Morbid - Episode 503: The Torsåker Witch Trials

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

When it comes to the horrors of witch hunts and trials around the world, Sweden is not often cited as one of the more aggressive or egregious nations. Nevertheless, the Torsåker Witch Trials remain a shocking example of religious hysteria due to the way in which they unfolded, which included local leaders defying the Swedish Crown and taking it upon themselves to identify, try, and execute supposed witches without proper authority. Moreover, while the Torsåker case may have unfolded like most others across Europe, it remains an outlier in that those responsible for starting the hysteria weren’t just held accountable for their false accusations but were in fact murdered.Thank you to the lovely David White, of Bring Me the Axe podcast, for research assistance :)ReferencesGershon, Livia. 2022. "The Easter Witches of Sweden." JSTOR Daily, April 15.Hogman, Hans. n.d. Torsåker Witch Trials of 1674 - 1675. Accessed September 16, 2023. https://www.hhogman.se/witch-trials-sweden.htm.Jordan, Charlene Hanson. 2012. Whispers in the Church: Swedish Witch Hunt, 1672. Des Moines, IA: Abbott Press.Tiderman-Österberg, Jennie. 2021. "The Swedish Witch Trials: How to Confront Dark Heritage." Smithsonian Magazine, October 25.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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where you can listen to even the royals exclusively and add free right now. Hey, Weirdos, I'm Ash. I'm Elena. And this is morbid. little silly goofy just a little that it's October everyone obviously it's October it is October and I'm very excited about that because you know October is the best Berther is yeah I didn't have a comeback for that I like my brain just was like she and the thing was ash looked up like she was gonna say something and then just Just froze. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you know, but either way It's unavoidable to talk about October is great. I fucking love October leaves are changing. We're in New England

So we get the best of it. Manning Manning Boo Boo She said fuck y'all. I was gonna say sail offare. Oh, the Salem Nightfare. Fucking spooky movies. There you go. There's gonna be a fucking Saul Prequel. There's a Hell House LLC Prequel. The new Monster High Movie premieres this weekend. Very excited about that.

Weird that I like that because I only like it because my niece showed it to me. We're gonna have a movie night for it. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Just spooky shit. The saw movie, the new saw movie, my girl Sydney at horror chronicles. I've shouted her out her TikTok before.

Yeah, on here, she's awesome. I trust her implicitly with horror movie recommendations and reviews. I've actually seen it. If she tells me something isn't good, I'm like recommendations and reviews. I actually see it. If she tells me something isn't good, I'm like, fuck it. I'm not going to try that. Like I just, I'm like, I get, she gets it. She said that the new saw is her favorite horror movie

of the entire year. Wow. And she was like barely able to even contain how much she loved it. She said it was phenomenal. I want to see movies early. I want to have that privilege. I know.

I like that. I like that too. I really want to see it though. Remember one day when we just watched all the saw movies and John came home and was like, what are you guys doing? It was before I had kids. Yeah, and I had like no, I think I was still a teenager

so I had like no responsibilities. And we watched, however many were out at that time, we watched them back to back. Yeah, I think it took us two days actually. I think I ended up coming back like a week later. And John was like, are you guys doing this again? Like what is happening? You guys are right.

Those were the days. See you later. Sitting down and watching a movie. But yeah, so you know, lots of fun stuff happening. It's a great month. Hey, hey, hey, I'm what's happening. I hope you're having a great month. I hope everybody kills it this month.

So I think we should just get into our next spooky really kind of off-putting story. Oh great, because we're gonna talk about the Torshiker Witch Trials. Torshiker, Torshiker. Torshiker, which trials? Torshiker, Torshiker. They're Swedish, which was a journey in the pronunciation department, but yeah. Here's a thing to our Swedish listeners,

and to bias forage if you're listening, that includes you. Oh, but of course. I meticulously went through and I tried my damnedest on each of these pronunciations. Can confirm. Yep, I said them out loud several times. I listened to several versions of the pronunciation. With no warning.

Yeah, I really did my due diligence here. I tried. I know I'm not going to kill it because I myself am not Swedish. I don't know, I thought did. I did my due diligence here. I tried. I know I'm not gonna kill it because I myself am not Swedish. I don't know, I thought you sounded great. Thank you. I appreciate that. But to my Swedish listeners

and anyone who loves a Swedish listener, I'm trying so hard and I hope I do you proud. Yeah, Alina randomly just started listening to pronunciations and practicing them while I was working on my case. So I was typing and then all of a sudden it was like, I'm not gonna try,

because that will be a little bad. But I was like, what's happening? Like, what are you calling me? I was literally, I was like, excuse me. I was like, don't worry. That's fighting words. But yeah, this one's gonna be interesting. It's one that I didn't know about until recently.

We have a very, like, obviously, everybody thinks of the Salem Witch Trials. Yeah. Which, again, wild in the US, not a scarier or more cited example of mass hysteria and scapegoating than the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 to 1693. But even though they were super, they're obviously very significant, very horrifying. They were kind of small in scale when compared to the centuries-long witch hunts and trials that occurred across Europe.

