Enchanting Trees: Arboreal Significance in Witchcraft Imagery, ca. 1500–1900

ABSTRACT

Trees are linked to early modern conceptions of witchcraft, most notably as designated sites of the witches’ Sabbath. Yet the additional roles that trees play in witchcraft imagery have received little scholarly attention. This article examines the multifaceted roles of trees in European and North American visual culture from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, arguing that trees function not merely as passive scenery but as vital components imbued with expressive, practical, and symbolic force. Drawing on a diverse array of media—including book illustrations, sheet music covers, prints, paintings, and photographs—this study explores three configurations: barren trunks as silent witnesses to violence and death, trees as platforms for musicians above the Sabbath’s revelers, and anthropomorphic trees as analogues or avatars of witches themselves. By analyzing the motif of the solitary tree, the article offers a new perspective on the enduring association between witches and forest settings in the cultural imagination.