Since the first shaman cast the runes before the tribe went into battle, magic has always played a part in war – it may surprise some people to discover that such has been the case even in relatively recent conflicts.

To cover every known instance of the magical arts being pressed into service in times of war would require a book of prodigious size, so in this article I am going to cover only a few instances – although they will be very different instances indeed, offering, I hope, some sense of the subject’s scope.

The Collins Concise Dictionary defines magic as “the art that, by the use of spells, supposedly invokes supernatural powers to influence events; the practice of illusory tricks to entertain; any mysterious or extraordinary quality or power”.