Because we've mentioned that before with some of the ones that you've like dived into. Dived into. Dived into. Dived, dove. Dove into. Dove into. Oh no. Dived. Sorry. I became Swedish for this, so I don't know how to do this. No, I think I can't help you. Like I dove right into that. Sounds good to me. Either way, the trials in the trials in which had that happened in Europe over the 16th and 17th centuries are the scale is massive. It's uncomfortable to be incomprehensible. I'm Swedish. I'm sorry.

I forgot how to speak English. I was like, I forgot. We just forgot English. I'm tired early. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you.

I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. But either way, while countries with high rates of accusations and executions, like Germany and England, tend to kind of be the thing that people focus on when they think about Western

interest in witch hunts, they were definitely not the only European countries where supposed and alleged witches were pursued with much vigor, evidently. In the Swedish parish of Torshorker, I believe that's how you say it. For example, years of hysteria over witchcraft and black magic led to a massive trial known as the Torshorker Witch Trials in 1674 and 1675. So before the Salem Witch Trials. This is where a truly unbelievable amount of people were executed in one single day. Oh, in one day. One day. Damn. And we'll get to it. So let's talk about fear of witchcraft in Europe at the time, because it really is a wild thing to peek through. Fear of witchcraft is lame. So throughout the early modern period of 1350 to 1500. So this is way back. I like that it said early modern period of 13.

Europeans understanding of witchcraft and sorcery was a little different to what it would become in the centuries that came after. Yes. Witchcraft was considered a crime and could result in the death penalty. But accusations of sorcery were seldom taken literally. And executions of supposed witches were very uncommon. This is not to suggest that Swedish people or Europeans for that matter didn't take the subject seriously, but they just kind of adhered to the Catholic Church's position. And the Catholic Church's position at the time was that belief in or practice of witchcraft or black magic was the product of devil-induced delusions and was considered heresy.

Oh! So, the biggest change to how Europeans understood witchcraft came around 1486. And that was with the publication of a truly wild book called the Malius Molificaram, a hammer of witches. It was written by famed Dominican demonologist and witch hunter Heinrich Kramer. Now this book took a much stronger position than that of the church. They basically said that sorcery

in which craftwari direct result of satanic influence. So the church is saying it's heresy. We can't believe it much. But he's saying, oh no, no, no, Satan himself has induced you to do this. And so this person, this Heinrich here, Kramer, was saying that it presented a very real threat to God-fearing people everywhere. And in response to that threat, Kramer advocated that the use of like mind-bending torture, physical, psychological, emotional torture, was the only means of getting any suspected witch to confess to their heresy, and death was the only way to eradicate witchcraft in Europe. Oh, fuck.

You could not cure the person of witchcraft or the black magic that they have dabbled in. You have to kill them. That's it. It seems a bit much. Now when it was first written, Malleus there was received actually very poorly by the church.

They did not like it. They labeled it zealotry. They said, this guy's like over the top. Wow. Like we're looking at it as pretty black and white here. He's like, he's going wild. It's really intense. And they vehemently contested Kramer's interpretation of religious texts, which in the book Mallys, Maleficaram, he uses a lot of different, like, you know, he looks at the Bible, he looks at religious texts, and he interprets them his own way. And talks about it like it's fact. So although the Catholic doctrine stated that witchcraft and sorcery

were a kind of mental illness that was influenced by the devil, those who fell under Satan's influence according to the church could be saved. So you didn't have to die like you could be saved. Okay. So you didn't have to die like you, you could be saved. Damn. Cramer's assertion, though, was that a person was a witch and remained a witch once he or she had been accused. Okay.

So that's to say that unlike the church, Cramer insisted a person could not be saved from Satan's influence. The only way to solve the problem killed a witch at the end. Well, that makes sense that he believes that because Malleus, Maleficarum translates into the hammer of witches. Yeah, that's what, that's what, um, exactly. That's insane. Yeah.

The hammer of witches. Oh my God. Now, in modern analysis of Malleus, Maleficarum, many writers and historians have noted a ton. I mean, it's a staggering amount of misogyny in profound sexism influenced in this text. That's right. Kramer was so misogynistic and sexy. It's unbelievable when you reach back. And don't you worry, I'm gonna give you

a few little things from the text because I read the whole thing. You read the whole thing. I read the whole thing. You read the whole hammer of witches. I read the whole hammer of witches. I have it in my library right now. I have a witch. You spent $16 on that?

Research, my friend. It's just a joke. So I think it's funny that his book sells for $16. Now what a douche. There you go. But according to Kramer, women were far more likely to be witches than men because, quote, their flesh is lacherous and their mind's feeble.

What a cunt. So basically, they're like, they're, they're lustful and stupid. My skin is lacherous and my mind is dumb. Yep. Cool. It's fall. And sometimes it's super tough to fit working out into your fall schedule because it's all back to it. It's back to school.

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when you sign up for fast protect monitoring. Visit simplysafe.com slash morbid. That's simplysafe.com slash morbid. There's no safe, like simply safe. Cramer was actually obsessed with the purity of women and that they should be pure, but he also believed them to be inherently evil and vastly inferior to men. Isn't it strange how like he technically is probably a serial killer because like his work probably led to the death of so many women? Yeah, that's pretty cool.

