Cunning folk

as magic rhymes.[8] In Denmark, they were called klog

mand (wise man) and klog kone (wise woman) and
collectively as kloge folk (wise folk).[9]

Folk healers, in England also known as cunning folk or

(more rarely) as white witches are practitioners of folk
medicine, folk magic, and divination within the context
of the various traditions of folklore in Christian Europe
(from at least the 15th up until at least the early 20th century).

Many Norwegian[10] and Danish[10][11] practitioners of

folk magic and medicine would have a copy of the Svartebok (or "black book"), a tome that, according to some,
was written by Cyprianus, that is, Archbishop Thascius
Caecilius Cyprianus of Antioch,[10][11] and by others to
have been the Sixth and Seventh books of the Bible (or
Books of Moses as the Pentateuch is known in Norway) that were left out of the ocial Old Testament by
the learned so that the common folk would not learn the
knowledge held within the text.[10] 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 rst piece onto the tooth in the evening
and in the morning spit the piece into the re. This should
then be repeated with the other pieces.[12] Another charm
used for helping a woman who is having a dicult labour
says to take two white lily roots and give them to the
mother to eat.[12]

Names given to folk healers or magicians in parts of

Western Europe include the French devins-gurisseurs
and leveurs de sorts and the Dutch toverdokters or duivelbanners, the German Hexenmeister or Kruterhexen,
the Spanish curanderos, Portuguese curandeiros/as, benzedeiros/as or mulheres de virtude (this last one applies
only to females, translating as women of virtue), and
the Danish kloge folk,[1] Swedish klok gumma ("wise old
woman") or a klok gubbe ("wise old man"),[2][2][3][4][5][6]
Slavic Vedmak. Some historians and folklorists opted to
apply the term cunning folk as an umbrella term for the
entire range of the phenomenon.[7][1]

Scandinavia

There is an old idea that it was Klok gumma who often

fell victim to the Witch Trials in the 17th century, but this
does not appear to be true. However, some wise women
and wise men were punished, not for witchcraft but often under the indictment point of superstition (Swedish:
Vidskepelse).[8] In the 1670s, the wise man Johan Eriksson of Knutby was sentenced to seven gauntlet for superstition, and again in the 1680s to nine.[8] Per Ericsson
of Dalarna, who read the diseases in wine, was punished
both in 1720 and 1726.[8] Brita Birn of Gotland said
in court that she learned to heal the sick when she spent
some time in the underworld, and she was sentenced to
prison terms in both 1722 and 1737.[8] The punishment
of Swedens cunning folk only seemed to have the opposite eect. Ericsson said that his clients had been coming in greater numbers after the rulings against him, and
that he would be forced to hide if he was to obey the court
and refrain from his practice, and in the Birn case, the
The Swedish cunning woman Gertrud Ahlgren of Gotland (1782vicar complained that people from throughout the coun1874), drawing by Pehr Arvid Sve 1870.
try came to seek her help, and relied on her as a God
after her rst sentence.[8] The sentences, in reality, had
In Scandinavia the klok gumma (wise woman) or klok the eect of good advertising, and Britas daughter and
gubbe (wise man), and collectively De kloka (The granddaughters daughter were also healing women.[8]
Wise ones), as they were known in Swedish, were usually elder members of the community who acted as folk There are many examples of well-known cunning folk
healers and midwives as well as using folk magic such who were known far beyond their village boundaries, such
1

2
as Ingeborg i Mjrhult in the 18th century and Kisamor
and Gota-Lena in the 19th century. In the 16th century,
Brigitta Andersdotter was often hired by Queen Margaret
Leijonhufvud. In Norway some women such as Mor
Sther (17931851), Anna Brandfjeld (18101905) and
Valborg Valland (18211903) achieved national fame,
unusual for women of the time.[13]

2 BRITAIN
Some of the spells and charms that had been used in the
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.[19]

