Cunning folk

Cunning folk, also known as folk healers, are practitioners of folk medicine, folk magic, and divination
within the context of various traditions of folklore in Christian Europe (from at least the 15th up until at least
the early 20th century).

Names given to folk healers or magicians in parts of Europe include:

the French devins-guérisseurs (soothsayer-healers) and leveurs de sorts (curse-lifters)

the Italian benandanti ("good walkers")
the Dutch toverdokters or duivelbanners
the German Hexenmeister or Kräuterhexen
the Irish bean feasa ("woman of knowledge"), banfháidh or fáidhbhean ("female seer")[1][2]
the Spanish curanderos
the Portuguese curandeiros/as, benzedeiros/as or mulheres de virtude (this last one applies
only to females, translating as "women of virtue")
the Danish kloge folk[3]
the Swedish klok gumma ("wise old woman") or klok gubbe ("wise old man")[4][4][5][6][7][8]
the Slavic vedmaki ("warlocks")

Some historians and folklorists have opted to apply the term "cunning folk" as an umbrella term for the entire
range of the phenomenon.[3][9]

Contents
Scandinavia
Britain
Germany
Ireland
Italy
See also
References

Scandinavia
In Scandinavia the klok gumma ("wise woman") or klok gubbe ("wise man"), and collectively De kloka ("The
Wise ones"), as they were known in Swedish, were usually elder members of the community who acted as
folk healers and midwives as well as using folk magic such as magic rhymes.[10] In Denmark, they were
called klog mand ("wise man") and klog kone ("wise woman") and collectively as kloge folk ("wise folk").[11]

Many Norwegian[12] and Danish[12][13] practitioners of folk magic and medicine would have a copy of the
"Svartebok" (or "black book"), a tome that, according to some, was written by Cyprianus, that is, the Saint of
Necromancers, Cyprian of Antioch, and by others to have been the Sixth and Seventh books of the Bible (or
"Books of Moses" as the Pentateuch is known in Denmark and
Norway) that were left out of the official Old Testament by the learned
so that the common folk would not learn the knowledge held within
the text.[12] A formulary found in a "black book" recovered from a
farm near Elverum contains many formulas such as one for a toothache
that commands the user of the charm to write the words "Agerin,
Nagerin, Vagerin, Jagerin, Ipagerin, Sipia" on a piece of paper using a
new pen, cut the paper into three small pieces, place the first piece onto
the tooth in the evening and in the morning spit the piece into the fire.
This should then be repeated with the other pieces.[14] Another charm
used for helping a woman who is having a difficult labour says to take
two white lily roots and give them to the mother to eat.[14]
The Swedish cunning woman
There is an old idea that it was "Klok gumma" who often fell victim to Gertrud Ahlgren of Gotland (1782-
1874), drawing by Pehr Arvid Säve
the Witch Trials in the 17th century, but this does not appear to be true.
1870.
However, some "wise women" and "wise men" were punished, not for
witchcraft but often under the indictment point of "superstition"
(Swedish: "Vidskepelse").[10] In the 1670s, the wise man Johan
Eriksson of Knutby was sentenced to seven gauntlet for "superstition", and again in the 1680s to nine.[10] Per
Ericsson of Dalarna, who read the diseases in wine, was punished both in 1720 and 1726.[10] Brita Biörn of
Gotland said in court that she learned to heal the sick when she spent some time in the underworld, and she
was sentenced to prison terms in both 1722 and 1737.[10] The punishment of Sweden's "cunning folk" only
seemed to have the opposite effect. Ericsson said that his clients had been coming in greater numbers after the
rulings against him, and that he would be forced to hide if he was to obey the court and refrain from his
practice, and in the Biörn case, the vicar complained that people from throughout the country came to seek her
help, and relied on her as a God after her first sentence.[10] The sentences, in reality, had the effect of good
advertising, and Brita's daughter and granddaughter's daughter were also healing women.[10]

There are many examples of well-known "cunning folk" who were known far beyond their village
boundaries, such as Ingeborg i Mjärhult in the 18th century and Kisamor and Gota-Lena in the 19th century.
In the 16th century, Brigitta Andersdotter was often hired by Queen Margaret Leijonhufvud. In Norway some
women such as Mor Sæther (1793–1851), Anna Brandfjeld (1810–1905) and Valborg Valland (1821–1903)
achieved national fame, unusual for women of the time.[15]

The customs persisted well into the 20th century, until the medical doctor became more accessible to the
public.[5][6] In the 19th century, every neighbourhood in Norway had at least one folk-healer.[15] Such beliefs
in folk-medicine, magic, and the use of "black books" were taken by migrants to the Americas. However,
many beliefs died out in Norwegian-American communities around the 1920s with many not having
knowledge of the subject or of the "black book". Knowledge of these beliefs did last longer in Norway, even
if they were not commonly believed in by Norwegians.[12]

