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A young housewife living at Auldearn, Highland, Scotland, her confession painted a wild word-picture about the deeds of her coven. They were claimed to have the ability to transform themselves into animals. To turn into a hare, she would say:
I shall go into a hare,
With sorrow and sych and meickle care;
And I shall go in the Devil"s name,
Ay while I come home again.
(sych: such.
Meickle: much)
To change back, she would say:
Hare, hare, God send thee care. I am in a hare"s likeness now,
But I shall be in a woman"s likeness even now. She allegedly was entertained by the Queen of the Fairies, also known as the Queen of Elphame, in her home "under the hills".
Her confession was more detailed than most, and was not consistent with much of the folklore and records of the trials of witches.
There is no record of Gowdie being executed. Isobel Gowdie and her magic have been remembered in a number of later works of culture.
Isobel Gowdie is also the subject of songs by Creeping Myrtle and Alex Harvey. Maddy Prior"s song "The Fabled Hare" is based upon the spell quoted above.
The Inkubus Sukkubus song "Woman to Hare", from the album Vampyre Erotica is based on Isobel"s statement, and quotes her words at the end of the lyrics.
The Confession of Isobel Gowdie is a work for symphony orchestra by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. Furthermore, some of her own literary works have been included in Oxford University Press"s Early Modern Women Poets: 1520–1700: An Anthology, as well as World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time.