Introduction

This section brings together two very different histories that share a name. The first is the history of the witch in European belief and law, culminating in the trials of the early modern period. The second is the modern religion of Wicca and the wider Pagan revival, which emerged in mid-twentieth-century England with Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente and spread worldwide. Articles also cover traditional and folk witchcraft, the Wheel of the Year, Druidry and Heathenry, always distinguishing historical evidence from later myth.