Scottish Witches and Witch-Hunters by J. Goodare

Author:J. Goodare [Goodare, J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781137355959
Publisher: PalgraveMacmillan
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

8

‘We mey shoot them dead at our pleasur’: Isobel Gowdie, Elf Arrows and Dark Shamanism

Emma Wilby

The four confessions given by Isobel Gowdie in Auldearn, Nairnshire in 1662 are consistently cited as the most extraordinary on record in Scotland. In remarkable detail and with inimitable style they cover a diverse range of folkloric and demonological subject matter, from stereotypical pacts with the Devil to feasting under hills with the fairy king and queen. Arguably the most striking of all the passages in the confessions are those depicting elf-arrow shooting. In her first confession, Isobel claims that she and the other members of her coven

vold flie away q[uhe]r ve vold be ewin as strawes wold flie wpon an hie way, we will flie lyk strawes q[uhe]n we pleas wild strawes and corne strawes wilbe hors to ws q[uhe]n ve put th[e]m betwixt owr foot, and say hors and hattok in the divellis nam, and q[uhe]n any sies thes strawes in whirlewind, and doe not sanctifie them selves, they we mey shoot them dead at our pleasur. …1

Having established her power to shoot and kill people, Isobel then provides a grim roll-call of the arrow-slain. This passage, from her third confession, runs to over 200 words, beginning:

th[a]t q[uhi]ch trowbles my concience most is the killing of sewerall persones, with the arrowes q[uhi]ch I gott from the divell, the first voman th[a]t I killed wes at the plewgh landis, also I killed on in the east of murrey, at candlmas last, at that tyme bessie wilson in aulderne killed on th[e]r, and margret wilson ther killed an uth[e]r, I killed also James dick in conniecavell, bot the death th[a]t I am most of all sorrie for, is the killing of william Bower in the miltowne of moynes, margret brodie killed an vowman washing at the burne of tarres, Bessie wilsone killed an man at the bushe of strutheris Bessie hay in aulderne killed an prettie man, called dunbar at the eist end of the towne of forres as he wes coming out at an gaitt …2

I

As many commentators have noted, these passages have links with fairy lore. The fairy host was believed to roam the countryside, sometimes using plant stalks as steeds, in search of sustenance. In addition to stealing milk and taking the ‘foyson’ (nutritive quality) of the grain, they killed humans and animals with ‘elf arrows’, tiny projectiles identified with the prehistoric arrowheads found in many parts of Scotland. If the humans who crossed the fairies’ path did not ‘sain’ (bless) themselves, the fairy darts would cause them to sicken or die.3 It was also believed that humans could be called upon to function as fairy archers, with Welsh cartographer Edward Lhuyd noting in 1699 of the Highlanders that ‘their Opinion is that the Fairies (having not much Power themselves to hurt Animal Bodies) do sometimes carry away Men in the Air, and furnishing them with Bows and Arrows, employ them to shoot Men, Cattle, &c.’4 Similarly, variations on Isobel’s ‘hors and hattok’ anthem appear in a number of sources as a fairy levitation cry.

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