The Supernatural in Early Modern Scotland

This book is about other worlds and the beings that inhabited them. It is about divination, prophecy, visions and trances. And it is about the cultural, religious, political and social uses to which people in Scotland put these supernatural themes between about 1500 and 1800. Consisting of twelve chapters by an international group of scholars with expertise in history, ethnology and literary studies, the collection explores a range of supernatural topics. Some chapters, like that on trances, open up areas that have received little scholarly attention; others, notably that on Second Sight in the Highlands, offer reinterpretations that challenge existing orthodoxy. The contributors draw on evidence ranging from poetry to sermons, from witchcraft trial records to scholarly treatises on astrology or ancient paganism. Both popular and elite understandings of the supernatural are discussed, and the editors contribute a full-length introductory chapter that surveys the field and unpacks difficult concepts like 'belief', 'superstition' and indeed the 'supernatural' itself. The supernatural provided Scots with a way of understanding topics such as the natural environment, physical and emotional wellbeing, political events and visions of the past and future. In exploring the early modern supernatural, this book has much to reveal about how men and women in this period considered, debated and experienced the world around them.