Britain
The term "cunning man" or "cunning woman" was most widely used in southern England and the Midlands,
as well as in Wales.[16] Such people were also frequently known across England as "wizards", "wise men" or
"wise women",[16] or in southern England and Wales as "conjurers"[16] or as "dyn(es) hysbys" (knowing man
or woman) in the Welsh language.[17] In Cornwall they were sometimes referred to as "pellars", which some
etymologists suggest originated from the term "expellers", referring to the practice of expelling evil spirits.[16]
Folklorists often used the term "white witch", though this was infrequently used amongst the ordinary folk as
the term "witch" had general connotations of evil.[18]
Certain Christian theologians and Church authorities believed that the cunning folk, being practitioners of
magic, were in league with the Devil and as such were akin to the more overtly Satanic and malevolent
witches. Partly because of this, laws were enacted across England, Scotland and Wales that often condemned
cunning folk and their magical practices, but there was no widespread persecution of them akin to the Witch
Hunt, largely because most common people firmly distinguished between the two: witches were seen as being
harmful and cunning folk as useful.[19]

In England during the Early Mediaeval period, various forms of folk magic could be found amongst the
Anglo-Saxons, who referred to such practitioners as wicca (male) or wicce (female), or at times also as dry,
practitioners of drycraeft, the latter of which have been speculated as being anglicised terms for the Irish drai,
a term referring to druids, who appeared as anti-Christian sorcerers in much Irish literature of the period.[20]

Some of the spells and charms that had been used in the Anglo-Saxon polytheist era continued to be used
following Christianization. However, as historian Owen Davies noted, "although some such pre-Christian
magic continued, to label it pagan is to misrepresent the people who used it and the context in which it was
used."[21]

In England and Wales, cunning folk had operated throughout the latter part of the Mediaeval and into the Early
Modern period. In the 15th and 16th centuries, there had been no attempt to illegalise the cunning craft,
although private lawsuits had been brought against some of them by those clients who felt that they had been
cheated out of their money. This changed with the first of the Witchcraft Acts, the Witchcraft Act of 1542,
enacted under the reign of Henry VIII, which targeted both witches and cunning folk, and which prescribed
the death penalty for such crimes as using invocations and conjurations to locate treasure or to cast a love
spell.[22] This law was repealed no later than 1547, under the reign of Henry's son Edward VI, something that
the historian Owen Davies believed was due to those in power changing their opinion on the law: they
believed that either the death penalty was too harsh for such crimes or that the practice of the cunning craft was
a moral issue that was better for the Church to deal with in ecclesiastic courts rather than a problem that had to
be sorted out by the state.[23]

For the following few decades, the magical practices of the cunning folk
remained legal, despite opposition from certain religious authorities. It
was a time of great religious upheaval in the country as Edward's
successor, his sister Mary I, reimposed Roman Catholicism, before
Anglicanism was once again restored under Elizabeth I. In 1563, after
the return of power to the Anglican Church of England, a bill was passed
by parliament designed to illegalise "Conjurations, Enchantments and
Witchcrafts", again being aimed at both the alleged witches and the
cunning folk. However, this law was not as harsh as its earlier
predecessor, with the death penalty being reserved for those who were
believed to have conjured an evil spirit or murdered someone through
magical means, whilst those for whom the use of magic was a first
offence faced a year's imprisonment and four stints in the pillory.[24]
Nonetheless, this law would have little effect on the cunning folk, as "the
attention and focus of the courts shifted away from the activities of
cunning-folk and towards the maleficium of supposed witches"[25] - the A model of a 19th-century
cunning woman in her house, at
Witch Hunt that had been raging in Scotland and in many parts of
the Museum of Witchcraft,
continental Europe had finally arrived in England.
Boscastle in England.
Whilst across England, many people were accused of witchcraft by
members of their local communities and put on trial, the cunning folk
very rarely suffered a similar fate. It was unusual for a cunning man or woman to actually be accused of
witchcraft; in the county of Essex for instance, whereas around four hundred people had been put on trial for
witchcraft, only four of those were identifiably cunning folk.[26] However, many of the professional witch-
hunters and theologians continued to proclaim the cunning craft as being the same as witchcraft, with them
both being caused by the Devil.

