Cornish Witchcraft

Presumed lost in the years since William Henry Paynter's death 40 years ago, this book is the first publication of Paynter's manuscript work on Cornish Witchcraft and folk magic. In the inter war years of the 1920s and '30s Paynter set about recording witch narratives and folklore in Cornwall and Devon, capturing stories and narratives of witchcraft and witch beliefs before they vanished as the 'old folks' died. Paynter was unable to find a publisher for his manuscript in 1939, and the papers were not among his archive when he died in 1976. The manuscript of Paynter's Cornish Witchcraft was recovered in 2009 and became available for study. In publishing this edition, Paynter's rich store of witch stories and folk beliefs becomes widely available for the first time.