Witch Stories

Bessie Dunlop is grieving a dead cow when a gray-bearded stranger steps through a gap in a wall too narrow for any living man. He calls her by name—and says he has come from Fairy Land.

In sixteenth-century Scotland, tales of Elfame mingle with the grim record of witchcraft accusations, where politics, jealousy and fear can turn a neighbor’s word into a perilous charge. E. Lynn Linton gathers these stories around women such as Lady Glammis, whose enemies have earthly motives, and Bessie, a healer who insists her strange visitor is no demon. As court and community demand explanations, even kindness and knowledge can be made to look like proof. What did Bessie meet beside the wall—and what will the authorities make of her answer?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.