Against witches of such prowess he must be a powerful man--saint or king--who would gainsay them
- Date of account
- Published 1908
- Source
- The book of witches
- Reference
- The book of witches · selected passage 210
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-24
Record summary
Against witches of such prowess he must be a powerful man--saint or king--who would gainsay them
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyAgainst witches of such prowess he must be a powerful man--saint or king--who would gainsay them. Many--if not most--of the earlier Scottish kings had passages with witchcraft, mostly to their own detriment. Leaving aside Macbeth, quite as credible an historic character as the rest, we have King Duff, who, towards the end of the tenth century, narrowly escaped a lingering death at the hands of the witches--they employing the old-fashioned, even in those days, but eminently dependable "waxen image." By good luck only he was enabled to discover the witches and, having burned them and broken up the magic before it was quite melted before their fire, to recover his usual health and spirits.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis is a historical account assembled under the reporting and publishing conventions of its period. It may preserve testimony, hearsay, retelling and editorial interpretation together.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyA modern comparison can identify recurring descriptions and possible explanations, but the account is not treated as independently verified evidence merely because it appeared in print.
Investigate related details with Anomaly Graph’s account-based search, or read how matching and provenance work.