And then he shares that in common with serial killers like that pathology of being like women are dirty and we must save ourselves. Up to the purity of women, but things that inherently evil and very inferior to men. But like that's very much a modern day serial killers view you're right. Oh yeah. Women. It's wild. It's interesting how those two things like really correlate.

But he said because they're so evil inherently and so stupid that we were more susceptible to evil influence and far more likely to engage in witchcraft and sorcery because of that. This guy's so rude. So his hatred of women can also be found, not explicitly stated, but in the section of the text devoted to interrogation and punishment, because many of the suggested techniques of torture

that you should use to get a confession from a witch so that you can then burn her at the stake involved a lot of exposing and destruction of women's bodies in particular, and a lot of sexual humiliations. I was just going to say, like humiliation. He's gross. This guy's fucked.

Well, Malia's Maleficarum may not have been endorsed by the Catholic Church, it definitely spoke directly to the fears and anxieties felt by ordinary people across Europe, who were emerging from the late Middle Ages into a pretty unfamiliar era at that time. So thanks to the invention of the printing press just 40 years earlier, his text was able to be reproduced and distributed. And for a time, it was second only to the Bible as the most popular book in Europe. Okay, Lady Whistle, down, down. Yep. So the results of this popularity was that the public, so those outside of the church, developed extreme and very dangerous and outlandish beliefs about witches that would shape centuries of witchcraft to come.

And so this is a very powerful book. Did anybody even know who this man was before he wrote this? He just came right on the scene and was like, just like listening to the women in witches. Let's go. I love that everybody fell at their feet. Yeah. So would you like to hear a few things from this book? No, but I know that it's necessary. So there's a section that is titled, what sort of women are found to be above all other superstitious and witches? Me.

Don't you want to know? The answer is any woman who is unfaithful, which remember, that could be like she opened her eyes after blinking and a man happened to be in the room. But the next is that she's ambitious. Wait, unfaithful was like looking at another man even? Well, back then, you could be considered adulterous by just like showing an ankle. Like, that's so wild. Like, there was very, the borders there were big. But the next was an ambitious woman.

Oh, ear fucked. Oops. And the last is if they are lustful. Lame. So she breathes near any other men. She has ambitions and she fucks. That's like essentially which, which, which. What's his name?

It literally, Heinrich Kramer. Heinrich, we're here for a good time, not a long time. It literally says in the book, quote, it follows that those among ambitious women are more deeply infected who are more hot to satisfy their filthy lust. And such are altarses, fornicatresses, and the concubines of the great.

The concubines of the great? I've never been more flattered. There is also a section called that witches deserve the heaviest punishment above all the criminals in the world. Basically, they want to confiscate all the witches' things and then decapitate her. That's what they think the punishment should be.

Oh, my gosh. Take all her shame and then decapitate her. That's what they think the punishment should be. Oh my gosh. Take all her shit and then decapitate her. And worse than any other criminal murderer, child rapist, everything. Like the worst, the worst. It was said that witches couldn't cry. That was the belief. But I cry all the time. So interrogators were encouraged to do any manner of fucked up things to force the accused to cry. So then what if they cry?

Basically, do the worst you can imagine to get them to cry because if they don't, then they're which. But then they're in shock. I was just going to say that shock can happen. Or other reasons why someone wouldn't cry under severe torture because human beings do have different ways of expressing emotion. Well, in a lot of times, like you just had to forget shock, but people disassociated.

Yeah. Like, there's so many different reasons why you wouldn't cry during something so crazy. Now, lawfully, they were told that when they go to a witch's home to an alleged witch to pick her up after she's been accused, they were told to physically pick up an accused witch at their home and put her on a plank or in a basket to carry her out of the home. Without allowing her feet to touch the ground.

If she was allowed to touch the ground, she would be given powers by the devil through her feet, I guess. Oh, because hell. Which these dudes had, this dude had weird ginks, I think. And if they kept her from touching the ground, then she would have to confess because she would lose her powers. And they said in this book that a lot of time before being burned alive, which is would ask to just touch the ground one last time.

And that wasn't because they were about to die a horrifically painful and senseless death, but they said it's because they wanted their powers to kill everyone with lightning. No, everything I just said isn't that lightning. No, I don't think so. Everything I just said is in that book. I think they just missed the earth and they were like, let me hit her up one more time. I think they were like, I'm about to be burned alive. Can I just touch the grass?

What the fuck? And they were like, no, you want to kill everyone with lightning with your feet. And that's a lot. That's really what they thought. That's really what they said. What they said. I can't even argue that.

Like it would be hilarious if this wasn't real and if they didn't use it. Exactly. Like when you think about the words themselves, you're like, that's fucking hilarious and then you think the power behind those words and you're like, oh, fuck, people took this as true. Like, whoa.

I just can't believe that they literally like went around and took them out of their homes via basket. In front of their kids, everything's so sad. There was a belief that the devil gave witches powers to deal with torture without crying or confessing the truth. So again, if she stayed quiet, shock, or doesn't confess, then she is being helped by the devil. I'm also like, why are you making the devil sound humane

right now? Well, and then if she confesses though, it's because God has compelled via a holy angel to force the devil to desert her. So either way, she's a witch. Just one side says that the devil is still helping her and the second one says that apparently the devil deserted her. Well, like the other way, she was helped.

