Oxford historian Professor John Blair explores vampire beliefs, predatory corpses, and the deep connections between witchcraft and folklore in medieval and early modern Europe — and colonial New England.

What do vampires, witch trials, and shroud-chewing corpses have in common? More than you might think.

In this episode of The Thing About Witch Hunts, hosts Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack sit down with Professor John Blair, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Oxford and Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford. Professor Blair is the author of the book Killing the Dead: Corpses, Vampires, and the Unquiet Dead in Medieval and Early Modern Europe — a landmark study of how premodern communities understood the body, fear, and the threat of the dangerous dead.

This conversation goes deep into the history of vampire beliefs and folklore, including:

• The origins of the word "vampire" and the many names given to predatory corpses across cultures

• Corpse execution practices in medieval and early modern Europe

• Sleep paralysis and its role in shaping beliefs about the unquiet dead

• The Malleus Maleficarum and its connections to vampire and witchcraft lore

• Shroud-chewing, witch cakes, and vampire cakes — and what these practices reveal about community fear

• Striking parallels between vampire beliefs and witchcraft accusations in colonial New England, including the Salem Witch Trials

Whether you're interested in medieval folklore, the history of witchcraft, vampire mythology, early modern European history, or the Salem trials, this episode offers essential historical context for understanding how fear, the body, and the supernatural intersected in the premodern world.

📖 Pick up Killing the Dead at bookshop.org/shop/endwitchhunts https://bookshop.org/a/90227/9780691224794

🎥 Watch more on YouTube: youtube.com/@aboutwitchhunts

🌐 Learn more about our work on historical and contemporary witchcraft accusations at endwitchhunts.org

If this episode was valuable to you, please leave a review and share it with someone who loves history, folklore, or the early modern world. It helps others find the show and keeps this important work going.

HASHTAGS: #VampireHistory #VampireFolklore #MedievalHistory #WitchcraftHistory #TheDangerousDead #SalemWitchTrials #EarlyModernEurope #Folklore #UnquietDead #MalleusM aleficarum #SleepParalysis #HistoryPodcast #WitchHunts #OxfordHistory #TheThingAboutWitchHunts #KillingTheDead #ProfJohnBlair #ColonialNewEngland #HistoricalFolklore #WitchTrials

Check out Salem Witch Trials Daily, our new podcast that follows the 1692 Salem Witch Trials in real time, day by day, court date by court date, through the documented record. In Salem, Massachusetts, 19 people were executed, one man was pressed to death for refusing trial, and more than a hundred others were accused and imprisoned, leaving a lasting mark on American history. Building on the extraordinary listener response to this series when it launched within The Thing About Salem, the show now has its own dedicated feed, available wherever you get podcasts. Each micro-episode is tied to the actual calendar of 1692 and draws directly from primary sources like court documents, examination transcripts, petitions, letters, and contemporary accounts, alongside established scholarship and our own research. We also provide weekly companion blog posts and downloadable worksheets on aboutsalem.com for deeper, self-paced learning.

⁠Salem Witch Trials Daily – The Thing About Salem Podcast

In 1629, 27 men, women, and a 15-year-old child were executed in Peebles, Scotland — and their ashes cast into the River Tweed. For centuries, their names were largely forgotten. Now, a community theater production called Rope and Flame is bringing their stories back to life, just steps from the river where they were lost.

Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack sit down with the creative team behind this remarkable project: director and co-writer Clare Prenton, playwright and co-writer Anita John, actor Scott Noble, and historian Mary Craig, whose book Borders Witch Hunt laid the foundation for the script.

This conversation will take you into the Scottish Borders, into the streets and kirk of a 17th-century market town under pressure from famine, religious upheaval, and the reach of Edinburgh's legal machinery. Listeners will come away with a richer understanding of how witchcraft accusations spread through a community, why both accusers and accused deserve to be understood as full human beings, and what a commemorative plaque on Tweed Green sparked in a modern Scottish town.

You'll also hear how three women writers intentionally pushed back against the framing of female fear and coercion as irrational, how a 15-year-old girl was pressured into naming names, and why one local historian argues that boots on the ground matter more than books when it comes to understanding the past.

From generational trauma to the parallels between 17th-century gossip and why the mechanics of a whisper spreading through a 17th-century Scottish market town are not as distant from our own moment as we might like to think. this episode connects the Scottish witch trials to questions that are urgently alive right now.

In This Episode

• The history of the 1629 Peebles witch trials and what made the Scottish Borders a hotbed of witchcraft prosecutions

• How the 2022 memorial on Tweed Green sparked a community theater production

• The role of Calvinism, political turmoil under Charles I, and economic hardship in fueling accusations

• Why Rope and Flame portrays accusers as complex, frightened human beings rather than simple villains

• The story of Isabel Haddock, the 15-year-old accused whose testimony changed everything

• How community theater is doing what history books alone cannot

If this episode moved you, share it. These stories survive because people carry them forward. Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack are descendants of Salem witch trial victims who helped build End Witch Hunts nonprofit to educate about witch hunts past and present, advocate for the accused, and support the communities doing that work. Subscribe to The Thing About Witch Hunts wherever you listen, and visit endwitchhunts.org to learn more and donate.

Links

Play Podcast Episode: A History of Scottish Witches with Mary W. Craig

Play Podcast Episode: Scottish Witch Trials with Mary W. Craig

Duns Play Fest

East Gate Arts Theatre

Buy Books Mentioned in this Episode

Sign the Petition to Exonerate the Boston 8

The History of Witch Trial Exonerations in Massachusetts

About the MA Witch Hunt Justice Project

Purchase a MA Witch Hunt Justice Project Memorial Pin