Witch Hunt in Folklore and Literature

Abstract

Georgian mythology contains a whole cycle of stories about demonic creatures and people close to them. In Georgian mythological representations and folklore, a tailless is a person who has become a devil or has been possessed by a devil, whose goal is to harm the world and those around him.

According to folk texts, in order to eliminate misfortunes, it was necessary to neutralize the tailles. In the Middle Ages, a punitive institution was formed in Western European countries, which was called the Inquisition. There are a number of texts in Georgian folklore that make us think that a similar union to the European Inquisition must have existed in the Georgian folk tradition.

Numerous stories about the detection and punishment of the  have been preserved by oral tradition from various parts of Georgia. The theme of the persecution of the taillesses was also reflected in Georgian literature, in particular, in the works of Davit Kldiashvili and Niko Lortkipanidze.

Based on the works of D. Kldiashvili and N. Lortkipanidze, we can conclude that there must have been a folk inquisition in Georgia, unofficially, in the folk tradition.