You guys are rooting for the wrong guy because if the devil is helping her, that's fantastico. And then if God is making her confess that she's a witch, she's gonna die anyway. Well, and why are you not really rooting for your guy here? Why would God compel a holy angel to force the devil to desert her? I don't know. I mean, to make her shopping a little bit worse.

Because you're gonna kill her anyway. That's, but that's exactly it. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like, that, to make a shopping a killer anyway. That's exactly it. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like, that doesn't make sense. Yeah. When they were taken, according to this book, they are to be stripped

completely. And that is to look for obviously witch marks. Like, that's a thing we hear from Salem and Charles yet. We are also to look for the limbs of unbaptized children hidden in their clothes.

Oh, I wish I was making that stuff. That's the thing because I wish for the limbs of unbaptized children hidden in their clothes. I wish I was making this up. That's the thing because I wish I was making this up. Because your first reaction is to like chuckle up. Because it's absurd. Because it's absolutely absurd. But then you're like, holy fuck, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, men were stripping the clothes off of women

they believed to be cohorting with the devil and looking for the limbs of babies. Yep. That's a wild sentence. And that's true. It puts you on such a rollercoaster of emotions because you're initial, like you said, your first thing is like, that's fucking ridiculous. I'm laughing at that.

And then you're like, no, I can't laugh at that. That's not funny. Like when you, your mind bends the other way and it's like, oh no, this isn't real. That's real. That's real. Like this is a real book that was second to the Bible. And it's just by this random man. Like it's not like the fucking punk wrote this. Like who the fuck is Heinrich?

That's it. Even if the Pope wrote the what the fuck? Like even if he did, but do you see what I'm saying? Like he's just some random fucking dude. Yeah. Just Heinrich. Well clearly has a lot of. Well, I'd like to know about his mother. He's a demonologist in witch hunter.

Like he was a known demonologist in witch hunter, so he wasn't like just some guy that came out of the woodwork. But still, that's ridiculous. I also really want to know about his mother. I also want to know that. I have so many questions. Well, if they found anything that they believe to be a witch's mark or they found any instrument of witchcraft during the stripping.

He literally wrote that they would gather up some quote, honest men zealous for the face. And they were instructed to bind her with cords and place her on some engine of torture. No. And no shit, they were to be instructed to make themselves the torturers put a look of diss, to look disturbed while torturing her. Why do you need to be told that? They were told not to smile or appear joyful, even if they might be. They said, you have to try to look disturbed as you torture this woman.

Wow. These, this just, I'm speechless. The accused lawfully could be told by a judge that if she confessed her life would be spared, even though they had no intention of doing that, they would either just do that and then kill her or do that and promise her imprisonment, but then later burn her unexpectedly,

take her out of her cell and just burn her, or the judge could promise her her life, and then at the last second go, oops, a new judge is stepping in to take my place, and the new judge would say, you're gonna die. This is just like psychological, physical, emotional torture.

It says the accused should be frequently exposed to torture, beginning with, quote, the more gentle of them, and a notary is to be present for the torture and write down how she was tortured and her answers to each level of torture. Oh my God. Then if she confesses under torture, they bring her directly to another room

and ask her again so that she doesn't quote, confess only under the great stress of torture. Oh my God. If she doesn't confess after torture, then other, quote, engines of torture should be brought in by the judge, and she will be told that you will have to endure those if she does not confess.

It says, quote, if then she is not induced by terror to confess, the torture must be continued on the second and third day, but not repeated at the present time, unless there should be some fresh indication of its probable success. One of the sections of the book is titled, and I shit you not with this title.

This is the title of the section. No, no, no. Of the continuing of the torture and of the devices and signs by which the judge can recognize a witch and how he ought to protect himself from their spells. Also, how they are to be shaved in those parts where they use to conceal their devil's masks and tokens, together with the due setting forth of various means of overcoming their obstinacy, in keeping silent and refusal to confess, and in his 10th action.

That's the title of the chapter. Consize. Wow. And he said they need to be shaved in parts where they hide their devil's mask. Yep. This guy is fucked on every level. I'm also like, did you have an editor, my guy? That was like, I feel like he should clean that one up.

Cause that's the one. I feel like we can get to the point of that one a little quicker. I think that probably took a full 45 seconds for you to say. Now, yeah, that's a dynamic ad. Now, rule of thumb for judges. Don't use the same old torture. Be creative. In the words of the book, quote,

if the sons of darkness were to become accustomed to one general rule, they would provide means of evading it as well as well known snare set for their destruction. As an example, quote, is he wishes to find out whether she is endowed with a witch's power of preserving silence, let him take note whether she is able to shed tears when standing in his presence or when being tortured.

