Modern Scottish Collections

Image from 'Newes from Scotland'.

A new resource looking at witches in Scottish literature is now available on the Learning Zone section of the National Library of Scotland website. The Learning Zone is a dedicated area of the NLS website where teachers and learners can find learning resources, web features, images, and collections material relating to curriculum topics.

The Witches in Scottish literature feature looks at seven sources from the collections featuring Scottish witches. The sources illustrate differing treatments of witchcraft in various genres of literature from the last 400 years. Works by James VI, Shakespeare, Burns, James Hogg, John Buchan, Edwin Morgan, and Rona Munro are discussed alongside some historical background on the fascinating history of the witch-hunts in Scotland.

If you would like to learn more why not visit the website or watch a video of Julian Goodare, Reader in History at the University of Edinburgh, talking about the historical context of witch-hunting in Scotland.

The Scottish witch-hunts took place between 1563 and 1736. Over 3,800 Scots were accused of witchcraft and it is likely that around two-thirds of those accused were executed. If you are interested in finding out more about this fascinating subject why not have a look at our new film discussing the Scottish witch-hunts and related material from Modern Scottish Collections.

There is also a short article about the Scottish witch-hunts and how to use our free resource, Scottish Bibliographies Online, to locate related material in the Winter 2011 edition of the Discover NLS magazine.

(Image from Witchcraft in early modern Europe by Lawrence Normand and Gareth Roberts, University of Exeter Press, 2000)

With the dark nights upon us and Halloween recently past, you may be interested to hear about our small display of modern material relating to the Scottish witch-hunts. The display brings together a variety of books on Scottish witchcraft and related subjects, as featured in the Winter issue of Discover NLS (due out later this week). The Scottish witch-hunts have been explored not only in histories but in novels, children’s books, plays and music, all of which are represented in the display.

The display can be found in the cases outside the doors to the Reading Rooms in George IV Bridge during November 2011.

Should you wish to discover further material on Scottish witchcraft, you can find references to books, chapters and articles on Scottish Bibliographies Online.