For most of us, the witch is dead - a relic of children's stories, nothing more. But for Louise Yeoman, it's different. For her, witches are real.
As co-director of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft, the researcher is putting names, faces and real lives to the women - and in some cases men - tried for witchcraft in sixteenth and seventeenth century Scotland. And in collecting information for the web-based study, one thing has become clear: these were ordinary people, accused by other ordinary people.
''Most of the cases involve bad blood in the community,'' says 34-year-old Yeoman, who is based at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. ''And most of the accusations were run of the mill such as 'she made my beer go off', or 'she stopped my cow giving milk'.''
Those found guilty faced strangulation then burning although one woman in Pittenweem was crushed to death by a horse and cart. The injustice of it is still raw for Yeoman. ''Part of the reason people like me work on projects like this is you feel a connection with the women who were put through horrible torment for things we wouldn't believe in now. These women were burned to death; now most would be taken off for counselling.''
Yeoman believes the public is interested in her project because of what the stories say about us. ''We're fascinated because of the horror that if we were there, we wouldn't have been on the side of right,'' she says. ''In fact, we would have been screaming 'burn the witch' as well.''
Yeoman is convinced that even though the witch has been relegated to the pages of fiction, the echoes of the hunts can still be felt in society's climate of punishment and revenge. ''Even the people on death row are a reminder of the way society can behave,'' she says. ''The persecution of witches is something we must never forget.''
www.arts.ed.ac.uk/witches
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