The Witch and the Weather: Fear of Weather Magic in German Sixteenth-Century Neue Zeitungen

Since the 1990s, there has been much scholarly interest in the correlation between the Little Ice Age and witchcraft prosecutions in early modern Germany. This connection warrants further attention, however, as bad weather did not simply lead to witchcraft prosecutions. Fear of witches and weather m...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Warfield, Abaigéal (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc. [2019]
Dans: The sixteenth century journal
Année: 2019, Volume: 50, Numéro: 4, Pages: 1101-1128
RelBib Classification:AZ Nouveau mouvement religieux
CD Christianisme et culture
KAH Époque moderne
KBB Espace germanophone
NBH Angélologie
Sujets non-standardisés:B Fear
B Witchcraft
B GERMAN history, 1517-1648
B Violence against
B LITTLE Ice Age
B Trials (Witchcraft)
B WEATHER in folklore
B Witches
B JOURNALISM; History
Description
Résumé:Since the 1990s, there has been much scholarly interest in the correlation between the Little Ice Age and witchcraft prosecutions in early modern Germany. This connection warrants further attention, however, as bad weather did not simply lead to witchcraft prosecutions. Fear of witches and weather magic was at all times culturally constructed. But how was this fear cultivated? Influenced by the current field of emotions history, this article examines how fear of witches was constructed in early modern German news reports, specifically in the genre of Neue Zeitungen, non-periodical reports printed following notable events. It investigates how witches came to be represented as responsible for the crime of weather magic during the final decades of the sixteenth century, a period that also witnessed sharp climatic deterioration. It shows how this media genre helped to generate and condition fear of weather magic and, in turn, witches.
ISSN:2326-0726
Contient:Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal