Flights of fancy

If a woman survived childbearing in the middle ages, she may well live longer than her husband. Even today, women tend to live longer than men. Probably many midwives were widows, living alone, vulnerable, and easy targets for blame and revenge.

Some of these lonely women may have sought solace in their herbs, going on herb induced ‘trips’. Concoctions of herbs might be swallowed, or made into an ointment and rubbed into the skin. The base of the ointment was fat, maybe pig’s fat, but some say that the fat of stillborn babies was best. Stillborn babies were not buried in a churchyard, but in the countryside somewhere. The midwife was likely to know where. How easy it would be for her to dig up the tiny body and use the fat for her flying ointment!

The hallucinogenic effects of the drugs would mimic flight through the air, phallic objects – such as a stick of wood, or broomstick – and some sort of orgy or sexual encounter.
Or so it’s said. More on this next time.

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‘Vapid balderdash!’ Midwives and witches.

Midwives have long been linked with witchcraft, largely because of the work of anthropologist Margaret Murray. In the 1920s she wrote a book about witchcraft,which, she said, existed throughout Europe in the middle ages as a pagan religion, despite the church’s attempts to suppress it. Midwives, she maintained, were particularly likely to indulge in witchcraft and were often hunted down and executed as witches.

It is easy to see why, in the very superstitious middle ages, a midwife might be suspected of witchcraft. She was probably highly skilled, especially in herbal medicine and the practicalities, the manouevres, of childbirth. She would be a valued member of the community, a useful and respected resident of the village or town. Her skills and knowledge influenced whether a mother and child lived or died, and so probably she was seen as holding considerable power.

With power comes risk, and if women and babies died - or cattle became ill, or crops failed – superstitious villagers might well lay these calamities at the midwife's door, especially if she was not well liked or people wanted revenge for some previous disaster.

In the next blog, I’ll write a bit more about midwives and witchcraft, and in the blog after that I’ll explain the ‘vapid balderdash’ bit!