Lore - Lore 287: It Takes a Village

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

If these dark tales from history prove anything, it is that powerful things often come in small packages. Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing by GennaRose Nethercott, research by Jaime Vargas, and music by Chad Lawson. ————————— Lore Resources:  Episode Music: lorepodcast.com/music  Episode Sources: lorepodcast.com/sources  Official Lore Merchandise: lorepodcast.com/shop All the shows from Grim & Mild: www.grimandmild.com ————————— Sponsors: BetterHelp: Lore is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at BetterHelp.com/LORE, and get on your way to being your best self. Acorns: Acorns helps you automatically save & invest for your future. Head to Acorns.com/LORE to sign up for Acorns to start saving and investing for your future today! Quince: Premium European clothing and accessories for 50% to 80% less than similar brands. Visit Quince.com/LORE for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Chime: Chime is banking done right. Open an account in 2 minutes at chime.com/lore. ————————— To report a concern regarding a radio-style, non-Aaron ad in this episode, reach out to ads @ lorepodcast.com with the name of the company or organization so we can look into it. ————————— To advertise on this podcast please email: [e-mail]. Or go to: https://advertising.libsyn.com/lore ————————— ©2025 Aaron Mahnke. All rights reserved.

On a warm summer night in 1754, the people of Wyndham, Connecticut awoke to a terrifying noise. It sounded like thousands of voices, all wailing in unison. And what's worse, the cries seemed to come from all around and even above the village. and they were only growing louder. The people were terrified. Mind you, the French and Indian War had broken out only a couple of months prior, and the threat of ambush was on everyone's mind. So, when they heard that terrible cacophony,

the locals figured that there were only two possible explanations. Either the apocalypse had finally arrived as the Bible promised it would, or they were being attacked. Now, if it was the first option, there wasn't much they could do about it. But the second? Well, they had a bit of say over that, and so fearing that the noise came from descending Wabanaki or Algonquin warriors, a scouting party was sent out to investigate. They searched all night, until, at last, as the morning sun crested over the horizon, the scouts discover the cause of the racket.

But it wasn't a military attack. It was bullfrogs. Hundreds upon hundreds, perhaps even thousands of screaming, dying bullfrogs, whose tiny corpses now filled a dried-up mill pond, and whether done in by drought or disease, they certainly weren't a threat to the poor people of Wyndham. It wasn't long before the story of the town's big scare got out. The incident came to be known as the Battle of the Frogs, and for years Wyndham was the butt of countless amphibian-centric jokes, and a number of comical ballads to boot. It just goes to show, sometimes the smallest characters can stir up the biggest trouble.

I'm Aaron Manky, and this is lore. The twins from The Shining, the children of the corn, Damien from the Omen. Creepy kids are one of the most common tropes in horror movies, and it makes sense. After all, what could be more frightening than childhood innocence, giving way to evil? And if world folklore proves anything, we've been afraid of child-shaped monsters for a very long time. Take for example this terrifying tyke from the Philippines called the Chinok. If a baby dies before being baptized, they say, the infant just might become one of these subterranean demons that crawl up out of the ground, creeping upon sleeping women and drinking

their blood. As for other hobbies, Chanuk are also known to abduct living children, but don't worry, you can protect your kids from this tiny vampire by giving them simple names, draping them in garlic, or, most powerful of all, adorning them in a necklace of alligator teeth. Meanwhile, in Jewish folklore, there is the

Banim Shovavim. These cuties are the loved children born of the unholy union between humans and demons. They have a tendency to hang around funerals where they'll try to steal the dead's inheritance, which was apparently such a problem that entire burial rituals cropped up to prevent it. Circling the dead in the cemetery, for example, and forbidding surviving sons from accompanying their father's body to the grave were both put in place to ward off the Benim

Chauvim. Now, if there's one country that goes above and beyond when it comes to child monsters, it's Japan. They have not one, not two, but honestly countless terrible toddlers in their supernatural folklore. Some of these Yokai, or demon spirits, are pretty benign, like the Makuragai Eshi or Pillow Swapper, which will simply mess up your sleeping by twisting up your pillows during the night. Or the Zashiki Warashi, which translates to guestroom child, a domestic scamp who plays evil pranks around the house. Not so bad, right?

