Notes on witchcraft

George Lyman Kittredge’s notes collect historical observations on witchcraft traditions, helping situate witch beliefs within broader European and American folklore. Historically important for its careful, philological approach, the text offers readers a scholarly synthesis of sources, motifs, and early modern attitudes toward witchcraft.

George Lyman Kittredge (1860–1941) was an American scholar of English literature and folklore at Harvard University. His work on ballads, witchcraft traditions, and folk narrative helped establish rigorous academic approaches to materials often used in the study of magic and popular belief.