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by Walter Scott (Author)
Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft is Walter Scott's historical inquiry into superstition, folklore, witch trials, apparitions, and the supernatural imagination. Written in the form of letters, the work surveys beliefs in demons, ghosts, fairies, omens, second sight, witchcraft, and magical practice, while placing them within the religious, legal, literary, and social history of Britain and Europe. Scott's subject is the world of supernatural belief, but his method is that of a historian and man of letters: comparative, anecdotal, sceptical, and deeply informed by Scottish tradition.
First published in 1830, the book remains valuable for readers interested in folklore, witchcraft history, demonology, Scottish literature, supernatural belief, and the cultural history of fear. Scott examines the stories people told about unseen forces, but also the institutions and assumptions that allowed accusation, persecution, and credulity to take root. For students and general readers of nineteenth-century literature, folklore studies, occult history, and historical accounts of witchcraft, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft offers a substantial classic text from one of Scotland's central literary figures.