But others aren't so harmless. Take the Kappa, who swim around in rivers hunting for their two favorite snacks, cucumbers and human anuses, Or the flabby, child-shaped perorito, which eats greedy human children, and whose name translates to, I kid you not, licky boy. Oh, and speaking of eating children, there's plenty more where that came from. Folklore contains an unnerving number of creatures specifically known to devour kids. We all remember checking under the bed and behind closet doors for the boogeyman,

but did you know that children have been doing this same thing for literally thousands of years? Heck, in ancient Mesopotamia, there were legends of a winged, lion-headed beast called the Lamashtu, who, when she wasn't busy causing epidemics, had the pesky little habits of feasting on children's flesh and blood. Meanwhile, in Greek mythology, there is Lamia, a demon with the body of a snake and the head of a woman. Back when she was still fully human, she slept with Zeus, and when his wife Hera found out, Hera murdered Lamia's children. Grief-stricken, Lamia transformed into a monster, and developed a thirst for blood, bent on stealing babies from the

cribs, and even in utero, the way that her own children were taken from her. Now, the most famous Slavic child-stealer is, without a doubt, Babiaga, of chicken-legged hut fame, not the John Wick movies. But she's far from the only one. Snakes and lionheads are one thing, but how about wild swamp ladies with little red hats? They call her Ziva Zona. She comes from Slavic folklore and is a bog-dwelling demon with long, unkempt hair, and, yes, a cheeky red cap, festooned with a...

a fern leaf. And meanwhile, the rest of her clothes, if she's wearing any, that is, are always in tatters. Her favorite pastime? Why kidnapping newborns, of course. But don't accuse her of taking something for nothing. She's always careful to replace any stolen babies with a changeling. English children were worn of Black Agnes, an old crone with a blue face, yellow fangs, and long sharp claws who stole away children who stayed out playing after sundown. What does Black Agnes do with her victims, you might ask? Well, that's easy. She flays them alive, devours their flesh, and then scatters their bones across the land. And reflecting on this VIP list, it may seem obvious why they exist at all. A monster who eats kids that stay out late or wander into the woods

are clear cautionary tales that parents would tell their children to keep them safe. After all, what's a kid more likely to avoid? Supposedly dangerous swamps? Or a terrifying swamp demon who will rip their skin off of their body. But the truth is, these stories didn't only exist for the sake of children. They also helped adults feel safe. And to understand why, we have to dig a little deeper into the places in which these stories were born, because, as it turns out, most of these cultures share one tragic trait, an uncommonly high infant mortality rate.

In the Philippines, 29 out of every thousand children will die before their first birthday, 40 before the age of five. In Mesopotamia, giving birth before the age of modern medicine was exceedingly dangerous, leading women to desperately turn not to medicine, but to magic to keep them and their babies safe. While in ancient Greece, 40% of all babies did not survive childhood, and the list goes on and on. By telling tales of child-killing monsters, adults were able to anticipate and discuss the pain of losing a child through the soft veil of metaphor, and slowly, ever so slowly, begin to heal. And yet, sometimes telling stories of magic and mayhem doesn't keep children safe at all.

In fact, every now and then, it can actually do the opposite. We like to thank you. think of progress as forward-moving, to trust that with each passing year we can be wiser and more sensible than the people in the past. But unfortunately, as we've seen in our own time, that isn't always how it shakes out. And for the people of the late 16th century, they were forced to learn that lesson the hard way. Which trials have never been grounded in, let's just say, rational thinking. But you might be surprised to learn that in the early days of the practice, there were some pretty firm rules in place for keeping things from getting out of hand.

