Witchcraft and the Somerset idyll : The depiction of folk belief in Walter Raymond’s novels

Davies, Owen and White, Simon (2015) Witchcraft and the Somerset idyll : The depiction of folk belief in Walter Raymond’s novels. Folklore, 26 (1). pp. 53-67. ISSN 0015-587X

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The work of Walter Raymond (1852-1931) is now largely forgotten. Yet his Somerset novels, complemented by his ethnographic writings, contain depictions of local witchcraft belief that are worthy of study in literary and historical contexts. They raise issues regarding the fictional depiction of rural life and tradition, and the value of fiction as a folkloric and historical source