Witch Wood

A STORY DATING ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE 1600S
SUBJECTS INCLUDE WITCHCRAFT, WHITE MAGIC, FAIRIES, ENCHANTMENT, & MUCH MUCH MORE
A REAL 1ST EDITION 1ST PRINTING THAT HAS BEEN VERY WELL CARED FOR

For those of you who enjoy literature of the witch, and of course the strange and the magical... Well.. You just found your next book. A very rare 1st edition now well over 90 years old and in splendid condition from cover to cover. This one has it all, Witches, Fairies, Good vs Evil, and Magic just to name a few subjects... They don't make books like these anymore... and they certainly never will. I would snag this one before it is gone.

In a prologue to the novel, the narrator recalls legends of the time, 300 years ago, when the minister of the Kirk of Woodilee in the Scottish lowlands was spirited away by the fairies or – as some said – by evil forces.

The story opens in 1644 with the coming of David Sempill, newly-ordained minister of the Church of Scotland, to Woodilee, a parish passionate in its support of the Covenant. Sempill is less committed to strict doctrinal practices than many of the Covenanters, and he finds himself attracted to the creed of Mark Kerr, a fugitive and follower of Lord Montrose, supporter of the King and enemy of the Kirk. Soon afterward, when Kerr is injured, the minister secretes him within the manse.

One night in the feared Black Wood of Melanudrigill the minister stumbles across a diabolic rite in which figures wearing animal headpieces dance around a pagan altar. He unsuccesfully attempts to identify the ringleader but does manage to splash pungent aniseed oil onto the ringleader's clothes. The next day the wife of a prominent elder of the Kirk, Ephraim Caird, is discovered burning clothes on a fire which smells strongly of aniseed.

The plague comes to Woodilee. Sempill labours to prevent its spread helped by a newcomer named Mark Riddel who, unknown to the locals, is in fact the fugitive Mark Kerr. Nursing care is surreptitiously provided by a shadowy figure whom the locals take to be a fairy but who is in fact Katrine Yester, niece of the local laird, to whom Sempill is secretly engaged. Katrine contracts the plague and dies. A local woman is accused by a pricker of being a witch and in spite of the best efforts of Sempill and Riddel is tortured and killed.

Sempill presents his evidence of Ephraim Caird's heresy to the presbytery, the Kirk's religious court, which rejects it as circumstantial and unreliable. In retaliation, Caird brings counter-charges against the minister for harbouring a fugitive, for associating with Mark Riddel (now publicly identified as Mark Kerr), and for keeping the company of an unknown woman. Sempill is found guilty and is excommunicated and ejected from his ministry.

On his way back from the hearing, Sempill meets Ephraim Caird near the Black Wood. He forces Caird to enter, kneel before the pagan altar, and to make his choice between Christ and the dark side. The effort is too much for Caird who runs off in demented terror and is killed in a fall. The minister is never after that day seen again, giving rise to the legends mentioned in the novel's prologue.

In an epilogue, it is revealed that Sempill and Kerr had ridden to Leith and had boarded the first available ship out of Scotland