Show Notes
In 1621, eleven women were brought before the court in Vardø, one after another, in the first great chain of witch trials in Finnmark.
In this episode, we go straight into the courtroom. The records describe women turning into ravens and wolves to meet for witches’ gatherings on mountains and at a mysterious place called Ballvollen. And the women keep saying the same thing, that they have a leader who is their master and admiral. Most of the accused in this wave were Norwegian women. Professor Jennifer McNabb explains the Malleus Maleficarum, the most famous witch-hunting manual, and how it helped turn the hunts against women. I’ve tried to stay as faithful as possible to the court records. Although their words were written down by the men who tried them, I think we can still hear something of their lives, who they were, their imaginations and their fears. And I wanted you to hear them too.
Find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vardowitchtrials/ Sound design by Craig Edmondson. Featuring Professor Liv Helene Willumsen of UiT The Arctic University of Norway and Professor Jennifer McNabb of the University of Northern Iowa. The memorial texts at Steilneset quoted in this episode were written by Professor Liv Helene Willumsen. Research draws on the original trial records and the work of Professor Liv Helene Willumsen and historian Rune Blix Hagen. With thanks to Isa Maline Isene, conservator at Vardø Museum, and historian Rune Blix Hagen. Voices by Anne Mali Sæther, Klara Blooma Mohn, Sven Conradi, Marianne Gathe and Gro Strøm Engebretsen. Written, hosted and produced by Lisa Williams.
More from The Vardø Witch Trials
When a new governor, Christoffer Orning, and a well-born Danish exile, Anna Rhodius, arrive in Vardø, a darker idea takes hold: once the Devil has a foothold in a family, he will not let them go. Now the young daughters of accused women are brought before the court. I finally go to Mount Domen, long believed to be the entrance to Hell, where the women were said to hold their witches’ gatherings. Then I visit the long-feared witches’ hole. Along the way, Professor Liv Helene Willumsen guides us through the court books to find out how the chain of accusations came to reach the girls. And I talk to Anya Bergman, author of The Witches of Vardø, about her own reading of Anna Rhodius.
In the winter of 1654, a young woman called Karen Jonsdatter is a long way from home, in a fishing village near Vardø. As well as working as a maid, she has a little business on the side, selling potions and charms to the men in the community. But in these small villages, everyone is watching and listening, and for a woman, gossip and slander are a constant threat. Once she had been called a witch, what could she do to fight back? And when it came to it, would the men who bought her wares protect her? Back in the archive with Professor Liv Helene Willumsen, we find Karen’s case in the court book. Professor Jennifer McNabb weighs in on the legal realities for women in the 17th century.
Who brought the Devil to Vardø? I follow a trail Professor Liv Helene Willumsen calls the witchcraft triangle. It runs from Germany to Scotland, through a royal wedding, storms at sea, and women who confessed to sending devils after a Danish princess's ship. In Tromsø, Liv Helene opens the surviving 17th-century court books of the Vardø witch trials for me. Written in a Gothic hand, they take us back to a coast of widows where a Scottish sea captain has just arrived as the new governor. From there, we follow the case of Karren Edisdatter, a young healer whose confession would set off the first great chain of witch trials.
I go to the edge of the Arctic to find out why 91 people, most of them women, died in Norway’s deadliest witch hunt, which lasted more than 70 years. Vardø is a small island town closer to Russia than to Oslo, a place long shadowed by fears of witchcraft. Who were the women who came here, and why would they come somewhere so remote, at the far end of a kingdom? And then, one Christmas Eve, 40 men row out into the polar dark. They never come back.
Inside the Arctic witch hunt that lasted 70 years. Everyone knows Salem. Almost nobody knows Vardø. On an island at the very top of Norway, 91 people died in the country's deadliest witch hunt, most of them women. The Vardø Witch Trials. A historical documentary from Lisa Williams. Launching 1 October, with new episodes weekly.