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The cunning folk in Britain were professional or semi-professional practitioners of magic in Britain, active from the Medieval period through to the early twentieth century. As cunning folk, they practised folk magic – also known as "low magic" – although often combined with elements of "high" or ceremonial magic, which they learned through the study of grimoires.〔Davies 2003. p. x.〕 Primarily using spells and charms as a part of their profession, they were most commonly employed to use their magic in order to combat malevolent witchcraft, to locate criminals, missing persons or stolen property, for fortune telling, for healing, for treasure hunting and to influence people to fall in love. Belonging "to the world of popular belief and custom", the cunning folk's magic has been defined as being "concerned not with the mysteries of the universe and the empowerment of the magus (ceremonial magic usually is ), so much as with practical remedies for specific problems."〔Hutton 1999. p. 84.〕 However, other historians have noted that in some cases, there was apparently an "experimental or 'spiritual' dimension" to their magical practices, something which was possibly shamanic in nature.〔Wilby 2005. p. 05.〕 Although the British cunning folk were in almost all cases Christian themselves, certain Christian theologians and Church authorities believed that, being practitioners of magic, the cunning folk were in league with the Devil and as such were akin to the more overtly Satanic and malevolent witches. Partly due to this, laws were enacted across England, Scotland and Wales that often condemned cunning folk and their magical practices, but there was no widespread persecution of them akin to the witch hunt, largely because most common people firmly distinguished between the two: witches were seen as being harmful and cunning folk as useful.〔Davies 2003. pp. 7–13.〕 The British cunning folk were known by a variety of names in different regions of the country, including wise men and wise women, pellars, wizards, dyn hysbys, and sometimes white witches. Comparable figures were found in other parts of Western Europe: in France, such terms as ''devins-guérisseurs'' and ''leveurs de sorts'' were used for them, whilst in the Netherlands they were known as ''toverdokters'' or ''duivelbanners'', in Germany as ''Hexenmeisters'' and in Denmark as ''kloge folk''. In Spain they were ''curanderos'' whilst in Portugal they were known as ''saludadores''.〔Davies 2003. p. 163.〕 It is widely agreed by historians and folklorists, such as Willem de Blécourt,〔De Blécourt 1994.〕 Robin Briggs〔Briggs 1996.〕 and Owen Davies,〔 that the term "cunning folk" could be applied to all of these figures as well to reflect a pan-European tradition. == Societal role == Britain in the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods was a place where folk magic was widely popular amongst much of the populace. Many individuals knew of some magical charms and spells, but there were also professionals who dealt in magic, including charmers, fortune tellers, astrologers and cunning folk, the latter of whom were known to "possess a broader and deeper knowledge of such techniques and more experience in using them" than the average person; it was also believed that they "embodied or could work with supernatural power which greatly increased the effectiveness of the operations concerned."〔Hutton 1999. p. 86.〕 The term "cunning man" or "cunning woman" was most widely used in southern England, the Midlands, and in Wales.〔Hutton 1999. p. 85.〕 Such people were also frequently known across England as "wizards", "wise men" or "wise women",〔 or in southern England and Wales as "conjurers"〔 or as "''dyn hysbys''" in the Welsh language.〔Davies 2003. p. 184.〕 In Cornwall they were sometimes referred to as "pellars", which some etymologists suggest originated from the term "expellers", referring to the practice of expelling evil spirits.〔 Nineteenth-century folklorists often used the term "white witch" to refer to cunning folk, although this was infrequently used amongst the ordinary people themselves, as for them the term "witch" had general connotations of malevolence and evil.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cunning folk in Britain」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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