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3 unusual facts about Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits


Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits

In her review of the book published in Folklore, the journal of the Folklore Society, the English folklorist Jacqueline Simpson described Wilby's theories as "bold stuff", but argued that while "I found her theory stimulating", she did not think that it was "wholly convincing".

Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic is a study of the beliefs regarding witchcraft and magic in Early Modern Britain written by the British historian Emma Wilby.

Emma Wilby

Wilby's first published academic text, Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic (2005), was the first major examination of the role that familiar spirits played in Britain during the Early Modern period, and compared similarities between the recorded visions and encounters with such spirits, with shamanism in tribal societies.



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