
Contents
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Forgetting Satan Forgetting Satan
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Magical Criminality: Muscovite Law and Conceptions of Witchcraft Magical Criminality: Muscovite Law and Conceptions of Witchcraft
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Lines of Interrogation: Official Preoccupations and Leading Questions Lines of Interrogation: Official Preoccupations and Leading Questions
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Prosaic Magic and the Evidence of Trials Prosaic Magic and the Evidence of Trials
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Devils in the Courtroom Devils in the Courtroom
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3 Muscovite Prosaic Magic and the Devil’s Pale Shadow
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Published:October 2013
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Abstract
This chapter examines the role of the Devil in Russian witchcraft. The theme of the pact with the Devil, of humans selling their souls to the Devil, arrived in Russia no later than the twelfth century, brought over in translations from the Greek “Life of Vasilii (Basil) the Great” and in an apocryphal tale about Adam’s pact with Satan. More common than depictions of a full-blown Devil are the petty demons (besy) invoked in magical spells, and the small, black, pointy headed and winged devils whose nearly featureless silhouettes appear on icons if and only if they are necessary for the story line. Overall, connections between magical practice and the devil were not unknown in prescriptive or literary texts, but this satanic motif made up only one thin strand among many threads of meaning that constituted Muscovite understandings of magic.
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