Although I've seen alot of magic in "medieval" fantasy I always wondered what magic was actually like in the dark ages. I've tried to look around for some good books but I didn't find much of anything beyond modern day "dark pagan/wicca" books.
So I've been wondering if any of you historians know of good books or sources that give a good introduction into the subject. Maybe analyses of how it was viewed, or primary and secondary sources regarding witchcraft or old astrology (Maybe an spellbook or a document about the legality of witchcraft in certain areas).
“Dark ages” is not a term that any scholar uses anymore. What period are you looking for specifically? The Early Middle Ages, or the Middle Ages as a whole?
Richard Kieckhefer is one of the foremost scholars on medieval magic; his Magic in the Middle Ages is a good place to start. So is Valerie Flint’s The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe and the Routledge History of Medieval Magic.
Some primary sources that have been translated are the Picatrix (Attrell and Porreca), Kieckhefer’s Forbidden Rites, and the Sworn Book of Honorius (Peterson).