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Have you ever wondered why we carve faces into pumpkins at Halloween? Or heard the eerie legend of the man who tricked the Devil and was condemned to wander the earth for eternity? Join Paula Rolls of Roaming Raven for the fifth and final instalment of our Samhain Special as we step into the shadows to uncover the chilling Irish folklore of Stingy Jack, the mysterious wanderer whose story became associated with the Jack-o'-Lantern. From his cunning encounters with the Devil to his terrible fate, wandering endlessly between Heaven and Hell with nothing but a glowing ember inside a hollowed-out turnip, we explore one of Halloween's most enduring legends. But our journey doesn't end there. We'll discover the mysterious will-o'-the-wisps, the origins of carved turnip lanterns, and how centuries of Irish folklore, seasonal celebrations and changing traditions helped shape the Halloween we recognise today. As we bring our five-part Samhain journey to a close, we'll reflect on the history, supernatural stories, witchcraft and ancient customs we've explored throughout the series, and why this magical time of year continues to capture our imaginations. So light a candle, settle in and join me for one final journey beyond the firelight. Roaming Raven – A Witchlore & Mystical Tales Podcast. Where history meets folklore, and the old stories never truly die. www.roamingraven.co.uk

How do modern witches celebrate Samhain, and what makes this time of year so meaningful in the world of witchcraft? Join Paula Rolls of Roaming Raven for Part Four of our five-part Samhain Special as we step away from the ancient legends and historical traditions to explore the magic of Samhain as it is celebrated today. From creating meaningful ancestor altars and honouring loved ones who have passed to candle rituals, herbal correspondences, divination and shadow work, we discover the many ways witches and Pagans embrace this powerful turning point in the Wheel of the Year. We'll explore the symbolism behind familiar Samhain practices, the importance of remembrance and reflection, and how to create your own personal traditions that feel authentic and meaningful to you. Along the way, we'll separate historical folklore from modern magical practices, exploring how centuries of beliefs, customs and spiritual traditions have helped shape the Witch's Samhain we recognise today. Whether you're an experienced witch, just beginning your magical journey or simply fascinated by the folklore and traditions of the season, this episode offers inspiration for celebrating the darker half of the year. So light a candle, settle in and join me as we explore the magic, mystery and meaning of Samhain. Roaming Raven – A Witchlore & Mystical Tales Podcast. www.roamingraven.co.uk

What did people really do to celebrate Samhain before pumpkins, trick-or-treating and modern Halloween? Join Paula Rolls of Roaming Raven for Part Three of our five-part Samhain Special as we step back into the homes and villages of old Ireland to discover the fascinating traditions, strange superstitions and magical customs of the season. From roaring bonfires and traditional Halloween feasts to barmbrack fortune telling, apple divination, midnight mirror rituals and the rather dangerous game of Snap Apple, we uncover a world where food, laughter, romance and a little supernatural mystery went hand in hand. Discover why turnips were carved into terrifying lanterns, how young people attempted to predict their future marriages, and why Halloween was once a night of mischief, disguises and community celebration. Blending historical accounts, Irish folklore and atmospheric storytelling, we explore how these traditions developed through the centuries and why so many still influence our celebrations today. So pour yourself something warming, light a candle and join us for another journey into the history, folklore and magic of Samhain. Roaming Raven – A Witchlore & Mystical Tales Podcast. www.roamingraven.co.uk

As the nights grow darker and the veil between worlds is said to grow thin, join Paula Rolls of Roaming Raven for the second instalment of our four-part Samhain Special. This week, we step into the mysterious and supernatural side of Samhain, exploring ancient Irish folklore, the powerful Aos Sí, the mischievous Púca, the Otherworld and the belief that spirits of the dead may return to visit the living. Discover eerie tales, forgotten superstitions, protective traditions and the origins of ancestor remembrance at this magical time of year. So light a candle, settle in and join us for another journey beyond the firelight, where history, folklore and witchcraft intertwine. Roaming Raven – A Witchlore & Mystical Tales Podcast.

Imagine for a moment that there are no electric lights. No street lamps. No headlights coming along the road. No central heating waiting when you get home. The sun has gone down, and when darkness arrives, it really is dark. Behind you lies summer. The crops have been gathered, the days of growth are ending, livestock are being brought closer to home and the land itself appears to be retreating. Ahead lies winter - cold, hunger, storms and months in which survival will depend upon what has been stored and prepared. And somewhere in that transition, we find Samhain. Tonight, we're going back to the beginning. Not to modern Halloween, not yet to pumpkins and trick-or-treating, and not even to the Samhain rituals that many witches and Pagans practise today. We're going much further back, into Ireland and the world preserved for us in early Irish stories. And we're going to begin with the name itself. Samhain. www.roamingraven.co.uk

Over the course of this series, we’ve travelled through several centuries of witch trials. We’ve seen people accused, interrogated, imprisoned and executed because their neighbours, their communities — and sometimes the law itself — believed that they were witches. And eventually, in the places we’ve mostly been talking about, the trials stopped. The laws changed. Witchcraft ceased to be a crime. So that should really be the end of the story. Except it isn’t. Because people are still being accused of witchcraft today. And I don't mean someone being criticised online and calling it a witch hunt. We’ve already talked about the way that phrase gets thrown around in the modern world. This time, we mean it literally. People living in modern Western countries have been accused of being witches, of casting spells, of causing illness or misfortune through supernatural means, or of being possessed by evil spirits. And some of those accusations have led to horrific abuse — and even murder. So for our final episode of this series, we’re bringing the witch hunt right up to the present day. And perhaps the most unsettling thing about these stories is that they didn't happen in some distant century, in a world completely unlike our own. Some of them happened here. In Britain. Within our lifetimes.

