Witches swoop through Cornish folklore in a wind of contrast. They harness the elements, cure ills, stew bones and are deft shapeshifters.
Some were wise women and healers who used their herbs to cure sickness when doctors were hard to find.
Some practiced dark arts and danced with the devil. Witches were blamed for many misfortunes. When cattle or people fell ill they were thought to be ill wished. Only a Pellar could undo this bad magic.
In Boscastle, North Cornwall, the Wind Witches conjured the winds. In the far South West, on a rocky seat on the cliffs at Saint Levan, Madgy Figgy, witch wrecker looked out to sea for unsuspecting ships and magicked incredible storms and waves to wreck them.
There were many witches of West Cornwall some kind, some not so, some full of magic some merely a pretence, they rode ragwort stalks and were shapeshifters. A Saint Buryan witch turned into a hare to lead a pig into a drain. In Duffy and the Devil, Duffy’s friend Betty changed into a hare to run through the woods undetected and join the witches’ dance. The Witch of Kerrowe loved to live as a hare although she had a cottage to use as a haven.
In East Cornwall in the tale of Blackberry Round, three old women transformed into toads to squeeze under Miller Mathew’s door and carry sacks of flour away on their backs. Betsy Laundry’s friends, on trial for witchcraft at Launceston, turned to toads to escape the noose. Aunt Antsy of Antony came to a sticky end while in toad form.