With the decline in the witch trials in the latter part of the 17th and early 18th centuries, partly due to the rise of
the Enlightenment amongst the educated elite, a new law was introduced, the Witchcraft Act of 1736. Unlike
earlier laws, this did not accept the existence of magic, and took the opinion that there never had been any
witches, and it therefore came down heavier on the cunning folk, who were claiming to perform genuine
magical spells. It portrayed the cunning folk as practitioners of "explicitly fraudulent practices designed to fool
the credulous" in order to gain money off of them.[27]

Germany
The belief in cunning folk and the use of "white magic" to be used for healing and as protection against "black
magic" was once widespread in Germany;[28][29] however, during the early modern period such practices
gradually became less accepted by the authorities, partly because the belief in "white magic" was viewed by
the church authorities to be contrary to Biblical teachings and partly due to the loss of revenues for certain
groups such as barber-surgeons and physicians, as was the case in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in which
periodical action was taken against users of "white magic". The usual punishment was banishment rather than
execution as was common for others convicted of witchcraft and the use of "black magic" [28]

In Germany practitioners of folk-magic were almost always female; however, by contrast the Hexenmeister
(also a term for a warlock) or Hexenfinder[30] who hunted witches and "neutralised" them on behalf of society
was always male.[31]

Ireland
In Ireland, the cunning-folk were known as bean feasa ("woman of knowledge"); banfháidh or fáidhbhean
("female seer"); bean bhán ("white woman"), bean chaointe ("keening woman") and bean ghlúine ("joint
woman").[32][33] These would provide traditional herbal cures and perform funeral tasks like preparing
corpses.[34] Gearoid Ó Crualaoich described the bean feasa as “an oracular authority for her community
regarding the meaning and significance of experiences they fail to understand.”[35] Biddy Early (1798–1872)
was a famous practioner.[36][37]

Male practioners also existed, primarily providing traditional cures. They were known as fear feasa ("man of
knowledge") or lucht pisreoga ("people of traditions").

Italy
The names used for cunning-folk in Italy vary from region to region, although such names include praticos
(wise people), guaritori (healers), fattucchiere (fixers), donne che aiutano (women who help) and mago, maga
or maghiardzha (sorcerers). At times, they were sometimes called streghe (witches), although usually only
"behind their backs or by those who either are sceptical of their powers or believe they deal in black
magic."[38] Unlike in other parts of Europe, such as Britain, the cunning profession survived the 20th century
and into the early 21st, allowing Italian-American sociologist Sabina Magliocco to make a brief study of them
(2009).[39]

As in the rest of Europe, the primary role of the Italian cunning-folk was apparently in healing, both through
the use of herbs and through spiritual healing. The former required knowledge about various plants and herbs
on the behalf of the cunning-person, although the spiritual healing was believed to come from an inner power,
known as la forza (power), la virtù (virtue) or il Segno (the sign).[40] Such healing was often in the form of
removing the malocchio, or evil eye, which had cursed someone.[41]

Italian cunning craft was, and continued to remain rooted in the country's Roman Catholicism, which is
evident from the use of charms and prayers, which often call upon the aid of saints.[42] Such magical
practitioners also widely believed that they dealt with spirit beings, both benevolent (who would aid them) and
malevolent (whom they would have to combat). The latter included the unquiet dead as well as supernatural
witches who were believed to cause harm to people, whilst the former included ancestors, the helpful dead and
saints, who could help defeat these malevolent entities.[43] Magical tools were also utilised by Italian cunning-
folk, and whilst these varied between both regions and practitioners, these commonly include fiber ropes or
cords to bind, knives or scissors to cut away illness, and mirrors and weapons to reflect or scare away
malevolent spirits.[44]

