men and women have been around for centuries, usually doing good for the people in their communities. It wasn’t until the reign of Elizabeth I that they were seen as a threat. The first person known to be hung for witchcraft in modern times was Agnes Waterhouse at Chelmsford in 1566. The last was Alice Molland at Exeter in 1684.
14 famous stories of witchcraft
The Pendle Witches of Lancashire
One of the most famous witch trials in Britain was that of the Pendle Witches of Lancashire in 1612, which concluded with the execution of 10 women and men from two families; the Demdike’s and the Chattox’s. Many of the allegations resulted from accusations that members of the families made against each other, perhaps because they were in competition.
James ‘Cunning’ Murrell of Essex
Perhaps the most famous wise man was James ‘Cunning’ Murrell, who died in 1860. He worked out of his cottage in Hadleigh, Essex, treating warts, tracking down lost and stolen goods and removing witches’ spells. He was said to have kept detailed documents about local inhabitants, which he no doubt used to the benefit of his clients.
Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester
Immortalised by Shakespeare in his play Henry VI, Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester was accused of trying to assassinate the King using witchcraft; a crime for which she received life imprisonment and perhaps left a ghostly legacy. She wanted her husband, Duke Humphrey Plantagenet, to be on the throne.
Molly Leigh of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent
Molly Leigh, a local woman accused of being a witch but died in 1746 or 1748, before she made it to trial. Her body is the only one positioned North to South, putting it at a right angle to every other grave in the cemetery. The story of Molly Leigh is a mixture of fact and folklore that has grown over the years.
Mother Shipton of Knaresborough, Yorkshire
Ursula Southeil, or Mother Shipton is remembered still in Knaresborough. Although called a witch, she is more famous for her predictions about the future. She apparently foresaw cars, trains, planes and telegraphy. Her cave and the Dripping Well, where objects hung under the dripping water become like stone, are a popular site to visit today in Knaresborough.
Witches of the West, Cornwall
The famous early 19th-century witches of Cornwall included Granny Boswell and Thomasine Blight, or ‘Tammy Blee’. Like many cunning folk, they treated sick farm animals as well as humans. The Cornish witches’ ability to help young women find a suitor was also legendary.
John and Henry Harries of Cwrt y Cadno, Carmarthenshire
Father and son, John and Henry Harries were hugely influential dyn hysbys (wise men) from the hamlet Cwrt y Cadno in Carmarthenshire. John was said to have predicted his own death on 11 May 1839. Henry died of consumption in 1849 aged just 28.
Read More – Witchcraft and witches in the UK: Exploring 14 famous witch trials and stories