Isobel Gowdie

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Isobel Gowdie was founded in 1662 in Scotland of Witchcraft accused. Her confession, allegedly made without torture , is one of the most detailed sources for incantations used towards the end of the Age of Witch Trials.

She claimed that she and other members of her "witches' coven" turned into animals such as rabbits and cats when they met.

For the transformation into a rabbit one should repeat this verse three times:

I'll slip into a rabbit
With wails and sighs and great sorrow;
I go in the devil's name
Oh, although I'm coming home again.

And the transformation back requires repeating this verse three times:

Hare, hare, God send you protection,
I'm in the shape of a rabbit now
But soon I'll have a woman's shape.

After the transformation, they were supposedly received by an elf queen from Scottish mythology in her realm .

It is unclear today whether Gowdie's admission was due to a psychosis or whether she, suspected of witchcraft, expected a milder judgment from such a statement . The content of your confession is the same as in most of the minutes of the time, but it is much more detailed. There are no records of their execution .

Gowdie's story was later incorporated into a variety of cultural works. She appears as a character in several books, including A. in JW Brodie-Inne's autobiographical novel The Devil's Mistress , in Jane Parkhurst's Isobel , in Night Plague by Graham Masterton and in Noches Paganas: Cuentos Narrados junto al Fuego del Sabbath by Luis G. Abbadie . Isobel Gowdie also appears in songs by Creeping Myrtle and Alex Harvey ; The Confession of Isobel Gowdie is an orchestral work by the Scottish composer James MacMillan .

Some of Gowdie's own works have been published in the Oxford University Press anthology Early Modern Women Poets: 1520-1700 and World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time .

literature

  • A blondie bewitched. The Sunday Times , (Aug. 20, 2007, accessed Sept. 17, 2007)
  • Davidson, Thomas, Rowan Tree and Red Thread: a Scottish Witchcraft Miscellany of Tales, Legends and Ballads; Together with a Description of the Witches' Rites and ceremonies. Oliver and Boyd, 1949.
  • Doreen Valiente : An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present. St. Martin, 1975.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Translation of the verses by: Isobel Gowdie . (August 20, 2010 13:22 UTC). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 17, 2010 19:58 UTC
  2. ↑ Isobel Goudie Sensational Alex Harvey Band
personal data
SURNAME Gowdie, Isobel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish woman charged with witchcraft
DATE OF BIRTH 16th century or 17th century
DATE OF DEATH after 1661