If she be a witch, she will not be able to weep, although she will assume tearful aspect and smear her cheeks and eyes with spittle to make it appear she is weeping. So even if you do cry, they're just going to go, you're faking. So you either don't cry and you're with the devil or you cry and they go, that's fake. You just can't win. You wipe your eyes with spit. You cannot let the accused see the judge before he sees her

because this is a method of bewitching him. Oh, okay. In fact, he says what you should do is bring the accused into the trial backwards all the time. Oh, and the judge should always wear salt around his neck, consecrated salt, that's holy, obviously. Oh, and also they should strap holy relics

and shit to their naked bodies, but it's the witches that are weird, for sure. What the fuck? Right, like the witches are the ones that are odd in the strange and fucked up. And like you think about the women just being subjected to all of this. Yeah, like the confusion and they're just like,

what the, like the pure just fuckery of this all. Like we said before, every part of the accused is to be shaved because witches hold witchy shit in their hair. Oh, and just like how to mean it. Or quote, in the most secret part of their bodies, which must not be named. Oh my God. So they would shave their heads as well. Everything.

Yeah. Oh my God. So they would shave their heads as well. Everything, yeah. Oh my God. He has another suggestion. Make sure you torture your witches on a Friday, if you can. That's when everyone else is gathered together at Holy Mass to await their savior. So usually a confession can be tortured out of the accused, then, you know, when no one else is around. Yeah, that tricks.

Yeah. If she endures. If she endures. Seriously disturbing. Yeah. If she endures all torture, you can come up with while drinking brusquies at a local tavern. Then the judge is allowed to bring her somewhere else, where she will be fed and given drink

and treated okay for a minute. Then the judge comes in and speaks nicely to her, telling her to confess to him in confidence, and he will promise under God to be merciful. Sounds like a lie, right? Yes, it's her. So, sorry, what we just read. So, it is. So, I think a lot of us said, well, wait, isn't God not into lying, sacks of shit?

Isn't that like kind of the whole, that's supposed to be the whole deal? Like lying is bad, that's not why I think is one of the things. Well, don't worry, because these people knew how to do some serious mental gymnastics to make all this holy stuff work. According to the book, he can lie like this to the witch, because quote, with the mental reservation that he means he will be merciful to himself or the state, for whatever is done for the safety of the state is merciful. So he's not lying when he tells her he'll be merciful. He's not saying I'll be merciful to you. He's saying I'll be merciful. And that means for myself or the state. Wow. They would subject a wish, a witch to pergation, I believe is how you say it.

What is that? That is forcibly inducing bowel movements for cleansing purposes. So they would give her some kind of laxative to completely clear her out. Why? Cleansing. What? And the last thing is there was a trial by Red Hot Iron. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, than your innocence. So let's give it to Heinrich and see if he gets burned. What?

Like, what? So is there just a few of the things I picked out of there as I was reading to be like, wow, this is nuts. If you get burned, you're guilty. If you get burned, you're a fucking human, bro. It's like how they used to do the drowning thing where if you sunk when they dunk you, then you were innocent, but you were dead, you drowned. And if you've floated, then you were guilty.

And we talk about witch prickers, which we'll get to, and they also fucked with those, too. Witch prickers, I love sex. So while the Malleus Maleficarum may have proven profoundly influential when it came to kind of getting the idea in European's minds of what a witch is, it wouldn't have been over what they wanted you to think a witch is. It wouldn't have been of what they wanted you to think a witch is. It wouldn't have been anywhere near as influential, had it not been for the Protestant Reformation in 1517.

The Reformation was one of the most significant events in the history of Western civilization, and it broke apart the Catholic Church. It established a number of religious reform movements that basically created new denominations, like Calvinism and Protestantism. Yep. These denominations posed a direct threat

to the consolidated power of the Catholic Church, who labeled the Reformers' Heretics and idolaters. The Reformation contributed to the social upheaval of early 16th century Europe and led to religious wars across Europe. I'm sure a lot of people know about this. I remember that. Large destabilizing effect on the people of Europe.

Sweden was a very religious nation. So the Church of Sweden largely rejected the ideas of reformation at the time. They lumped the movement in with supposed, you know, heretics, their beliefs, and you know, they're basically like pagan ancestry kind of stuff. In 1555, Swedish Catholic Archbishop Magnus Gothus, which is a pretty cool name. That's a dope name.

I'm willing to bet he was a witch. He addressed witchcraft directly and is Opus, I think it's Vitae. Vitae? Vitae, I think it is Opus Vitae. History of the Northern peoples, in which quote, he demonizes pagan beliefs as well as Lutheran beliefs, conquering Sweden. Gothus followed Kramer's lead by interpreting

which craft not as a metaphor or some kind of vague threat, but as a real and actual danger in the lives of Swedish people. For example, among a lot of the many claims in the history of the Northern peoples was that blockula, a supposed gathering place for which is on the sabbath in Swedish folklore, wasn't folklore at all, but was in fact a real place and thing where witches flew to perform a sab a Sabbath and could board with the devil. I think I mentioned before probably somewhere that my little life partner there, Drusefer,

is like an inferno at night. He is so, I mean, he's so hot anyways, but like he is burning up at night. He is so, I mean, he's so hot anyways, but like he is burning up at night. And then I usually am like, oh, do I move on into the couch? What do I do? But not anymore, because now we have Buffy. Buffy has the earth's softest bedding.

