Magic in the Middle Ages. Love spells, evil conspiracies, healer seers, and witch hunts

Imagine living in medieval England. What to do if your precious spoons are stolen? If you are tormented by love – or unhappy in marriage? If your loved ones have mysteriously disappeared? Go to a seer. For it was these masters of practical magic who helped in seemingly insoluble situations.

Their range of services was extremely broad. Finding thieves and lost items, finding love, winning in court, taking revenge on an offender, getting rich quickly, or divining the future – that was their domain. In the Middle Ages and early Modern period, when human life was harsh and the world was filled with uncertainty, magic served as a backup option in case something went wrong.

And "wrong" happened very often – and people stuck knives into loaves of stale bread, divined using a sieve and scissors, tested thieves with blessed cheese, attached prayers to their clothing, and fashioned dolls of neighbors from burial wax…

Tabitha Stanmore's book is an engaging guide to the world of practical magic in medieval Europe. With it, you not only learn numerous supernatural solutions to more than natural problems, but you also immerse yourself in the fears, hopes, and desires of people from the past and can see life through their eyes.