Abstract

From the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century, Guernsey's Calvinist régime sought to control the rival cultural attractions of night-time activities, enjoyed especially by the young. These included the vueille and “gadding” between parishes. Cases of disguising in 1624 and 1630, the former under a mare's skin, when examined alongside examples from the other Channel Islands, England and Wales, demonstrate analogies with hobby horse perambulations and the Mari Lwyd. A unique reference to vouarouvarie [werewolfery] also describes a rowdy nocturnal activity, here with elements drawn from medieval identifications of the werewolf with outlawry and the dead. Werewolfery in Calvinist Guernsey may also have involved the harassment of women.

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