In England and Wales, cunning folk had operated

throughout the latter part of the Mediaeval and into the
Early Modern period. In the 15th and 16th centuries,
there had been no attempt to illegalise the cunning craft,
although private lawsuits had been brought against some
of them by those clients who felt that they had been
cheated out of their money. This changed with the
Witchcraft Act of 1542, enacted under the reign of Henry
VIII, which targeted both witches and cunning folk, and
which prescribed the death penalty for such crimes as using invocations and conjurations to locate treasure or to
cast a love spell.[20] This law was repealed no later than
1547, under the reign of Henrys son Edward VI, something that the historian Owen Davies believed was due to
those in power changing their opinion on the law: they
2 Britain
believed that either the death penalty was too harsh for
such crimes or that the practice of the cunning craft was
Main article: Cunning folk in Britain
a moral issue that was better for the Church to deal with
in ecclesiastic courts rather than a problem that had to be
[21]
The term cunning man or cunning woman was most sorted out by the state.
widely used in southern England and the Midlands, as
well as in Wales.[14] Such people were also frequently
known across England as wizards, wise men or
wise women,[14] or in southern England and Wales as
"conjurers"[14] or as "dyn(es) hysbys" in the Welsh language.[15] 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.[14] 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.[16]
The customs persisted well into the 20th century, until the medical doctor became more accessible to the
public.[3][4] In the 19th century, every neighbourhood
in Norway had at least one folk-healer.[13] Such beliefs
in folk-medicine, magic, and the use of black books
were taken by migrants to the Americas. However, many
beliefs died out in Norwegian-American communities
around the 1920s with many not having knowledge of
the subject or of the black book. Knowledge of these
beliefs did last longer in Norway, even if they were not
commonly believed in by Norwegians.[10]

Certain Christian theologians and Church authorities believed that the cunning folk, being practitioners of magic,
were in league with the Devil and as such were akin to the
more overtly Satanic and malevolent witches. Partly due
to this, laws were enacted across England, Scotland and
Wales that often condemned cunning folk and their magical practices, but there was no widespread persecution
of them akin to the Witch Hunt, largely because most
common people rmly distinguished between the two:
witches were seen as being harmful and cunning folk as
useful.[17]
In England during the Early Mediaeval period, various
forms of folk magic could be found amongst the AngloSaxons, who referred to such practitioners as wicca
(male) or wicce (female), or at times also as dry, practitioners of drycraeft, the latter of which have been speculated as being anglicised terms for the Irish drai, a term
referring to druids, who appeared as anti-Christian sorcerers in much Irish literature of the period.[18]

A model of a 19th-century cunning woman in her house, at the

Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle in England.

For the following few decades, the magical practices of

the cunning folk remained legal, despite opposition from
certain religious authorities. It was a time of great religious upheaval in the country as Edwards successor,

3
his sister Mary I, reimposed Roman Catholicism, before
Anglicanism was once again restored under Elizabeth I.
In 1563, after the return of power to the Anglican Church
of England, a bill was passed by parliament designed to
illegalise Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts,
again being aimed at both the alleged witches and the
cunning folk. However, this law was not as harsh as
its earlier predecessor, with the death penalty being reserved for those who were believed to have conjured an
evil spirit or murdered someone through magical means,
whilst those for whom the use of magic was a rst offence faced a years imprisonment and four stints in the
pillory.[22] Nonetheless, this law would have little eect
on the cunning folk, as the attention and focus of the
courts shifted away from the activities of cunning-folk
and towards the malecium of supposed witches[23] - the
Witch Hunt that had been raging in Scotland and in many
parts of continental Europe had nally arrived in England.
Whilst across England, many people were accused of
witchcraft by members of their local communities and
put on trial, the cunning folk very rarely suered 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 identiably cunning folk.[24] 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.

black magic [26]

