Spirituality

Welsh witchcraft history talk comes to Barry Arts Festival on October 27

A talk exploring the history of witchcraft in Wales will be held at Barry Arts Festival on Tuesday, October 27, the Barry and District News reports. Mari Ellis Dunning, a creative writing lecturer at Aberystwyth University, will speak at Môr on Barry High Street starting at 7pm, drawing on research that shaped her debut novel, Witsh.

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Why Wales hanged far fewer witches#

Dunning will explore the question of why witchcraft executions in Wales numbered merely five, a stark contrast to the approximately 500 recorded in England and thousands in Scotland, according to the Barry and District News. Selections from her poetry collections and her novel Witsh will be featured in the presentation.

Festival organiser Ian Johnson said the event would cover "Welsh social history, as well as hearing Mari's poetry and fiction, based on her research work on witchcraft in Wales," the Barry and District News reports. He added that Dunning has "strong connections with the Barry area," noting the festival's pleasure at her return to present the work.

Tickets for the event cost £10 and are available online through Ticketsource, the Barry and District News reports. The talk takes place in Barry, a coastal town in the Vale of Glamorgan with a population of 56,605 according to the 2021 census.

Other Welsh folklore events this autumn#

The Barry talk follows a wave of autumn half-term events built around Welsh folklore. National Trust Cymru has organised Calan Gaeaf programming across Wales, including storytelling from Gareth Bonello and Osian Meilir at Tredegar House and evening experiences at Chirk Castle, Aberconwy House, Dinefwr and Llanerchaeron, according to Nation.Cymru.

At Bodnant Garden, visitors can take part in a monster-hunting adventure featuring creatures from Welsh folklore such as the Hwch Ddu Gwta, Y Ladi Wen and the Conwy Afanc, Nation.Cymru reports. Llanerchaeron will host family events, including storytelling with folklorist and Welsh Witch Mhara Starling, from 21 October to 1 November.

Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth is also marking the season, with a children's storytelling evening on 27 October featuring authors Claire Fayers and Peter Stevenson, according to Carmarthenshire News Online. On 30 October the museum shop will host an in-conversation event with Dunning and folklorist Dr Delyth Badder, co-author of The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts.

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