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I feel like this sometimes because I will go into my week and I'll be like, I'm gonna work out four days this week. It's gonna be amazing. I'm gonna get eight hours of sleep every night and I'm gonna meal prep. I know those are things that are good for me. I know what I should do. I know what's good for me, but then I just park it on the couch and I just scroll on my phone all the live long day. I think I need some more therapy because therapy helps you figure out what's

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and you can switch therapists any time for no additional charge. Make your brain your friend with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash morbid today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.help.com slash morbid. Now I looked up what Blocula is. It is an island. It's an actual island in the Kalmar St. and it's referred now to, now by its name,

Bloi Youngfren, which means the Blue Maiden. Oh, that's cool. It's known as a gathering place for, you can go and visit it like a tourist can go see it now. But it was known in folklore as a gathering place for witches for hundreds of years. And there's something called the Trojibor Glabrins on this island.

And if you look it up, it's cool. It's a series of stones in the form of a maze, like a labyrinth. And it's said to be created by witches over hundreds of years of rituals. Well, that's cool. And it's like a labyrinth that like bends in on itself, like snakes back and known itself.

Tell me what it's called again. The Trojabor Glabrins, T-R-O-G-J-A-B-O-R-G. Most people believe it's from pagan times and probably was created during fertility rituals and stuff like that. Like, you know, earth rituals, like very cool shit. This is really beautiful. It's a national park now and if you're visiting just like you know, it is very much advised not to take any rocks from that Trujabourg Labyrinth. I love that.

But people are stupid and apparently get a shit-ten-a-bad look if they do tempt fate and they end up coming back to return them. Don't mess with Shiloh. So don't take Shiloh from that stuff. As a text, Gotha's history of the Northern peoples was not really intended just to address witchcraft or sorcery directly. It's just kind of one's short passage in that text. It's about a lot of other things. But along with the larger issues of heresy there in the book, it did have a big

influence on the subsequent books that dealt with directly with witchcraft. in Laurentias, Polinus, Gothus' Ethicay, Christianity, and Erika Johannes preets his magiga in contracts. For example, both authors echo the sentiment and ideas of history of the Northern peoples by talking about witchcraft as a very real and present threat. In fact, in the, I think it's magia and contracts. I'm pretty sure that's how you say it.

It draws heavily on Kramer and Gothus' ideas and it identifies Maleficarum, idolatry, and devil worship as types of heresy, and that all of those should be punished by death, and that's it. Great. And they, all, he also echoes Kramer's belief that women were far more likely to be seduced in the sorcery. Maleficarum, by the way, I think you mentioned that it all together, loosely translates

Malice Maleficarum to Hammer of Witches. Yeah. Maleficium is loosely defined as an act of witchcraft performed with the intention of causing damage or injury the resultant harm. Okay. So they would say that Maleficium was something that witches did.

Now, it's also worth noting that although Christianity had firmly taken root across Europe by the 17th century and completely replaced older belief systems that had been labeled pagan heresy at that time. That doesn't mean the old ways had been forgotten entirely. Pre-Christian beliefs and magic and, you know, a magical realm and, you know, fey all that stuff, they had just kind of transformed from the real world belief of that into kind of

folklore that was viewed through the now Christian lens as like malevolent and menacing. Okay. So it turned. Yeah. It turned from being this magical thing that people actually believe is real and to like, no, this means bad stuff. Now although this is incredibly complicated, obviously, one of the most obvious forms of

this transformation can be seen in the folktales that had women who were once benevolent, like healers, and respected and midwives. And just all those kind of women now they were twisted by the church and presented as figures that were more similar to Kramer's view of women as quote, treacherous and lacherous female entities who dwell in the forest. So now they're forest witches and they're like, hags, you know. So it's like, y'all need us to continue the world. So it's true, maybe don't fuck us all over. Again, these examples in themselves

are not all that useful in the daily lives of 17th century Swedish people, but when they're combined, they help form an idea of which is as not only physical, spiritual, and psychological threats, but one that is female, always female. It's really hammering that idea in. So by the mid-17th century, the Catholic Church, which again had once very much rejected Kramer's position on witchcraft and sorcery. Yeah, because you said that in the beginning.

Called an extreme zealotry. Right. Suddenly, they'd begun to embrace the deep misogyny and wild hysteria presented in the Malia-smilific arm. And that was because it was after the Reformation. And they needed to get back that power. And they were also starting to get into the other texts that we mentioned, above like Gothus and, you know, Preetz's texts.

To be clear, the church had again for centuries pursued heretics with vigor, obviously. And they'd use such people as scapegoods. That was a thing. But by embracing this new propaganda of Kramer and others like him, they hope to position themselves as the one true faith among the growing number of competing religions that were happening because of the reformation. I know, good for a new Protestants.

