Cunning folk, also known as folk healers or wise folk, were practitioners of folk medicine, helpful folk magic and divination in Europe from the Middle Ages until the 20th century. Their practices were known as the cunning craft. Their services also included thwarting witchcraft. Although some cunning folk were denounced as witches themselves, they made up a minority of those accused,[1] and the common people generally made a distinction between the two. The name 'cunning folk' originally referred to folk-healers and magic-workers in Britain, but the name is now applied as an umbrella term for similar people in other parts of Europe.[2][3]
Names given to folk-healers and magic-workers in Europe include:
^Wicked arts: witchcraft and magic trials in southern Sweden, 1635–1754 By Per Sörlina
^Witchcraft and magic in Europe: the 20th centuryby Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra, Willem de Blécourt, Brian Levack, Ronald Hutton, Jean Sybil La Fontaine and Roy Porter, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1999, ISBN978-0-485-89106-5[page needed]