tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817911217098974229.post3500297569099738689..comments2023-11-05T04:09:26.194-05:00Comments on e g r e g o r e s: "She was of the old way of mind [i.e. a Witch]" (1878)Apuleius Platonicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11761230673724504084noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817911217098974229.post-77688533079599558652013-04-01T12:07:42.126-04:002013-04-01T12:07:42.126-04:00Hi Fern!
OK, the point here, in my opinion, is th...Hi Fern!<br /><br />OK, the point here, in my opinion, is that there is a seamless continuity in the, for lack of a better term, "positive" (and in this case, also religious, as in Pagan) attributions for the word "Witch". That is, when these two 19th century scholars assert that a Witch is someone who stubbornly clings to the Old Ways, they were not expressing some new "Romantic" idea, rather they were simply reiterating a view that had already been repeated over the centuries going back to the first appearance of the words "Wicce" and "Wiccecraeft" in Old English, where these were condemned as manifestations of "Heathenism". <br /><br />Also, the "Romanticism" of the 1800s was itself nothing new. "Pastoralism" is a recurring theme in Western culture, going back at least to Vergil's Eclogues. Pastoral literature was very big in the 1300s in Italy (appearing in the works of Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch), and by the 1500s it was a significant theme in English literature as well, with both Edmund Spenser and Christopher Marlowe authoring important "pastoral" works ("The Shepheardes Calendar" by Spenser, and "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by Marlowe). This "pastoral" literature, by the way, was full of references to the Gods Pan, Silvnaus and Faunus.Apuleius Platonicushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11761230673724504084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817911217098974229.post-17830325613500294512013-04-01T11:11:14.651-04:002013-04-01T11:11:14.651-04:00Interesting. But ... the 1800's were the flow...Interesting. But ... the 1800's were the flowering of MesoPaganism, Romantic Ideals of the "Noble Savage", etc. You have to take into account those biases in translations and approaches.FernWisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04143005104791389904noreply@blogger.com