One of the most important being, no children were allowed to testify in court. And look, everyone knows that kids are prone to superstition. Sometimes it can be hard for them to tell the difference between stories and real life. And so knowing this, those early courts absolutely forbid the testimonies of children when it came to condemning people for witchcraft. Their reports simply weren't reliable and could put innocent people in danger. In Jewish courts, for example, witnesses had to be 13 years of age or older. In England, that age was probably lower, around seven, but still the law was firm,

at least until it wasn't. Because by the time the late 16th century rolled around, all that common sense went right out the window. The laws were dropped, and not only were children allowed to testify, they became star witnesses. In fact, by the 17th and 18th centuries, children were responsible for starting most of the witch panics across Europe and the colonies. Remember, the most famous witch hysteria of all the Salem witch trials happened because kids cried witch. And I know I'm not the only one who still gets chills when I think of those scenes in the crucible where Abigail and her fellow girls chant in unison as if possessed. Oh, and by the way, over in Europe, children weren't just being called as witnesses.

They were actually being employed as professional witch hunters. In the Basque province of Navarre, two young girls were hired to do just that in 1525. At only 9 and 11 years of age, they had been accused of witchcraft themselves, and in exchange for a pardon, they were basically used as the witch-finding equivalent of metal detectors. Essentially, one by one, villagers would be brought before the girls, who would stare deep into their eyes searching for a witch's mark. And let's just say, you better pray they didn't find one, because by the end of August of that same year, they had led 50 people to the gallows.

In hearing this story, I can't help but think about what it must have to be. have been like for these children to grow up and realize what they had done? Did they continue to believe in the lies they were told? Or was there a horrible moment of clarity when they realized that their game of make-believe was, in fact, all too real? Well, for one nine-year-old girl named Janet Devise, this question must have been all the more horrifying, because by the time she had finished her accusations, her entire family was dead. It all started on March 21st of 1612, when Janet's older sister Allison bumped into a peddler

on the road and asked if he would sell her some pins. The peddler said no, and allegedly, Allison, frustrated with being refused, cursed the man. Which was not a great idea, especially given the fact that shortly after that very same peddler suffered a stroke and announced that Allison device was to blame.

Add to that the fact that pins were known witch's tools and Allison was starting to look pretty guilty. So she did what any terrified young woman might do. She accused a whole bunch of other people of witchcraft to save her own skin. These included her own grandmother, as well as a bunch of folks from another family called the Chattaxes, with whom her own family had been feuding for years. Who knows, maybe she saw it as a chance to shoot two birds with one stone, avoid the noose, and take down her Chattuck's

rivals while she was at it. One thing led to another, and it wasn't long before the jail was stuffed with devices and Chattaxes alike with everyone pointing fingers at each other. The court needed answers, and they needed them fast, which is when, on April 27th of 1612, Allison's two younger siblings would change the course of history. First, her 12 or 13-year-old brother James insisted that even before the incident with the peddler, Allison had cursed a local child. And that's not all. He told the court that there had been a witch meeting hosted at his house, a meeting where

not only insidious magic was discussed, but also a plan to blow up Lankham. Castle. And I know that escalated pretty quickly, right? Now, this was only seven years after Guy Fox tried to blow up Parliament in the gunpowder plot, so let's just say authorities were not taking these allegations lightly. But it was Janet's testimony that sealed the family's fate, because she, at only nine years old, told the entire courtroom that not only was Alice in a witch, but so was her brother James and their mother Elizabeth. The courtroom was wrapped, as little Janet laid out point after point, promising that she lived among witches. At some point in this testimony, her mother erupted into hysterics,

screaming and pleading for her daughter to save her, but the woman's cries fell on deaf ears. Because on August 18th, Janet climbed up on a table, clasped her hands, and calmly denounced her mother as a sorceress once and for all. Just two days later, Janet's mother, brother, sister, and grandmother, along with six more victims were hanged at the Lancaster gallows. So tell me, Janet, did you finally realize the consequences of your stories? Did you spend the rest of your life atoning as you grew up, reached womanhood, had children of your own?

