Secrets of Witches & Witchcraft

Part 3: ELF ARROWS

     Today’s installment involves ancient arrow heads and what witches would do with them. I think most folks, me included, tend to forget that people were finding dinosaur fossils and per-historic artifacts throughout history.  Ancient Greeks thought dinosaur bones were mythological creatures such as dragons, cyclops, etc. So when per-historic man’s artifacts such as arrow heads began turning up in medieval times, there was an obvious reason, Elves and Fairies had left them! Just as the farmer’s who encroached on and dismantled ancient burial mounds in the US during the late 1800s, when medieval farmer’s where tilling their lands or people where digging for whatever reason arrow heads from thousands of years ago would have been found regularly.  One thing the folks in the Dark ages/Middle Ages were good at was making up stories to explain the then unexplained. Here is what the Encyclopedia of Witches & Witchcraft says about Elf Arrows:

Elf Arrows:  Arrowhead-shaped flints from the Stone Age found in many parts of the British Isles, Europe and Northern Africa, which later witches supposedly used as weapons against animals and people. Elf-arrow superstitions predominate in Ireland, Scotland and parts of England, where fairy lore is strong. According to lore, many witches learn their craft from fairies and elves.

Elf arrows are said to be fatal to cattle, a common target of witches. Stricken cattle can be saved by touching them with the arrow, then dipping the arrow into water and giving the water to the cattle to drink. In some areas, the term elf-shot is still applied to sick animals. A person shot with an elf arrow supposedly comes down with mysterious and fatal supernatural illnesses. The use of elf arrows was among the accusations of witchcraft brought in 1560 against a Scottish woman, Catherine Ross, Lady Fowllis, and her son-in-law, Hector Munro. The two were part of a group of witches who conspired to kill Ross’ husband and Marjory Campbell, Lady Balnagowan, so that Ross and Lord Balnagowan could marry. The witches were charged with “the making of two clay pictures, one for the destruction of the young Lady Balnagowan, and getting them enchanted, and shooting of elf-arrow heads at the said persons.”  Apparently the witches’ plot was uncovered before the victims were killed. (Encyclopedia of Witches & Witchcraft, 2^nd edition, Rosemary Ellen Guiley) .

     Here is one of those cases where witchcraft was used to or attempted to be used for nefarious purposes, in this case, the good Lady Fowllis wanted her husband dead and a certain young Lady so Lady Fowllis could marry another man. The use of the elf-arrows was all the evidence needed to end that plot. As I stated in the opening paragraph, Stone Age tools would have been easy to obtain, at least easier than it is now a days and of course it could have just been a rock shaped like an arrow head, not an actual artifact as it were. It also stated how cows were a favorite target for witches and I can see how that would be the case as cattle was the families lively hood. Imagine an old lady, mad at her neighbors for some reason, getting ancient arrow head walking over to the neighbor’s cow and poking it! Now whether there was magic or not, the farmer is going to assume the cow was bewitched and do whatever it took to appease the old lady. A dead cow was a death sentence to some families or at least the difference between a good winter and a horrible winter. So, the old lady, happy with her neighbor’s willingness to change, does a little reverse hocus pocus and voila! The farmer’s cow is better! As comical as that story may have seemed it was exactly how a “witch” got things done, of course this action was also very liable to get the old woman killed since witchcraft or the perceived acts of witchcraft were strictly forbidden as organized religion spread. The farmer would then go to the local priest or vicar and complain of the old woman’s action, her home would have been searched, the arrow heads found and she would have been strangled and then burned to ashes. Subsequently either the farmer or the church would have received the old woman’s lands and holdings, if she possessed any. As we can see, it did go both ways, although scaring some hick farmer isn’t worth a death sentence, at least in my eyes.

In conclusion, I think elf-arrows showed us the way that a people can find unexplained artifacts and put a meaning and use to them. The ironic thing is these arrow heads were fashioned and used by these people’s ancestor’s to keep them alive and protect them, so in a way they could have been imbued with some sort of ancestor magic or other protective charm. We may never know.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of the secrets of Witches and Witchcraft and we shall see you again soon, until then take care and as always, PEACE!!!!!!!!