Enchanted: The History of Magic & Witchcraft
Enchanted: The History of Magic & Witchcraft brings you the most fascinating stories from the history of all things magical. Produced and hosted by an award-winning historian, episodes of Enchanted feature atmospheric music, dramatic performances, in-depth historical analysis, and a deep connection to the people and events that shaped the past. New episode on the first Friday of every month.
Episodes
65 episodes
Abiquiú
In 1764, Fray Juan José Toledo, the priest of the mission church in Abiquiú, New Mexico, wrote a striking letter to the local magistrate. In it, he described an extraordinary spiritual crisis: a surge of demonic possessions affecting the women ...
•
Season 6
•
Episode 64
•
25:34
Malking Tower
In the summer of 1612, a woman named Alice Nutter walked to her death. She was not like the others who stood beside her on the gallows, gaunt women worn hollow by poverty. Alice Nutter was a woman of property in Lancashire, a woman of standing,...
•
Season 6
•
Episode 63
•
22:58
To Change Her Shape
Morgan le Fay, the infamous enchantress of Arthurian legend, has worn many faces across the centuries: healer and villain, seductress and savior, sister and sorceress. Her story is often a mirror, reflecting the anxieties and desires of the cul...
•
Season 6
•
Episode 62
•
25:14
An Exorbitant Fire
In seventeenth-century England, astrology hovered at the edges of learned society. That is, until one man predicted the Great Plague and the Great Fire, both of which would strike at the very heart of London. This episode brings you the story o...
•
Season 6
•
Episode 61
•
23:33
Founders
In the summer of 1836, against a backdrop of economic instability and fervent religious revival, Joseph Smith, accompanied by his brother Hyrum, Oliver Cowdery, and Sidney Rigdon, set forth on a journey that would forever connect them to the no...
•
Season 6
•
Episode 60
•
18:55
The Corrector
A bishop, a scholar, and a moral arbitrator, Burchard of Worms was a man of many roles, but it's his monumental work of church law, the Decretum, that may reveal folk beliefs about magic that persisted well into the eleventh century. T...
•
Season 6
•
Episode 59
•
20:27
These Festivals
From ancient times to the present, cultures worldwide have celebrated the sun’s return following the winter solstice. In this episode, I bring you the story of the midwinter celebrations of ancient Rome, from Saturnalia to Sol Invictus and beyo...
•
Season 6
•
Episode 58
•
21:10
Bonus Halloween Minisode
Since ancient times Avernus, an ancient volcanic crater in the Campania region of southern Italy, has been the source of legend. In this special minisode, I bring you the story of Italy’s legendary gateway to the underworld.Researched, ...
•
Season 5
•
14:35
The Red Branch
If there is one thing every reader of fairy tales can tell you, it’s that you should never, ever venture into the woods alone. From the whispering willows to the ominous oaks, this episode brings you the stories of the trees that loom large in ...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 57
•
23:43
Fables and Impossibilities
In 1584, Reginald Scot, a little-known English gentleman farmer from Kent, published a work that would shake the foundations of religious and legal authority in Europe. At a time when witch trials were sweeping through Europe, Scot’s book was a...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 56
•
23:43
Great Calamity
Despite the inscrutability of his writings and the fact that he was only one of a number of court astrologers advising Catherine de' Medici, "Serpent Queen" of France, Nostradamus’s prophecies have found a dedicated audience in the centuries fo...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 55
•
23:11
Goodwife
In the last decades of the eighteenth century, Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the American Declaration of Independence, began collecting documents related to the history of the Colony of Virginia. Among them was a volume of early sevente...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 54
•
21:43
The Perpetual Flame
As Europeans embarked on their colonial ventures in the Americas, they also forged new frontiers closer to their homelands. In Norway's far northern territory of Finnmark, settlers from the south moved into the ancestral home of the Indigenous ...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 53
•
26:28
Lawful Sciences
Despite his dedication to science and mathematics—or perhaps because of it—Pope Sylvester II has been historically linked with legends of magic and sorcery, though these stories are more myth than fact. His reputation for being involved in magi...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 52
•
22:59
Bear and Kiva
When Spanish colonizers and missionaries came to settle in New Mexico, the resulting cultural, religious, and class tensions between the Spaniards and their Pueblo neighbors would lead to a series of witchcraft trials overseen by the local bran...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 51
•
26:48
Gracious Creature
Some men just can't keep their promises. Of course, when that promise is to his magical wife, the consequences can be dire. This episode brings you the story of Melusine, the mythical faerie of the waters said to have founded some of medieval E...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 50
•
22:23
Beyond All Human Reason
Part of the broader witch hunts that swept across Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Basque witch trials unfolded much like their counterparts elsewhere. However, these witch trials were halted by an unlikely hero: a mem...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 49
•
23:51
A Woman with Answers
The tradition of Southern Conjure is centuries old, tracing its history back to the forced migration of Africans to the Americas during the era of the slave trade. In New Orleans, Louisiana, the unique blend of Creole culture and Catholic tradi...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 48
•
21:28
One of the Household
Folklore from around the world contains the stories of household gods, fairies, sprites, and other spirits who protect a house’s inhabitants or a given family. These spirits can be mischievous at times but are often downright helpful. Of course...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 47
•
18:25
By Night Overwhelmed
The experience of falling asleep only to be awakened by terror, realizing you cannot move and feeling something pressing on your chest, is surprisingly common in human experience, though the entity that one sees—or not—often depends on cultural...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 46
•
22:57
Knowehead
The haunting of Ann Haltridge of Knowehead House, Islandmagee, began in September 1710. It ended with her death less than six months later. In this episode, I bring you the story of a haunting, a death, and the last witch trial in Ireland: the ...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 45
•
22:14
These Who Are Good
In 1575 inquisitors in northern Italy discovered the benandanti, a band of self-professed spiritual warriors who claimed to send their spirits forth in their sleep to engage in ritual night battles to defend the season's harvest from w...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 44
•
20:43
Saints and Sinners
Corinne is in Italy for the summer and has brought some of the sounds and stories of the Tuscan city of Lucca to Enchanted. In this episode, we explore the legends of saints and devils, the portal to Hell in one of Lucca's churches, an...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 43
•
20:44