Williamson's West Country wind roarers

wind roarer

Source term: wind roarer; 'Wind/Bull roarer' (museum)

wind roarer: West Country witchcraft name for the bullroarer, in Cecil Williamson's usage.

When a West Country witch wanted to draw spirit forces to her while working out in open country, Cecil Williamson wrote, she took up a wind roarer: a flat, shaped piece of hardwood on a length of stout, pliable string, swung at arm's length around her head as fast as she could turn it. The size of the blade and the speed of the swing set the pitch, and out came a strange wailing. "Little wonder," he added, "that the spirits come flocking in to see what all the ghastly moaning is about." Williamson wrote it for a pair of carved roarers, one cut with angular chevrons and one with a spiral, in the Museum of Witchcraft he brought to Boscastle in 1960.

Little wonder that the spirits come flocking in to see what all the ghastly moaning is about.

Cecil Williamson, catalogue text for Museum of Witchcraft and Magic no. 506

Particulars

Object

Two hardwood blades pierced at one end: one about 9 × 2 in. with shallow angular carving, the other 7 × 1.5 in. carved with a spiral. Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Boscastle, catalogue 506.

Function

Swung at arm's length around the head by a witch working in open country, to draw spirit forces to her; the museum files the pair among working tools 'for summoning spirits or raising spirit power'.