Or, with the truth too painful to admit, did you choose to continue hiding inside a fairy tale? Today is not your lucky day. One minute you're scampering through the streets of Salzburg with other boys your age, roughhousing, telling jokes, maybe picking a few pockets as you wend your way through the square. And the next minute, you've been arrested and dragged into a dark room. And you know what happens next. You've heard stories from the other boys, terrible rumors of interrogation and torture. And you know, too, the very first question the Inquisitor

will ask. After all, it's the same thing he's demanded of every other young beggar he has held here. And so, when it comes, you're ready. Do you know, the Inquisitor says, the Wizard Jackal? It's a question that requires us to back up a bit and cover some context. The year is 1675 in Salzburg, Austria, and there is no such person yet as the Wizard Jackal. Instead, there's simply an ordinary 20-something-year-old man named Jacob Kohler. He lives in a German empire, split somewhat in two. On one hand, there are the archbishops who police Salzburg with an iron fist, and on the other hand, are ordinary citizens like Jacob. Now, Jacob was no stranger to blood. His father was an animal slaughterer and executioner's assistant, after all, while his mother

worked in the animal skinning business. And I'll admit, knowing what we do know now, it's tempting to view all of this as a bit of an ill omen, because the truth is, Jacob would end up with a lot of blood on his hands. His mother, you see, wasn't only an animal skinner. Barbara was also an accomplished thief, and she raised her boy to be a thief as well. And they were good at what they did, at least until they weren't, right? Because in 1675, an offeratory box was stolen from a church leaving the archbishops none too pleased. And who was accused for this crime? But the queen thief herself, Barbara Kohler. After her arrest, she and an accomplice were tortured, during which she admitted to not only thievery, but practicing sorcery as well. And it was under this duress

that Jacob's mother threw another name into the ring, that is, her sons. Now, she didn't only accuse Jacob of theft. She also claimed that her son had recruited and trained up a gang of child thieves who did his bidding, basically think Fagan from Oliver Twist, but set in 17th century Austria. And all of this led the authorities to a deadly conclusion. If Barbara, a sorceress, had taught her son to steal, she had probably taught him witchcraft, too. And if the rumors about Jacob's young acolytes were also true, then it was safe to assume that he wasn't only training a gang of thieves. He was building an army of child witches.

And with that, the hunt began. Jacob, or Jackal, as he was called, was on the run with a price on his head. And meanwhile, authorities began arresting his supposed child prodigies to squeeze them for info. At first, only one child, a 12-year-old. homeless boy named Dionys Feldner, claimed to work for the Jackal. Then a second boy named Matthias, who affirmed that, yes, Jackal was indeed a sorcerer, and yes, he'd been teaching them the dark arts. From there, the authorities began sweeping more and more children off the streets, and the more boys they interrogated, the wilder the rumors became. These kids claimed that

Jackal could become invisible, a useful skill for a thief, if I do say so myself. But that's not all. He could also shape-shift into a wolf, transform chunks of wood into mice, and even bring on great calamities like wildfires and storms. He could ruin harvests and cause animals to miscarry, and on top of all of that, some insisted the wizard jackal would lead evil initiation rituals to bring more and more street kids into the fold. It was even worse than the archbishops had feared. Jacob Kohler had officially transformed into something far more dangerous than a mere beggar

thief. He had become Jackal the sorcerer, not just a man, but a legend, a legend who, for what it's worth, still had not been found. Between the years 1677 and 1690, Salzburg authorities arrested countless tiny witches off the streets, and by tiny witches, I mean homeless and impoverished young people, primarily boys between the ages of 15 and 25. Imagine how horrible that must have felt, being vulnerable and just trying to get by, but haunted by the reality that at any moment, you could be kidnapped off the street with no hope for justice or freedom. No one should have to live like that. And still, one by one, the young beggars were tried for witchcraft, and one by one, they admitted to performing black magic. Never mind the fact that

