Anglo-Saxon laws on witchcraft are interesting, as they overlap between the civic domain of royal law and the ecclesiastical domain of canon law and penitence for sins, although there was regular overlap between the two, since the first codexes of Æthelberht in the 6th Century. As Christians, the Anglo-Saxons clearly considered witchcraft A Bad Thing, although the form of 'witchcraft' they considered is less magic in the modern sense, and more potions, supernatural/herbal medicine, cursing, and what we today might consider elements of midwifery. The varied punishments for 'levels' of witchcraft suggest that it was seen as a real phenomenon, however the inclusion of witchcraft in legal codes should not necessarily be taken to mean that witchhunting was an active phenomenon as well.

While the Doomboc of Alfred proscribes witchcraft under punishment of death, this is merely bringing English law into line with Christian scripture, as Alfred specifically threatens the 'punishment as enjoined in Exodus'. This is the famous Exodus 22:18: Suffer not the witch to live. Alfred's son, Edward, specifically calls for exile for wiccan and wigleras - sorcerers and soothsayers - a relaxation somewhat, but an acknowledgement of his royal duty to protect both the lives and spiritual integrity of his people. In Æthelstan's legal codes, witchcraft is punishable by death only if it results in a death - the threshold at which it crosses from a mere sin to an actual, bodily crime.

What might constitute witchcraft, and the punishments therefore ecclesiastically, are detailed in a number of Anglo-Saxon penitentials, books detailing sins and their necessary penances, a phenomenon which originated within the Celtic church and was then adopted across England. It should be noted that these note merely the ecclesiastical punishments necessary to atone for sins, and indeed in many cases, it is pointed out that secular penalties should also apply. One of the most important penitentials is the Scriftboc, of approximately late tenth century origin. The Scriftboc states that:

If a woman practices magic and incantations and sorcery and the like, she is to fast 12 months or the 3 40-day fasting periods or 40 nights; one should ascertain how great the sin is. If a woman kills someone with her sorcery, she is to fast 6 winters. A woman who enters the church before she has been cleansed of her (menstrual) blood is to fast 40 nights. A woman who mixes a man's seed in her food and then eats it so she be more agreeable to the male is to fast for 3 winters. A woman who performs an abortion on her foetus in her womb and kills it, if it is about 40 nights since she received the seed, before it expired, she is, like the murderer, to fast 3 winters and every week is to keep the 2 fast days until evening and observe the 3 fasting periods. If she loses the foetus, she (is to repent) 1 year or the 3 fasting periods.

What actually counts as the wonderfully vague incantations and sorcery and the like is never fully defined. The direct reference to abortion suggests that this may have been one of the more common outlets for perceived 'witchcraft', likely alongside other elements of folk-medicine. It may be interesting to know that the Scriftboc actually devotes far more content to defining the penances for different types of mastubation - 'spilling seed' on yourself, on somebody else, in somebody's mouth, in Church, repeatedly - bestiality and incest than it does with witchcraft.

The Scriftboc, surviving from the Cotton library, is MS Junius 121 at the Bodelian in Oxford.

Jeffrey Burton Russel's Witchcraft in the Middle Ages may be a useful resource for you.