Like, good for a new Protestants. So good for you to do that is just kill everyone. Yeah, I don't think it really, it's not a great way to go. Now, for a period of roughly three centuries, beginning with the publication of the Malayas, Moifakarim, and ending in about 1750, witch hunts and trials across Europe led to the state sanctioned murders of approximately 100,000 people. Wow. Most of them women. As was the case here in colonial New England, the witch trials served to restore whatever power the church had lost to new belief systems, but it also gave everybody a new scapegoat

in the form of anyone who resisted or defied papal authority. Right. Now in Sweden, as in other countries, the whole idea of the heretic or witch was often projected on those who were kind of still connected to that pre-Christian culture. People who practice herbalism or non-Western traditions, like healers, like you said, like cunning women,

they were called. And according to Jenny Tiderman- Osterberg from the Swedish witch trials, had a confront dark heritage in Smithsonian magazine, they said, quote, ideas of cunning women and men who magically cared the sick through herbs and ointments were reinterpreted and given threatening meanings as a strategy for demonizing folk beliefs. Which is so sad that they took something so simple

and connected to the earth and very pure in the way and twisted it this way to make it evil. Yeah, and it was all really to help people not to hurt anybody. Exactly. And at that time, as far as the church at that time was concerned, only God and those who acted on his behalf. Because remember, at that time, they could choose who acted on his behalf. In doctors, had the ability to cure sickness. So anyone else who tried to do that, they considered flagrantly challenging the authority of the church. So you were a heretic and you were subject to punishment. So to get this straight, only God and doctors and a few priests that decided that they were a direct connected God, they were the only ones who were allowed to heal. That's

it. And if some woman said, Hey, I know how to heal this person. And I would love to make their life better by healing them with these things that I grew in my garden. Which? Then you're a piece of shit. We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to...

We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to...

We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... We're going to try to... Like that doesn't make sense. Instead of just saying why these people are helping the sick. Like, it's because they are not doing it. And then they don't want people to rely on women too much. Exactly.

It was a wild time. Now, we're going to talk about the great noise. Okay. In Sweden, the worst of the witch trials fell between 1668 and 1676, in a period known as the Great Noise. Wow. So not too far before, right before the Salem one. And in Swedish, it is debt stwo ovacendet. Mmm. I tried guys.

I tried guys. Debt stwo ovacendet. Okay. Look at me. Swedish listeners. Swedish listeners. Oh, I'm trying. I'm trying to do you proud. I try like it. Although not the only period of which trials in Sweden's history, it was the most intense and certainly had the highest body count. Is this the one that happened all in one day? Yeah, we're gonna get to it to worry, but many of whom were women who worked in the

fjabood, which was Scandinavian summer farms. Okay, I think it's fiyabud, or that one was tough. Fiyabud, I believe, I tried. Scandinavian summer farms, that's how you say it, farms. But much like the witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts, the great noise began with the thoughtless accusation of a child. One afternoon in 1668 in a rural area near Delarna

in Harjud, Dalyne, a young shepherd girl named Gertrude's fenced daughter and her friend, Matt's Nielsen, were tending to a herd and they got in some kind of argument. They were young. Gertrude was like 12, so they were kids. So they were like too focused on their own little squabble, and they didn't notice when some of the goats straight away from the herd wandered out into the sand bar in the dollar

river, and were like stuck out there. Oh, no. Now they were too frightened to go on the, or excuse me, the boy, Matt's, was too frightened to go out on the sand bar. So he refused to help. Okay. And Gertrude had to wrangle the goats on her own. She did it herself. Right. Later, when they returned to the village, Matt feared that he

was going to be made fun of, if anyone found out that he was too scared to go out there and recapture the goats. So he decided to undermine Gertrude by telling villagers that he watched her wrangle up the goats because she walked on water. Oh my God. And they all fucking believe it. So his shitty little ego couldn't handle just being like, I didn't want to go on the water and she went in. And we're all just going to take this 12 year old mother fuckers. Like so he sang this to villagers and pastor Lars L.

V.S. hears this. Yeah. And he called Gertrude to the church and began questioning her. Oh my God. And just church and began questioning her. Oh my God. It's just 12 and like questioning her. So like, who knows? I mean, what we've seen in the Malleus Maleficarum there. Who knows? They were going by it at this point. So under duress, Gertrude told the pastor that when she lived in Lilly Hardell, a maid by the name of Marette Jean's daughter from a neighboring farm took her and 12 other children

to blockula and made them participate in black mass. Oh my God. And we're going to take a 12 year old's word for it. A 12 year old indistress. Yeah, exactly. Jean's daughter, Gertrude said, had a birthmark on one of her left fingers that looked like the devil's mark, as it was described in the Malia smellificorum. There were also these assholes I mentioned it

before called witch prickers, by the way. And just speaking of a devil's mark, they would be brought in to stab the accused all over their body to see if there was a place where they didn't bleed. Fantastic. That was where they claimed that the Witches Mark was when the place that it didn't bleed. And sometimes these assholes would use a fake blade, like a retractable one, to make it look like they stabbed when they didn't, so that it wouldn't bleed and they go, oh, there it is. Just playing games.

Now, a firm believer in Satan's ability to seduce women into practicing the lack magic, Alvia, Sir Pastor here, put the 12-year-old Gertrude on trial for witchcraft, and she was found guilty in sentence to die. A 12-year-old, all because this little pussy-ass bitch wouldn't go to the sand bar. His little ego couldn't handle that.

He didn't, that a girl went out onto the sand bar, and he didn't lose her. Now, fortunately, before the execution could happen, the larger body of the church did intervene. That's good. And Gertrude and the 12 children she named as accomplices were spared the death penalty. And instead, just got flogged severely.

