Kurzbeschreibung:

"Rich and lively." New York Times Book Review
A vibrant look at an unsettled and strangely familiar time that overturns our assumptions about the history of magic.
Imagine: its the year 1600 and youve lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe theyve been stolen. Perhaps your child has a fever. Or youre facing a trial. Maybe youre looking for love or escaping a husband. What do you do?

In medieval and early modern Europe, your first port of call might have been cunning folk: practitioners of "service magic." Neither feared (like witches), nor venerated (like saints), they were essential to daily life. For people across ages, genders, and social ranks, practical magic was a cherished resource for navigating lifes many challenges.
In historian Tabitha Stanmores beguiling account, we meet lovelorn widows, dissolute nobles, selfless healers, and renegade monks. We listen in on Queen Elizabeth Is astrology readings and track treasure hunters trying to unearth buried gold without upsetting the fairies that guard it. Much like us, premodern people lived in a bewildering world, buffeted by forces beyond their control. As Stanmore reveals, their faith in magic has much to teach about how to accommodate the irrational in our allegedly enlightened lives today.

Charming in every sense, Cunning Folk is at once an immersive reconstruction of a bygone era and a thought-provoking commentary on the beauty and bafflement of being human.