See also
European witchcraft Vedmak
Folk Christianity Witch doctor
Folk religion

References
1. http://theses.univ-lyon2.fr/documents/getpart.php?id=lyon2.2009.beck_n&part=159177
2. O'Brien, Lora (October 8, 2019). A Practical Guide to Pagan Priesthood: Community
Leadership and Vocation (https://books.google.com/?id=t6yrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT49&lpg=PT49
&dq=f%C3%A1idhbhean#v=onepage). Llewellyn Worldwide. ISBN 9780738759876 – via
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3. Davies 2003. p. 163.
4. http://www.wordgumbo.com/ie/ger/swe/fdsweeng.txt
5. Signum svenska kulturhistoria, Stormaktstiden
6. Jan-Inge Wall, Hon var engång tagen under jorden
7. Wicked arts: witchcraft and magic trials in southern Sweden, 1635-1754 By Per Sörlina
8. Witchcraft and magic in Europe: the 20th centuryby Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra, Willem de
Blécourt, Brian Levack, Ronald Hutton, Jean Sybil La Fontaine and Roy Porter, Continuum
International Publishing Group, 1999, ISBN 0-485-89106-9, ISBN 978-0-485-89106-5
9. De Blécourt 1994.
10. Jacob Christenssen (Swedish): Signums svenska kulturhistoria. Stormaktstiden (Signum
Swedish Culturhistory. The Great Power Era) (2005)
11. Healing by hand: manual medicine and bonesetting in global perspective Kathryn S. Oths,
Servando Z. Hinojosa, Rowman Altamira, 2004, ISBN 0-7591-0393-3, ISBN 978-0-7591-0393-
1. p.05
12. Remedies and rituals: folk medicine in Norway and the New Land by Kathleen Stokker,
Minnesota Historical Society, 2007, ISBN 0-87351-576-5, ISBN 978-0-87351-576-4. p.75-76
13. H.P. Hansen: Kloge Folk - Folkemedicin og overtro i Vestjylland (Rosenkilde og Bagger 1960)
14. Remedies and rituals: folk medicine in Norway and the New Land by Kathleen Stokker,
Minnesota Historical Society, 2007, ISBN 0-87351-576-5, ISBN 978-0-87351-576-4. p.78
15. Remedies and rituals: folk medicine in Norway and the New Land by Kathleen Stokker,
Minnesota Historical Society, 2007, ISBN 0-87351-576-5, ISBN 978-0-87351-576-4. p.23
16. Hutton 1999. p. 85.
17. Davies 2003. p. 184.
18. Hutton 1999. p. 86.
19. Davies 2003. p. 07-13.
20. Hutton 2009. p. 47.
21. Davies 2003. p. 185.
22. Davies 2003. p. 04.
23. Davies 2003. p. 05.
24. Davies 2003. p. 06-07.
25. Davies 2003. p. 07.
26. Davies 2003. p. 13.
27. Davies 2003. p. 20-21.
28. Witchcraft narratives in Germany: Rothenburg 1561-1652Alison Rowlands, Manchester
University Press, 2003 ISBN 0-7190-5259-9, ISBN 978-0-7190-5259-0, p.72-73
29. Lucifer ascending: the occult in folklore and popular culture Bill Ellis, University Press of
Kentucky, 2004, ISBN 0-8131-2289-9, ISBN 978-0-8131-2289-2
30. Beleg laut dem Deutschen Rechtswörterbuch (http://drw-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de/drw/) in:
Basler Jahrbuch 1935, Seite 41 und in: Hessische Geschichte und Landeskunde Heft 2, Band
48/1932, Seite 44
31. Lucifer ascending: the occult in folklore and popular culture Bill Ellis, University Press of
Kentucky, 2004, ISBN 0-8131-2289-9, ISBN 978-0-8131-2289-2, p.22
32. Daimler, Morgan (June 24, 2016). Fairycraft: Following The Path Of Fairy Witchcraft (https://boo
ks.google.com/?id=z683DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT11&dq=%22bean+feasa%22#v=onepage). John
Hunt Publishing. ISBN 9781785350528 – via Google Books.
33. Crualaoich, Gearóid Ó (2005). "Reading the Bean Feasa". Folklore. 116 (1): 37–50.
doi:10.1080/0015587052000337707 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F0015587052000337707).
JSTOR 30035237 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/30035237).
34. "Bean feasa" (https://irishfolklore.wordpress.com/tag/bean-feasa/). Ireland's Folklore and
Traditions.
35. "Discovering the Bean Feasa |" (https://naturallysimple.org/living/2017/02/05/discovering-the-b
ean-feasa/).
36. Richardson, Bill (July 22, 2015). Spatiality and Symbolic Expression: On the Links between
Place and Culture (https://books.google.com/?id=i7ShCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA118&dq=%22bean+f
easa%22#v=onepage). Springer. ISBN 9781137488510 – via Google Books.
37. Smiddy, Richard (April 6, 1873). "An Essay on the Druids, the Ancient Churches and the
Round Towers of Ireland" (https://books.google.com/?id=09t96_ujEEgC&pg=PA119&dq=%22b
ean+feasa%22#v=onepage). W.B. Kelly – via Google Books.
38. Magliocco 2009. p. 114.
39. Magliocco 2009.
40. Magliocco 2009. p.114-116.
41. Magliocco 2009. p.123.
42. Magliocco 2009. p. 104.
43. Magliocco 2009. p.117-118
44. Magliocco 2009. p.120.

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 De Blécourt, Willem (October 1994). "Witch Doctors, Soothsayers and Priests. On Cunning
Folk in European Historiography and Tradition". Social History. 19 (3).
Hutton, Ronald (1999). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (https://
archive.org/details/triumphofmoonhis00hutt). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-
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