like Barbara before them, these children's confessions were made under duress of torture. None of that mattered to the prosecution. By the time the smoke had cleared, between one and two hundred children had been executed. The youngest was only 10 years old. And as for the wizard Jackal himself, he was never found. The Salzburg witch trials have gone down in history as the most horrendous massacre of accused witches in Salzburg's entire history. But the truth is, this isn't a story about witches. Not really. If you strip away the big fish stories and the rumors, the shapeshifting, and the invisibility spells, what you're left with is this, a moneyed class waging a bloody campaign

against those they deem undesirable. In short, the Archbishop was sick of seeing poor people and beggar children on his public streets, and so with a noose woven of superstition and fear, he killed them. Through torture and brainwashing, officials were able to force testimonies out of these kids to back up their obscene claims, whether those testimonies were true or not. The courts needed a larger-than-life villain, and so they made sure the children they interrogated, created one in the form of the wizard Jackal and his merry band of prodigies. But you know, there might be another layer to all of this, because some scholars believe that the children didn't only speak of jackal in the interrogation room, but secretly among themselves as well. And it makes me wonder,

perhaps the children needed the wizard jackal just as much as the courts did, not as a scapegoat, mind you, but as a hero. Think about it. Here we have a group of completely powerless children. Already they are hungry and sick, pushed to the furthest margins of society and abandoned by the powers that be, and now they're being locked away, terrified and alone in some awful city prison. What these kids needed was something to believe in. And what could be a more empowering figure than a beggar boy just like them lofted to the status of folk hero? To the authorities, the wizard Jackal was a monster in need of vanquishing. But for the street kids of Salzburg, Jackal represented a more powerful version of themselves. He had magic. He was wily and impossible to catch. He was

more than just a street kid. He was a sorcerer. But most vitally, he possessed the one thing that these children longed for the most as they sat there in the dark, silent hollows of the torture chamber. The Wizard Jackal was never alone. While today's subject may have been sweet-faced, barefoot, and barely tall enough to reach the altar, to their neighbors, they were hard. of storms, sickness, and sin. But what happens when a child accused of witchcraft

fully and entirely believes in their own dark powers? Well, I have one more story for you that answers that question. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. This is an ad for better help. These days, it feels like there's advice for everything. Cold plunges, gratitude journals, screen detoxes, you name it. But how do you know what actually works for you? With the internet and information overload about mental health and wellness, it can be a struggle

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amount. This is money you can use to pay off your monthly charges. Out of network ATM withdrawal and OTC advance fees may apply. Late payment may negatively impact your credit score. Results may vary. Go to chime. Go to time.com slash disclosures for details. in history. And you can see it, can't you? That ubiquitous image of a celebrity with a white-stained upper lip, the classic two-word slogan in blocky lowercase letters beneath, over its two-decade run, everyone from Britney Spears and Hulk Hogan to Kermit the Frog sported that famous milk mustache. But here's the thing. There were other ads that were part of the Got Milk campaign as well, including one that the California governor desperately

tried to prevent from airing. To quote the summary from Wikipedia, The ad featured two children who refused to drink milk because they believe milk is for babies. They tell their mother that their elderly next-door neighbor, Mr. Miller, never drinks milk. They see him going to use his wheelbarrow when suddenly his arms rip off because, having not consumed milk, his bones are weak and fragile. The children scream in horror and then frighteningly start imbibing every last drop of milk they have. And this isn't the only time that milk has gone hand in hand with horror. From Allison Williams' creepy milk-sipping character in Get Out to the drug-laced milk in a clockwork orange,

