Building Magic: Ritual and Re-enchantment in Post-Medieval Structures

Owen Davies · Ceri Houlbrook

Sep 2021 · Springer Nature

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This book redresses popular interpretations of concealed objects, enigmatically discovered within the fabric of post-medieval buildings. A wide variety of objects have been found up chimneybreasts, bricked up in walls, and concealed within recesses: old shoes, mummified cats, horse skulls, pierced hearts, to name only some. The most common approach to these finds is to apply a one-size-fits-all analysis and label them survivals and apotropaic (evil-averting) devices. This book reconsiders such interpretations, exploring the invention and reinvention of traditions regarding building magic. The title Building Magic therefore refers to more than practices that alter the fabric of buildings, but also to processes of building magic into our interpretations of the enigmatic material evidence and into our engagements with the buildings we inhabit and frequent.

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Owen Davies Is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. He has published widely on the history of witchcraft, magic, ghosts, and popular medicine, including most recently, A Supernatural War: Magic, Divination, and Faith During the First World War (2018).

Ceri Houlbrook is a Folklore and History Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. Her primary research interests are the material culture of ritual practices and popular beliefs, and contemporary folklore. She has previously published on the modern-day customs of coin-trees and love-locks.