Hag-riding in Nineteenth-Century West Country England and Modern Newfoundland : An Examination of an Experience-Centred Witchcraft Tradition

• Main Author: Davies, Owen
• Other Authors: School of Humanities, Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities Research Institute, History, Centre for Regional and Local History
• Language: English
• Published: 1996
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2299/12989; http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/043087796798254443?queryID=54%2F67594

Up until the early twentieth century, in parts of western and southern England, the dialect terms ‘hag-riding’ and ‘hagging’ were popularly used to describe a terrifying nocturnal assault by a witch. In Somerset and Dorset between 1852 and 1875, at least six court cases resulted from assaults upon suspected witches accused of hag-riding, and the testimonies given in court provide a fascinating insight into the way a sleep disturbance phenomenon was interpreted as a physical manifestation of witchcraft. For those suffering from hag-riding the experience was incontrovertible proof of the reality of witchcraft: it was maleficium in its most personal form, a direct physical assault on the body of the victim Peer reviewed