Which Craft?: Witches, Gypsies, and the Fenyw Hysbys in Eighteenth-Century Wales

Abstract

Although marginal figures, Gypsies' significance in Welsh society and culture is often overlooked and despite their magical activities, in particular Gypsy women who were often believed to have the power to bewitch and read fortunes, they have been very much neglected within the historiography of witchcraft. So too have the activities of cunning-women, or the fenyw hysbys (wise-woman) as this figure was commonly termed in Wales, and so in an attempt to redress this imbalance, this article incorporates Welsh Romany-Gypsy women within the history of Welsh witchcraft. An examination of their magical activities and the beliefs surrounding them can also shed light on the activities of various cunning-women in Wales, about whom we know very little. This raises certain issues regarding “gender” and the “gendering of witchcraft” which will also be considered, thus bringing into question the benefits of applying such terms to the Welsh, and indeed other witchcraft models.