the childhood drink has been used as shorthand for tainted innocence for a very long time. And I mean a really long time. In fact, all the way back to the early 1620s, two little Norwegian girls claimed to drink milk that was downright demonic. The first girl's name was Ingeborg Iver's daughter, and her mother had just been burned at the stake for witchcraft, right there in their remote little fishing town of Varda, a spot that had been going through a bit of a witch-hunting fad as of late. Now, if the story of Jackal has taught us anything, it's that in the eyes of the state,

the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree when witches are concerned. And so, after an accusation from a local woman named Sigrid, Ingeborg and her sister were tried as witches themselves. Now, I'm relieved to say that no torture was used in the interview process this time. But honestly, that only makes what Ingeborg said, even weirder, because the stuff she claimed, well, let's just say it's not what you'd expect someone to willingly admit. Ingeborg said that her mother had indeed taught them witchcraft, but not using any method that you might assume. No, the little girl insisted that her mom had

taken her out to the sheepshed where she had fed her a bowl of milk. As Ingeborg drank, she noticed some icky black stuff in the bottom of the bowl, and so she refused to drink the rest, pouring it onto the floor. But it was too late. She had already swallowed enough. Her stomach began to ache, and that's when her mother called for the evil one. This evil one arrived in the shape of a black dog, and he dragged Ingeborg into a field with his teeth. She cried, and her arm bled where he bit her, but there was nothing she could do. Days later, he returned, dragging her into the snow this time and tearing off her clothes, and then days after that, in the shape of a cat. A cat that

spunky little Ingeborg kicked and told to scramm, which he apparently did. A month later, Ingeborg's eight-year-old sister, Karen, corroborated this story, and a couple of months after that, another little girl went to trial, with a strikingly similar testimony. Karen, number two, also claimed that her mother had given her satanic milk to drink, and that an evil black dog had sauntered in, promised her good fortune and magical powers. For a price, of course, all she had to do was forsake God and serve him instead. Apparently, to Karen, this sounded like a very literal hell of a deal, and she agreed.

Excited to test out these shiny new superpowers, Karen told the courts that she went outside, approached one of her mother's sheep, and then, invoking the devil's name, gleefully made it explode. But it didn't end there. A fourth child was also tried, a girl named Marin.

And don't worry, Maron wasn't guzzling any cursed milk. No, Marin had learned witchcraft by drinking demonic beer, beer that, like Ingeborg's milk, had some suspicious black gunk at the bottom. Now, Marin was no idiot. When the black dog showed up at her place and offered her a deal, she said no. After all, Marin argued, dogs don't speak, so it all seemed a little suss to her, as the kids

say. Still, the devil swooped her up and carried her off to a boiling lake full of boiling people, and then to prove, well, I'm not actually sure what to prove, the devil dipped a raw ham into the lake and brought it out cooked. Oh, and I may have spoken a bit too soon about Marin avoiding the evil milk, because apparently her testimony also included a story in which she milked a cow in the devil's name, squeezing out so much milk and blood that the poor cow died. Now, luckily, this story does have a happy ending. Somehow, all four of the children were acquitted and freed, but one still has to ask, what the heck was going on here? We now know from historical context that Norway was experiencing a lot of crop failure at the time, so it makes

sense that the authorities would have been desperate to lay the blame on someone, specifically on women and children who were easy and vulnerable scapegoats. So this explains why trials were happening in the first place. But the evil milk thing, well, that's a whole other level, right? But a clue might lie with that black residue in the bottom of the girls' bowls. Because according to some scholars, that description sounds a whole lot like the black, grain-like appearance of ergot, a fungus that has a nasty habit of contaminating wheat, flour, and milk, and can cause vivid hallucinations in those who ingest it.

In other words, it's possible these kids did actually drink cursed milk, just not in the way that they thought. This episode of lore was produced by me, Aaron Manky, with writing by Jenna Rose Nethercott, research by Jamie Vargas, and music by Chad Lawson. Don't like hearing the ads, I am with you, my friend. but I've got a solution for you. There is a paid version of lore on Apple Podcasts and Patreon that is 100% ad-free.

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