In Germany practitioners of folk-magic were almost always female, however by contrast the Hexenmeister (also
a term for a warlock) or Hexennder[28] who hunted
witches and neutralised them on behalf of society was
always male.[29]

4 Italy
The names used for cunning-folk in Italy vary from region to region, although such names include praticos
(wise people), guaritori (healers), fattucchiere (xers),
donne che aiutano (women who help) and mago, maga
or maghiardzha (sorcerers). At times, they were sometimes called streghe (witches), although usually only behind their backs or by those who either are sceptical of
their powers or believe they deal in black magic.[30] Unlike in other parts of Europe, such as Britain, the cunning profession survived the 20th century and into the
early 21st, allowing Italian-American sociologist Sabina
Magliocco to make a brief study of them (2009).[31]

As in the rest of Europe, the primary role of the Italian

cunning-folk was apparently in healing, both through the
use of herbs and through spiritual healing. The former required knowledge about various plants and herbs on the
behalf of the cunning-person, although the spiritual healing was believed to come from an inner power, known as
[32]
With the decline in the witch trials in the latter part of la forza (power), la virt (virtue) or il Segno (the sign).
Such
healing
was
often
in
the
form
of
removing
the
malthe 17th and early 18th centuries, partly due to the rise of
[33]
the Enlightenment amongst the educated elite, a new law occhio, or evil eye, which had cursed someone.
was introduced, the Witchcraft Act of 1736. Unlike ear- Italian cunning craft was, and continued to remain rooted
lier laws, this did not accept the existence of magic, and in the countrys Roman Catholicism, which is evident
took the opinion that there never had been any witches, from the use of charms and prayers, which often call
and it therefore came down heavier on the cunning folk, upon the aid of saints.[34] Such magical practitioners also
who were claiming to perform genuine magical spells. It widely believed that they dealt with spirit beings, both
portrayed the cunning folk as practitioners of explicitly benevolent (who would aid them) and malevolent (whom
fraudulent practices designed to fool the credulous in or- they would have to combat). The latter included the under to gain money o of them.[25]
quiet 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.[35] Magical tools were also
3 Germany
utilised by Italian cunning-folk, and whilst these varied
between both regions and practitioners, these commonly
The belief in cunning folk and the use of "white magic"
include ber ropes or cords to bind, knives or scissors to
to be used for healing and as protection against "black
cut away illness, and mirrors and weapons to reect or
[26][27]
howmagic" was once widespread in Germany,
scare away malevolent spirits.[36]
ever 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 5 See also
and partly due to the loss of revenues for certain groups
such as barber-surgeons and physicians, as was the case in
Folk Christianity
Rothenburg ob der Tauber in which periodical action was
taken against users of white magic. The usual punish Folk religion
ment was banishment rather than execution as was com European witchcraft
mon for others convicted of witchcraft and the use of

6
Vedmak

[19] Davies 2003. p. 185.

Witch doctor

[20] Davies 2003. p. 04.

REFERENCES

[21] Davies 2003. p. 05.

References

[22] Davies 2003. p. 06-07.

[23] Davies 2003. p. 07.

Notes
Footnotes
[1] Davies 2003. p. 163.
[2] http://www.wordgumbo.com/ie/ger/swe/fdsweeng.txt
[3] Signum svenska kulturhistoria, Stormaktstiden
[4] Jan-Inge Wall, Hon var engng tagen under jorden
[5] Wicked arts: witchcraft and magic trials in southern Sweden, 1635-1754 By Per Srlina
[6] Witchcraft and magic in Europe: the 20th centuryby Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra, Willem de Blcourt, Brian Levack,
Ronald Hutton, Jean Sybil La Fontaine and Roy Porter,
Continuum International Publishing Group, 1999, ISBN
0-485-89106-9, ISBN 978-0-485-89106-5
[7] De Blcourt 1994.
[8] Jacob Christenssen (Swedish): Signums svenska kulturhistoria. Stormaktstiden (Signum Swedish Culturhistory. The Great Power Era) (2005)
[9] Healing by hand: manual medicine and bonesetting in
global perspective Kathryn S. Oths, Servando Z. Hinojosa,
Rowman Altamira, 2004, ISBN 0-7591-0393-3, ISBN
978-0-7591-0393-1. p.05

[24] Davies 2003. p. 13.

