Witchcraft, for most of us, is associated with Sabbats, black cats, and blood pacts with the devil. Pennethorne Hughes, however, has deliberately excised the sensation and legend in this scholarly study of a serious subject. Credence in the powers of witches he sees as the degeneration of very early religious beliefs and practices, which at their best expressed an essential human faith in the identification of man with nature, of the self with the cosmos. His full treatment of the early records and medieval background of the witch-cult draws in notable figures who seem to have dwelt on the fringe of a magical world-King Arthur, Jeanne d'Arc, Gilles de Rais (the original Bluebeard), and even Robin Hood. His evidence tends to suggest that some, at any rate, of the powers of witches were not to be despised. Witchcraft, with its extensive bibliography of occult books, has an interest for students of anthropology, psychology, and religion: for the ordinary reader it offers a reliable history of a subject of unfailing appeal. The cover shows a detail of 'The Last Judgement, attributed to Hieronymus Bosch, in the Groeningemuseum, Bruges (Snark International)
