Witchcraft, Calvinism and Rural Society in the Netherlands: Storytelling in the Twentieth Century

Abstract The disenchantment of the world initiated by the Enlightenment was not a linear process. Folktales show that a magical world-view persisted in rural society until about 1900. An analysis of two types of folktales demonstrates that even in orthodox Calvinism there were people to whom witchcraft was ascribed. The persistence of belief in witchcraft must be explained both from the rural context and in light of orthodox Calvinism, which held a literal belief in the powers of good and evil personified by God and the devil.