Wessex Superstitions
A Talk for Wessex Museums by Owen Davies
Thursday 8 September 2022, 7pm Online event
£5 per screen
Tickets available through Wessex Museums
https://www.wessexmuseums.org.uk/book-online/
In this talk, Owen Davies puts Hardy's references to witchcraft and popular magic in historical context. Based on historical and folkloristic research, particularly with regards to Somerset and Dorset, he will explore the influence of cunning-folk and the fear of witches, as well as a range of other magical healers with whom Hardy would have been familiar. This talk goes beyond Hardy’s work, but there is a wealth of material to understand better the fictional world of folklore he created from the reality of the time.
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Owen Davies is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshire and the Current President of the Folklore Society, which was founded in London in 1878. He has published numerous books and articles on the history of witchcraft, magic, ghosts, religion and folk medicine. His forthcoming book published by Oxford University Press is entitled ‘Troubled by Faith: Insanity and the Supernatural in the Age of the Asylum’.