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

Abstract

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