Witch, Wicce, Mother Goose: the Rise and Fall of the Witch Hunts in Europe and North America - Book Review

By Robert W. Thurston. Harlow and London: Pearson Education, 2001. 202 pp. Illus. Maps. 20.00 [pounds sterling] (hbk). ISBN 0-582-43086-3

One feels some sympathy for an author trying to find a distinctive title for yet another book on historical witchcraft and witch-trials, but in this case the choice is misleading. To highlight the Anglo-Saxon word Wicce seems to imply a special emphasis either on the pre-Conquest period or on modern Gardnerian pagans who took over the word for their own purposes, but neither topic is discussed at all. "Mother Goose" is mentioned, but only once, at the very end, to symbolise the fact that by the late seventeenth century supernatural figures were no longer seen as threats to society, but "could be tamed in plays and stories" (p. 173).

What the book does provide is a broad and well-balanced survey, summarising up-to-date research by many scholars, of the cultural factors that affected the development of the "witch" stereotype in medieval Europe, the growth of persecutions and trials, and their eventual abandonment. Professor Thurston has no startling new theory to propound, but he gives a sound general overview of this highly complex topic, in readily comprehensible terms. He is effective in demolishing the exaggerated claims of various sweeping "explanations" based on too little evidence--that the persecutions were a deliberate campaign against women in general, or midwives in particular, or a response to ergot poisoning, or a way of controlling social deviants. These factors, he argues, may have played a part in some regions at some periods, but cannot apply throughout the whole range of phenomena. His book will be of great use as an introduction to witchcraft studies for undergraduates and for the general reader.

I did notice one error that should be corrected if the opportunity arises: the "Ineffable Name" which Lilith utters at the moment of her revolt is not to be understood as "Satan" (p. 59), but as "JHVH," the true name of God, to utter which is the supreme blasphemy in Jewish thought.

Jacqueline Simpson, Folklore Society

COPYRIGHT 2003 Folklore Society
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group