Witches' Brew

Welcome to October - the month of Halloween and Samhain and all things witchy.

And on that subject ...

I've seen a few social media posts during  the past day or so claiming that the iconography of the classic witch - pointy hat, association with cats and cauldrons etc. - comes from the history of brewing. Here's an example; it's a letter (I'm not sure what paper/magazine published it so it's already a poor source) from a Mr R S of Goffstown: 

So, let's pick this apart ...

It is true that women did a lot of the brewing in times past. With water quality being an issue (it's how cholera spread, for example), ales were a household staple for most families in England and parts of Europe. Often brewed as a 'small beer' with a low alcohol level, it was drunk by adults and children alike. For the working class, beer provided an important source of nutrients like carbohydrates and proteins. And fermentation into beer was a practical and inexpensive way to preserve grain from the harvests. 

As the Smithsonian Magazine says:

'Because the beverage was such a common part of the average person’s diet, fermenting was, for many women, one of their normal household tasks. Some enterprising women took this household skill to the marketplace and began selling beer. Widows or unmarried women used their fermentation prowess to earn some extra money, while married women partnered with their husbands to run their beer business.So if you travelled back in time to the Middle Ages or the Renaissance and went to a market in England, you’d probably see an oddly familiar sight: women wearing tall, pointy hats. In many instances, they’d be standing in front of big cauldrons. But these women were no witches; they were brewers.'

Up to this point things are fine. And yes, women did sometimes wear tall hats - perhaps fewer pointy hats than 'stovepipe' style (think Welsh national dress) if contemporary paintings are to be believed - but tall hats nonetheless.

And, yes, it's conceivable that the brew was made in a cauldron as this would have been the largest cooking pot in any domestic home. It's even possible that these 'alewives' had working cats to keep mice away from the grain. But it's a big jump from this to assuming that they were responsible for the traditional image of the witch.

Okay, so the arrival of the Reformation and fundamentalist Christianity did create stricter gender norms. So it might be (note: 'might') that male brewers saw an opportunity to eliminate the competition by denouncing female brewers as witches. 

It does seem unlikely though - after all, the men were engaged in exactly the same practices. And there's no documentary evidence to suupport this sugestion. The weight of real evidence is that witch hunts were focused on single, older women who practiced natural medicine and other crafts. As I noted in an earlier blogpost, the fundamentalist church preached that only God had power of life and death and chose who would live or die. Women who cured the sick with medicines rather than prayer were seen as subverting God's will.

The Smithsonian article also states that:

'However, many did believe that women shouldn’t be spending their time making beer. The process took time and dedication: hours to prepare the ale, sweep the floors clean and lift heavy bundles of rye and grain. If women couldn’t brew ale, they would have significantly more time at home to raise their children. In the 1500s some towns, such as Chester, England, actually made it illegal for most women to sell beer, worried that young alewives would grow up into old spinsters.'

Again, this might be true but where is the evidence that they were seen as witches? Nor does it take into account that up until the Victorian age there was pretty much no such things as childhood - children were put to work as soon as they were able. There are authenticated photos of child chimney sweeps aged just four years old. So Mum didn't have quite as much child-minding to do as you might expect. There was certainly no school run as most kids were uneducated. Even when schooling became the norm, parents would need them to work at busy times like the harvest - that's why we still, today, have a six week school holiday in late summer. And as for the 'time and dedication' comment ... have you ever made home-brewed beer? It's grain and water, sugar and yeast and maybe some hops. Most of the brewing time involves no human intervention at all. And they weren't making an award-winning craft beer here. It was rustic and amateur and, by modern standards, probably none too tasty either.

Correlation does not always equal causation as we all know. So when you do read stuff like Mr R S of Goffstown's letter, always remember to take it with a pinch of salt.