Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft at Auldearn near Nairn during 1662
According to the historian Emma Wilby several aspects of witchcraft included in Gowdie's confessions are seen in Peter Binsfeld's 1592 drawing.
Isobel Gowdie[a] was a Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft at Auldearn near Nairn during 1662. Scant information is available about her age or life and, although she was probably executed in line with the usual practice, it is uncertain whether this was the case or if she was allowed to return to the obscurity of her former life as a cottar’s wife. Her detailed testimony, apparently achieved without the use of violent torture, provides one of the most comprehensive insights into European witchcraft folklore at the end of the era of witch-hunts.
The four confessions she made over a period of six weeks include details of charms and rhymes, claims she was a member of a coven in the service of the Devil and that she met with the fairy queen and king. Lurid information concerning carnal dealings with the Devil were also provided. A combination of demonic and fairy beliefs, the narratives were used by Margaret Murray as the basis for her now mostly discredited theories about cults and witchcraft.
Modern day academics characterise Gowdie, who was illiterate and of a low social status, as a talented narrator with a creative imagination. It is unclear why she came forward or was initially arrested but she may have suffered from ergotism. Since the confessions were transcribed by Robert Pitcairn and first published in 1833, historians have described the material as remarkable or extraordinary and scholars continue to debate the topic in the 21st century.
Gowdie is commemorated outside academia by songs, books, plays and radio broadcasts. The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, a 1990 work for symphony orchestra, was composed by James MacMillan as a requiem for her.
^Wilby (2010), p. 117
^Stevenson & Davidson (2001), p. 398
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IsobelGowdie was a Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft at Auldearn near Nairn during 1662. Scant information is available about her age or life...
The Confession of IsobelGowdie is a work for large symphony orchestra by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. It is, according to the composer, a Requiem...
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Gowdie is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: IsobelGowdie, Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft in 1662 John Gowdie (1682–1762)...
Symphony Orchestra's premiere of The Confession of IsobelGowdie at the BBC Proms in 1990. IsobelGowdie was one of many women executed for witchcraft in...
have been inspired by Janet Gowdie, a Vampire-Witch hybrid and daughter of the real falsely accused witch IsobelGowdie and a vampire named Nickie-Ben...
which she concluded that Gowdie had been involved in some form of shamanic visionary trances. In The Visions of IsobelGowdie Wilby extended the hypothesis...
of witches firing them. Per the testimony of Scottish accused witch IsobelGowdie, these elf-arrows were given to witches by the Devil, who asked them...
end. August 22 – James MacMillan's symphonic piece The Confession of IsobelGowdie premieres at The Proms in London. August 24 A judge rules that heavy...
gatherings. Fairies were an important part of magical beliefs in Scotland. IsobelGowdie, the young wife of a cottar from near Auldearn, who was tried for witchcraft...
John Dee Robert Fludd (1574–1637), occult philosopher and astrologer IsobelGowdie (d. 1662), self-confessed professional sorcerer Gabriel Naudé – French...
St John Passion, (2008) The World's Ransoming and The Confession of IsobelGowdie (2007); Mozart's Requiem (2007); Nielsen's Symphonies Nos. 4–5 (2011);...
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Proms, such as the 1990 Premiere of James MacMillan's The Confession of IsobelGowdie. The last twenty years has seen the gradual emergence of the BBC SSO...
and directed by Meggie Greivell which dramatises her story, that of IsobelGowdie, and other "sundry witches" from the nearly 4000 accused in the Scottish...
witnessed the queen as a "fine woman, clad in a white walicot." Similarly, IsobelGowdie's confession described the "Qwein of Fearrie" as handsomely ("brawlie")...
focusing it in on the case of the accused witch IsobelGowdie for her second book, The Visions of IsobelGowdie: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early...
the body where a pin could be slipped in without bleeding or pain". IsobelGowdie, a Scottish woman who confessed to witchcraft at Auldearn near Nairn...
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