Wise Women & Cunning Folk

-  The Three Witches, from Shakespeare's Macbeth

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Cunning folk, also known as folk healers or wise folk, or, in Swedish, "kloka gummor" ("wise old women") were practitioners of folk medicine, folk magic and divination in Europe from the Middle Ages and onwards.

In Scandinavia, the wise women were usually elder members of the community acting as folk healers and also as midwives. They were often also said to be practitioners of folk magic.

There is an old idea that it was the wise women, who often fell victim to the Witch Trials in the 17th century. Some wise women and wise men were indeed punished, not for witchcraft however, but often under the indictment point of "superstition". An example is the 18th century wise woman Brita Biörn of Gotland, who in court claimed to have learned to heal the sick through spending time in the underworld. She was sentenced to prison twice. The punishment of the wise women of  Sweden seems however to have strengthened their position. After Brita Biörn's first sentence, the vicar complained that people relied on her as a God, and that they came from throughout the country to seek her help. Brita's daughter and granddaughter's daughter later also became healing women.

Many other examples of wise women were known far beyond their village boundaries, such as Brigitta Andersdotter, who in the 16th century was the nurse of the royal children of King Gustav I of Sweden and queen Margaret Leijonhufvud, and also the de facto physician of the queen. Another example is the 19th century practitioner of natural medicine Maria Jansson, known as Kisamor. Kisamor is rumoured to have been granted a medical license by Sundhetskollegium in 1825 after having treated the king and the Crown prince. If this is true, she was unique, as the profession of a physician was formally barred to women in Sweden before 1870.

In one of the versions of the  fairy tale the Sleeping Beauty, as told by the Brothers Grimm, there are thirteen Wise Women in the realm - of which they only invite twelve - they are not fairies or elves, as they are referred to in other versions.