The Mythological Dimensions of Neil Gaiman by Burke Jessica & Larsen Kristine & Burdge Anthony

Author:Burke, Jessica & Larsen, Kristine & Burdge, Anthony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Myth Ink Books
Published: 2013-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

Little evidence justifies Gardener’s claims linking old folk custom with witchcraft as a unified belief system. The OED links the term witch etymologically with the Old English term wicca, defining a witch as a “man who practises witchcraft or magic….”13 The first use of the term wicca – or wiccan—was in the ninth-century Laws of Ælfred: “Ða fæmnan, þe gewuniað onfon gealdorcræftigan, & scinlæcan, & wiccan.” Translated as— “Do not let women, accustomed to performing incantation and sorcery and witchcraft, live”14—akin to “do not suffer a witch to live.”15 By the tumult of the eleventh century, wiccan became the antithesis to normally functioning society:

… wælcyrian and wiccan ‘witches’ are connected as baleful influences on society in Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (a.d. 1014), which accuses them, in concert with murderers, slayers of kinsmen, and fornicators, of destroying the English nation.16

Yet, the term wælcyrian, “chooser of the slain, witch, sorceress”17—linked to the Norse valkyrie—itself wasn’t a negative term, being associated with the Celtic Triple Goddess the Morrígan.

For archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, alliances between witches, carrion birds, and goddesses of death and war stretch back into the ProtoNeolithic and Neolithic Ages— discoveries in Zawi Chemi Shandidar in Northern Iraq (10,870 BCE), Çatal Hüyük in central Anatolia (circa 8000 BCE), and Skara Bræ in the Orkney Islands (3100 BCE).18 But, the witch to Gimbutas was nothing more than a “loathsome caricature” of the once formidable images of “Lady Death….”19 Ancient Goddesses of Death were deeply associated with fertility—of the earth and of the animals upon it, including humans. Often the destruction of life—as with the “Killer-Regeneratrix” figure, the Morrígan, Hecate, and Kālī—wasn’t rooted in animosity, but an intention toward balance, preventing eternally flourishing life.20 A need for balance is where the concept of appetite emerges: “Witches were greatly feared since they continued to represent the powers of a formidable Goddess on earth.”21 While Christianity gained control in Europe, folk traditions and magic were still practiced; yet these traditions were prosecuted and “considered dangerous” when contrary to normal intentions, normal appetite, and when practiced by women.22

Thanks to the schism in the Catholic Church in 1054 and a century replete with war, pestilence, and dissent, Medieval Europe took on a persecutorial atmosphere.23 Those on the fringes were accused with social destruction, sexual deviancy, malicious intent, and unchecked appetite. Medieval Europe, while in its infancy, began the methodical extermination of undesirables:

Jews, heretics, and lepers were the first three major categories to fall victim to the persecuting society. … many of the images and accusations that mainstream Christians attached to one of these three groups were also ascribed to the others: that they were sexually hyperactive and dedicated to luring innocent people into their ranks through their sexual prowess; that they engaged in disgusting anti-human practices, sexual and otherwise; and that they were determined to infiltrate and bring down the larger society around them. … the idea became popular that one or more vast conspiracies were trying to destroy Christianity from within.24 To keep power centralized, dissidents and heretics needed to be identified and dealt with.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.