31 Days of Halloween { guest post } All Hallows in Old Lancashire by Mary Sharratt, author of Daughters of the Witching Hill
Today we are joined by historical fiction author Mary Sharratt, author of the amazing Daughters of the Witching Hill (read my review) as she talks about All Hallows in Elizabethan Lancashire, England.
Come Halloween, the popular imagination turns to witches. Especially in Pendle Witch Country, the rugged Pennine landscape surrounding Pendle Hill, once home to twelve individuals arrested for witchcraft in 1612. The most notorious was Elizabeth Southerns, alias Old Demdike, cunning woman of long-standing repute and the heroine of my novel Daughters of the Witching Hill.
How did these historical cunning folk celebrate All Hallows Eve?
All Hallows has its roots in the ancient feast of Samhain, which marked the end of the pastoral year and was considered particularly numinous, a time when the faery folk and the spirits of the dead roved abroad. Many of these beliefs were preserved in the Christian feast of All Hallows, which had developed into a spectacular affair by the late Middle Ages, with church bells ringing all night to comfort the souls thought to be in purgatory. Did this custom have its origin in much older rites of ancestor veneration? This threshold feast opening the season of cold and darkness allowed people to confront their deepest fears—that of death and what lay beyond. And their deepest longings—reunion with their cherished departed. Read more
Bess Southerns, an impoverished widow, lives with her children in a crumbling old tower in Pendle Forest. Drawing on Catholic ritual, medicinal herbs, and guidance from her spirit-friend Tibb, Bess heals the sick and foretells the future in exchange for food and drink. As she ages, she instructs her best friend, Anne, and her granddaughter, Alizon, in her craft. Anne ultimately turns to dark magic, while Alizon struggles to accept the power she has inherited and dreams of a simpler life. But when a peddler suffers a stroke after exchanging harsh words with Alizon, a local magistrate tricks her into accusing her family and neighbors of witchcraft. Suspicion and paranoia reach frenzied heights as friends and loved ones turn on one another and the novel draws to an inevitable conclusion.
Today we are joined by historical fiction author, Mary Sharratt (The Vanishing Point; Bitch Lit; The Real Minerva). Mary’s latest book, Daughters of the Witching Hill, was released last month through Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This vividly crafted novel tells the story of Mother Demdike, a cunning woman from Lancashire, England who was never given the chance to speak on her own behalf against allegations of witchcraft. In Daughters of the Witching Hill, Mary gives Mother Demdike her say.
