The Magical Universe; Everyday Ritual and Magic in Pre-Modern Europe

by Stephen Wilson

• ISBN13: 9781852854454
• ISBN10: 1852854456
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2004-07-16
• Publisher: Hambledon & London

Summary

The universality of the magical beliefs which have existed throughout Europe in the Middle Ages has been hidden by a focus on the sensational aspects of magic, and on witch trials in particular. The Magical Universe shows how magical beliefs and practices permeated all aspects of work and of family life through- out Europe in the Middle Ages, and profoundly influenced the approach of men and women to health and healing, birth, marriage, and death. Magic offered the hope of protection in a dangerous and uncertain world. Shared by the powerful as well as the poor, magical beliefs have lasted remarkably late in many rural areas and have still not completely vanished to this day.

Author Biography

Stephen Wilson is Reader in European History at the University of East Anglia. His Feuding, Conflict and Banditry in Nineteenth-Century Corsica was awarded the Prix du Livre Corse.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	vii
Acknowledgements	xi
Introduction	xvii
I AGRICULTURE
1 House, Work and the Land	3	(22)
2 Calendar Customs and Agrarian Saints	25	(26)
3 The Weather	51	(38)
4 Livestock	89	(26)
II THE LIFE-CYCLE
5 Human Fertility and Marriage	115	(34)
6 Conception and Pregnancy	149	(16)
7 Childbirth: Delivery and First Days	165	(32)
8 Childbirth: Omens and Strange Births	197	(18)
9 Baptism, Godparents and Naming	215	(38)
10 Mother and Child	253	(36)
11 Death and the Dead	289	(22)
III DISEASE AND HEALING
12 Illness, Doctors and Religion	311	(22)
13 Folk-Healers and Magical Cures	333	(42)
IV DIVINATION AND SIGNS
14 Divination and Signs	375	(20)
V THE ELEMENTS OF MAGIC
15 Magical Power: Persons, Spirits and Animals	395	(26)
16 Magical Power: Things, Words and Gestures	421	(38)
17 Magic and Religion	459	(10)
Notes	469	(26)
Bibliography	495	(38)
Index	533