In our last episode, we left Helen Duncan in a British courtroom in 1944, prosecuted under a Witchcraft Act that was already more than two hundred years old. Even Winston Churchill thought its use was absurd. But the law remained. For Britain's growing Spiritualist movement, that wasn't simply an embarrassing historical relic. Mediums could still be prosecuted under legislation that effectively began with the assumption that their spiritual practices were fraudulent. Then, in 1951, something finally changed. The Witchcraft Act of 1735 was repealed and replaced by a new law: the Fraudulent Mediums Act. On the surface, the distinction seems simple. Being a medium wasn't the problem. Deliberately deceiving people was. But after more than two centuries of British law attempting to decide what was—and wasn't—possible in the supernatural world, was Parliament finally stepping away from people's spiritual beliefs? And who had persuaded them to do it? Today, we're looking at the end of Britain's Witchcraft Act—and the curious story of the law that took its place. www.roamingraven.co.uk

It's 1944. Britain is at war. Allied forces are preparing for D-Day, London is still being bombed, and secrecy can quite literally mean the difference between life and death. And at the Old Bailey, one of Britain's most famous mediums is about to stand trial under a law passed more than two hundred years earlier. Her name is Helen Duncan. She claimed to communicate with the dead. During her séances, spirits apparently spoke, walked around the room and even materialised in front of witnesses. Her supporters believed she had an extraordinary gift. Her critics thought she was an extraordinarily talented fraud. But then Helen apparently revealed something she shouldn't have known: that a British battleship had sunk, before the loss had been publicly announced. And suddenly, a woman talking to dead sailors in darkened rooms potentially became more than an eccentric medium. She became a wartime problem. So was Helen Duncan really prosecuted because the British government was frightened of what she might reveal next? Was she simply a fraudulent medium finally caught in the act? And why, in twentieth-century Britain, was anyone still being prosecuted under something called the Witchcraft Act? www.roamingraven.co.uk

For most of this series, when we've talked about a witch hunt, we've meant exactly that: people accused of witchcraft, pursued, prosecuted and sometimes executed. But today, you don't need a witch to have a witch hunt. We hear the phrase constantly—in politics, journalism and increasingly on social media. Public figures claim they're the victims of witch hunts. Newspapers accuse groups of conducting them. Online, thousands of strangers can descend on one person almost overnight. In fact, we're recording this in August 2026, and this very morning the Guardian published an article with the words "rightwing witch-hunt" in its headline. Centuries after the last European witch trials, we're apparently still hunting witches. So how did those two words escape from the history books and become part of our everyday language? And, more importantly, what actually makes a witch hunt a witch hunt? That's what we're exploring today. www.roamingraven.co.uk

Over the course of this podcast, we've told the stories of people accused of doing impossible things. Causing storms. Killing livestock. Making children ill. Flying through the night. Meeting the Devil... And for centuries, courts across Europe took those accusations seriously. People were questioned. Tortured. Imprisoned. And thousands were executed. Then something changed. Not everywhere at once. Not because everybody suddenly stopped believing in witches. And certainly not because Europe woke up one morning and collectively decided to become more rational. www.roamingraven.co.uk

When we think about the witch trials, we often imagine them belonging to a distant past. We picture the seventeenth century—Matthew Hopkins, Salem, Pendle—and assume that by the Age of Enlightenment, Europe had finally left those dark days behind. But history is rarely that tidy. Today's story takes us to Bavaria in 1775, forty years after Britain passed the Witchcraft Act and declared that witches simply didn't exist. www.roamingraven.co.uk

What happens when a country suddenly decides witches don't exist? By the early 1700s, something extraordinary was happening. Across Europe, the great witch hunts were coming to an end. Courts were becoming more sceptical. Judges were beginning to question evidence that, only a generation earlier, had been accepted without hesitation. You might think this was the moment governments finally accepted that witches were real people with real beliefs. But that's not what happened. www.roamingraven.co.uk

What happens when a country suddenly decides witches don't exist? By the early 1700s, something extraordinary was happening. Across Europe, the great witch hunts were coming to an end. Courts were becoming more sceptical. Judges were beginning to question evidence that, only a generation earlier, had been accepted without hesitation. www.roamingraven.co.uk

Imagine a city on the edge of the Hungarian plains. The year is 1728. The river Tisza is low. The crops are failing. The people are hungry. And somewhere in the shadows of the town, a fear is spreading—a fear that witches are to blame. www.roamingraven.co.uk

Imagine a cold spring morning in the Highlands. The year is 1727. In Edinburgh, they're founding the Royal Bank of Scotland. The Enlightenment is spreading across Europe. Science and reason are beginning to replace superstition and fear . But three hundred miles north, in a small town called Dornoch, something very different is happening. www.roamingraven.co.uk