Folk-healing, fairies and witchcraft: the trial of Stein Maltman, Stirling 1628

Hall, A. (2006) Folk-healing, fairies and witchcraft: the trial of Stein Maltman, Stirling 1628. Studia Celtica Fennica, 3, pp. 10-25.

Abstract

'Folk-healing, Fairies and Witchcraft: The Trial of Stein Maltman, Stirling 1628' is the first full publication of a trial record which is particularly valuable in the history of Scottish popular belief, that of Stein Maltman, of Leckie, about twelve kilometres to the West of Stirling. Although our text has itself been edited from the original transcripts of depositions and confessions by the seventeenth-century scribe, it provides important information about folk-healing practices, maleficium, and the role of fairies in the construction of illness in early modern Scotland. The case seems to be representative of endemic rather than epidemic witchcraft-trials, and the mentions of fairies attributed to Stein and which he is himself recorded to make may closely reflect his professional construction of healing practices.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hall, Alaric
• Authors: Hall, A.
• Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology; G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GR Folklore; D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Celtic and Gaelic
• Journal Name: Studia Celtica Fennica
• Publisher: Finnish Society for Celtic Studies
• ISSN: 1795-097X
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2006 Finnish Society for Celtic Studies
• First Published: First published in Studia Celtica Fennica 3:10-25
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher