Show Notes
Wales has something most countries don’t: complete, intact court records from every witch trial held in the Court of Great Sessions. Author Mari Ellis Dunning used these archives to write Witch, a historical novel set in 16th century Wales.
About the novel:
Witch follows Dolly, a Welsh young woman desperate to have a baby who seeks help from a local soothsayer. The story explores what happens when accusations arise in a community caught between old Welsh traditions and new English Protestant law.
The historical context:
Five witch trials in Wales resulted in death sentences. The records show fascinating details, including Gwen ferch Ellis’s case where “ignoramus” (case dismissed) was physically crossed out before her conviction.
Mari discusses the tension between licensed and unlicensed midwives, how the Royal College of Physicians excluded women from medicine, and why lay healers were often more effective than the male physicians who replaced them. Class boundaries determined which accusations progressed to trial.
The conversation explores:
How Mari balanced creating relatable, nuanced characters while staying true to the limited agency women actually had in the 16th century
Why Wales’s cultural identity and the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism shaped different attitudes toward folk practices
The connection between historical witch trials and modern medical misogyny, political rhetoric weaponizing “witch,” and systemic violence against women.
Links
Buy the book: Witsh by Mari Ellis Dunning
Guest Article: “Gwen ferch Ellis: The first woman in Wales to be sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft“