[25] Davies 2003. p. 20-21.
[26] Witchcraft narratives in Germany: Rothenburg 15611652Alison Rowlands, Manchester University Press,
2003 ISBN 0-7190-5259-9, ISBN 978-0-7190-5259-0,
p.72-73
[27] 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
[28] Beleg laut dem Deutschen Rechtswrterbuch in: Basler
Jahrbuch 1935, Seite 41 und in: Hessische Geschichte und
Landeskunde Heft 2, Band 48/1932, Seite 44
[29] 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, p.22
[30] Magliocco 2009. p. 114.
[31] Magliocco 2009.
[32] Magliocco 2009. p.114-116.
[33] Magliocco 2009. p.123.
[34] Magliocco 2009. p. 104.
[35] Magliocco 2009. p.117-118
[36] Magliocco 2009. p.120.

[10] Remedies and rituals: folk medicine in Norway and the

New Land by Kathleen Stokker, Minnesota Historical Society, 2007, ISBN 0-87351-576-5, ISBN 978-0-87351576-4. p.75-76
[11] H.P. Hansen: Kloge Folk - Folkemedicin og overtro i
Vestjylland (Rosenkilde og Bagger 1960)
[12] Remedies and rituals: folk medicine in Norway and the
New Land by Kathleen Stokker, Minnesota Historical Society, 2007, ISBN 0-87351-576-5, ISBN 978-0-87351576-4. p.78
[13] Remedies and rituals: folk medicine in Norway and the
New Land by Kathleen Stokker, Minnesota Historical Society, 2007, ISBN 0-87351-576-5, ISBN 978-0-87351576-4. p.23
[14] Hutton 1999. p. 85.
[15] Davies 2003. p. 184.
[16] Hutton 1999. p. 86.
[17] Davies 2003. p. 07-13.
[18] Hutton 2009. p. 47.

Bibliography
Chumbley, Andrew (2001). The Leaper Between:
An Historical Study of the Toad-bone Amulet; its
forms, functions, and praxes in popular magic. The
Cauldron.
Davies, Owen (2003). Cunning-Folk: Popular
Magic in English History. London: Hambledon Continuum. ISBN 1-85285-297-6.
De Blcourt, Willem (October 1994). Witch Doctors, Soothsayers and Priests. On Cunning Folk
in European Historiography and Tradition. Social
History Vol 19, No 3.
Hutton, Ronald (1999). The Triumph of the Moon:
A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. New York:
Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-820744-1.
Hutton, Ronald (2009). Blood and Mistletoe: The
History of the Druids in Britain. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.

5
Magliocco, Sabina (2009). Italian Cunning Craft:
Some Preliminary Observations. Journal for the
Academic Study of Magic 5 (Oxford: Mandrake of
Oxford).
Maple, Eric (December 1960). The Witches of
Canewdon. Folklore Vol 71, No 4.
Oates, Shani (2010). Tubelos Green Fire: Mythos,
Ethos, Female, Male & Priestly Mysteries of the Clan
of Tubal Cain. Oxford: Mandrake of Oxford. ISBN
978-1-906958-07-7.
Semmens, Jason (2004). The Witch of the West: Or,
The Strange and Wonderful History of Thomasine
Blight. Plymouth. ISBN 0-9546839-0-0.
Thomas, Keith (1973). Religion and the Decline of
Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in 16th and 17thCentury England. London: Penguin.
Wilby, Emma (2005). Cunning Folk and Familiar
Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early
Modern British Witchcraft and Magic. Brighton:
Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 1-84519-078-5.

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