Prince Arthur and the Fairy Queen (1788), by Henry FuseliSwiss-born British Romantic artist (1741–1825), who established a reputation for his paintings depicting the horrifying and fantastic. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Andro Man, or Andrew Mann, was an elderly Scottish nomadic folk healer from Rathven in present-day Moray, who confessed to witchcraft in October 1597. His dittay[a]Dittay is the Scottish legal term for an indictment.[1] documents an intimate relationship with the Queen of Elphame – a fairy queen – and gives details of an entity named Christsonday, whom Man believed to be an angel, but his interrogators interpreted as the Devil.[2]
The Scottish belief in fairies and other folkloric supernatural beings was interpreted by the authorities as evidence of consort with demons; little distinction was made by the Church between different types of magic. Court trials in late 16th-century Scotland record testimony by the accused declaring their powers to be fairy-derived, and others confessing to long-term relationships with fairies. Man claimed in his confession to have fathered children with the Fairy Queen.[3]
Man’s story is notable as an example of a male witch accused of having a sexual relationship with a supernatural entity, in contrast to the more usual charges laid against the far more numerous female witches, of having sexual relations with the Devil.[4]
Cowan, Edward J. “Witch Persecution and Folk Belief in Lowland Scotland: The Devil’s Decade.” Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland., edited by Julian Goodare et al., Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, pp. 71–94.
Goodare, Julian. “Women and the Witch-Hunt in Scotland.” Social History, vol. 23, no. 3, Oct. 1998, pp. 288–308.
Grydehøj, Adam. “The Lore of Scotland: A Guide to Scottish Legends.” Folklore, vol. 23, no. 3, Dec. 2012, pp. 377–78.
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