Witch Reoch and ‘She had No Power of Her Tongue’: Re-writing the Trial of Elspeth Reoch

Abstract

This thesis utilises a creative practice as research methodology to explore the testimony of a historical figure, Elspeth Reoch, an accused witch tried in Orkney, Scotland, in the year 1616. The exegesis consists of a close reading of Elspeth’s trial document that searches for her voice. This research informed a work of historiographic metafiction which considers the problems of retrieving Elspeth’s past.