Friends of the Fairies

The witchcraft trials were one of the biggest injustices in Scotland’s history, a massive miscarriage of justice, but how did people come to believe in such a thing and what did they believe about it? Our panel of Scottish historians are here to take you deep into the psyche of the 16th and 17th centuries, along with our hosts Susan Morrison and Louise Yeoman.

This time we find out about beliefs in fairies, spirit guides, charms and ritual objects. While the elite believed in the witches’ sabbath and the demonic pact, it wasn’t necessarily the case that ordinary people did. Efforts to make ordinary people confess to witchcraft led to them telling all kinds of interesting stories. People accused of witchcraft meet the dead, go into fairy hills, worry about being sent as sacrifices to Hell, hang out with the Queen and King of the fairies, deliver fairy children, lose their own… Often these people are healers and diviners - able to tell the future, to tell who is riding with the fairies, to cure cattle and people. But to the Kirk, what they are up to is suspicious and can lead to a witch-trial.