Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media by Bill Ellis

Review by: Jacqueline Simpson

Folklore, Vol. 114, No. 1 (Apr., 2003), pp. 123-124
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
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Reviewsof FolkloreScholarship 123

in modern treatmentsof it, particularlyin theatre,opera and film. As the range of topics
covered makes clear, the editors have conceived their task much more broadly than did
Loomis.
Hartmannvon Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbachand Gottfriedvon Strassburgare the
German authors most closely associated with Arthurian material and the chapters
devoted to them here provide both an introduction to the works themselves and an
overview of the critical approachesto them. Without meaning to slight these excellent
contributions,it is nonetheless fair to draw attention to the careful considerationgiven
to the less famous thirteenth-centurywriters (e.g. Ulrich von Zatzikhoven,Eilhartvon
Oberg, Heinrich von dem Tuirlin,Der Stricker)and to the late-medieval adapters (e.g.
Ulrich Fuitrer).The essays will make these writers accessible to a much wider public.
Similarly, the chapters by Bart Besamusca and Alfred Thomas on Dutch and Czech
Arthurian works present material that will be new to most readers. James Rushing's
survey of pictorial versions of the Arthurian legend will be fascinating to readers
familiar only with the literary evidence.
Despite the varied subjects of the chapters, they share a common approach:most
include plot summariesthat are particularlyvaluable for the less well-known works, and
there are precise discussions of manuscriptevidence and frequentreferencesto the social
and historicalcontext in which the works were written. Most articles sum up the major
trends of past and currentresearchand also point out lines of inquiry that have not yet
been explored. One of the major contributionsof this volume is its bibliographies.The
general bibliographyat the end is supplementedby often extensive bibliographiesat the
end of each chapter,which cite the editions and majorstudies necessary for specialists.
Of particularhelp to the non-germanistaudience is the inclusion in the bibliographies
of translations into English. For folklorists, it is helpful that the index includes both
specific motifs like the Fair Unknown, the Rash Boon, the Loathly Lady and the Swan
Knight, and more general categories like "fairymistress,""fairy elements," and "other
world." Nevertheless, the inclusion of such items in the index is somewhat haphazard,
because "fairytalesource" (p. 214), "dragonkiller"(p. 221) and "bridequest"(p. 234) are
not to be found.
The editors and contributorsto this enterprise have produced a volume with wide
appeal; it is essential for specialists in medieval German literature,but it provides a
valuable introductionto the materialfor a much wider audience, including specialists in
other areas of medieval literature.Specialistsin Frenchliterature,for instance, will find
fascinating the evidence for the reception of French romance. In addition to these
specialised audiences, the collection will be extremely useful to amateurs,giving them
solid informationand good orientationin complex material.

MaureenBoulton,Universityof Notre Dame,USA

Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media. By Bill Ellis. Lexington:
The University Press of Kentucky,2000. 352 pp. $27.50 (hbk). ISBN 0-8131-2170-1

Therecan be few allegationsthat have caused greatercontroversy,and greatersuffering,

in America and Britainin recent years than the assertions that secret devil-worshipping
cults are widespread, that children are being sexually abused and/or murdered as part
of their rituals, and that the "recoveredmemories" of such events elicited by self-ap-
pointed therapists are valid. The disruption to families, and the pain and injustice to
individuals, has been horrendous;the cliche of the "witch-hunt"has often been all too
accurate.Scarcelyless damaging is the convictionin some Christiancircles that demonic
possession is a commonplaceaffair,which can be triggeredby any number of activities

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124 Reviewsof FolkloreScholarship

that society as a whole considers harmless (wearing a Halloween mask, for example),
and should be countered by exorcism. This is one of the situations (racism is another)
where a scholarhas the moral obligation not to adopt a stance of detached impartiality;
the beliefs he/she is observing are not only factually erroneous,but socially destructive,
and this needs to be said.
ProfessorBill Ellis is exceptionallyqualified to explore the causes and consequencesof
these disturbing trends. He is a folklorist working in the field of contemporarylegend
and rumour studies, fully aware of the social processes that initiate and fuel them, and
of their historicalprecedentsand sources. He is also an active member of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of America, who can show a sympathetic understanding of the
doctrines held by certain Christiangroups, even while deploring the excesses to which
they have led. His critiqueof the anti-cultcrusaders,severe though it sometimes is, does
not spring from a prioriprejudice.
The Satanism scare was, and still is, a powerful force among fundamentalistsin the
USA; much of Ellis' study tracks its origins in the Pentecostal movement there, the
growth of the "deliverance ministry," and the influence of certain specific religious
writers and preachers. Right-wing conspiracy theory also played a part, as did,
inevitably, media sensationalism.Other chaptersdeal with various outbursts of rumour
and legend ostension on American campuses; the way certain traditional behaviour
patterns of adolescence, such as nocturnal visits to "scary" sites, are misinterpreted
as Satanic activities by anxious religious adults; and the Great Plains cattle mutilations
of the 1970s, variously blamed upon Satanists or extra-terrestrials.Britain has
two chapters:one describes how informationon ritual magic spread from a handful of
occultists into popular novels and horrorfilms, how Wicca arrived, and how the media
(and the occasional policeman) have reacted to it; the other is about the Highgate
Cemetery Vampire Hunt of 1970. Throughout, Ellis is concerned to disentangle facts
from hearsay;while never denying that occultists do exist and that their personal and
group activities can be harmful,he proves that in a large majorityof cases allegations are
based on rumours that melt away under scrutiny. He shows how older folklore is
misunderstood by the campaigners or, worse, is appropriatedby them to serve their
own agenda.
This book is a fascinatingstudy. It also has a message that, if heeded, will remove a
potent source of grief and fear.

JacquelineSimpson,FolkloreSociety

Dancing with the Virgin: Body and Faith in the Fiesta of Tortugas, New Mexico.
Deidre Sklar.Berkeley:University of CaliforniaPress, 2001. 230 pp. B/W illus. $45.00/
29.95 (hbk), $16.95/11.95 (pbk). ISBN 0-520-07910-8(hbk), 0-520-22791-3(pbk)

Deidre Sklarhas produced an unusual ethnology, the result of her in-depth study of and
participationin an annual three-day festival in honour of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The
fiesta is a complex and evolving mixture of Roman Catholic and native elements
perpetuatedover the years by a close-knit group of people in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
But this book is also an account of her own interiorjourney, from her childhood as the
granddaughterof Jewish immigrantsin Brooklyn,New York,to an academic,engrossed
for ten years in learning to understand a completely foreign culture.
In some ways, this book is structuredas a chronology of the fiesta. Yet this is not a
dry academic recounting of what took place. Instead, the author digresses constantly as
each event in the three-daycelebrationtriggersa string of memories;of the participants,
how she came to know them, and the things they did together that aided her under-

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