So they just, 13 kids just had the absolute shit kicked out of them. In public. Fuck. Because she was tortured into naming them. Yep. The maid, though, Marrette John's daughter was less fortunate. Based on these false accusations, which again, we're born out of Matt Nielsen's childish lies to save his own little ego.

The maid was arrested and executed for being a witch. Wow. And this is what kicked off the great noise. Okay. Now, the incident involving Gertrude's fenced-daughter, not only illustrates the way that Wichhant spread like fucking wildfire, but also how the influence of earlier works like Malleus Maleficarim were still fueling hysteria's centuries after it was published.

In this case, as well as a bunch of others that follow this, a child, typically acting out of guilt or shame or boredomom made some outrageous accusation, something that was usually completely impossible like walking on water. Yeah, we're looking at you and putting them in. And then rather exactly and fucking put them, we don't forget you. Never. Rather than just all the adult acknowledging it as a lie and the community treating it as such.

Like childlike behavior. It would be, it would be this, and it would just be looked at as like, yep, this is obviously real. That's for real. Nobody questioned it. And this was in part due to the fear of which is spread by the church, but it was also due to Kramer's assertion that once a person is accused of witchcraft, you remain a witch until you can prove that you are not.

And that's not to. This of course put the accused in an impossible position. There was no way to dispute this accusation as we aligned out for you. And the result was a completely irrational cycle in which a person, again, obviously most often times a child, made some thoughtless, baseless, wild accusation. It would inevitably lead to the conclusion that according to the Church's position, they were rich, and then a sham trial would follow, and an execution of the accused, and it would all keep cycling.

And during that whole thing, they would try to get that accused to name other people once they're named their witch. You can't stop being a witch. So now you're brought in, and the whole a witch. You can't stop being a witch. So now you're brought in and the whole cycle continues. We can't win. Now at the trial outside Harja Daylin, Gertrude's friend's daughter accused 19 more village women of witchcraft under torturous interrogation.

Gertrude the 12-year-old. Yeah. She was being tortured again. Oh, no. Yeah. And then those 19 village women who were being tortured and interrogated, they accused more women of witchcraft. Because it was like you had to. You had to.

They were like you and not. And the trend began spreading to other villages. And now conscious of how such hysteria could divide communities, the Swedish government responded to the growing rate of accusations by establishing a commission. And this commission was priests and government officials, and they were used to address the fears of witches and sorcery. According to Tittermann Osterberg, who we mentioned before, the Smithsonian magazine article,

the purpose of the commission was to relieve the public's sense of responsibility for dealing with the problem. And they were going to do this by sending government and church officials, quote, to the moatch, most witch-infested areas to free the nation from the fury of Satan. Okay. But this only increased the witch hysteria spreading to all other parts. I couldn't imagine that. And the trials became a national catastrophe.

This is horrific. So like the initial hysteria itself, the commission and government sanctioned which trials quickly escalated from being something that they were trying to keep a lid on and trying to keep kind of orderly and at least have some kind of process, like do process in these things,

they quickly developed into chaos and increased violence. Like this all began as like fucked up, but they were at least trying to make some kind of due process happen here, so people weren't just being like wildly executed and accused. Someone didn't work. I was gonna say, it just doesn't seem like a dead. It was very quick that it escalated in a chaos. Yeah.

Tidermann, Osterberg writes, previously torture was forbidden, but to execute a person, the court of appeal, Hoveret, must confirm the sentence. Indisputable evidence was required, which meant a confession. Hence, the authorities deemed torture necessary.

Also, the courts allowed children once deemed untrustworthy as key witnesses. Wow. Priests even paid some to testify, and the stories of children became the basis for many death sentences. It gets even worse. And kids will say anything under distress. Oh, yes, I'm most terrible at saying anything under distress. Yes, exactly. Now, in Hamray, in the province of Helsingland, the entire village was caught in this frenzy

in 1673, because a woman named Kirsten Larsdotter was pulled out of her home in front of her children after being accused of witchcraft by local children. What? Sitterman Ostberg says, given the rate at which the hysteria had grown in such a small period, it's pretty possible that Lars-Dotter and many of the other women in the village expected this to happen, to be honest. Oh, God. But obviously it was unbelievably traumatizing for her and for her children.

Kirsten Lars-Dotter's trial before the commission lasted four days. And during this trial, this four-day trial, 54 local children and a handful of other locals, suspected of witchcraft, accused her of sorcery and of participating in black mass at blockula. Oh my God. Now, according to one local boy, he said that Cursed and fed him food that turned out to be a live snake and he could feel it moving around in his stomach. And he said, so he says that.

That alone is like, I don't know, little boy. Like the kids say. I don't know about that. That. I'm cool. What does that mean? Is that lie or truth? Bet? I think that just means like, yeah, I bet.

Oh, really? Is that what that means? That's how I judge it. I never knew. So I was going to mean. I think cap means lie. Oh, that's the one I was thinking of. That's what you're thinking of.

Yeah, bet just means like I bet. Oh, okay. So you just take away the eye. Yeah, I kind of like it. What really does that? We're really good. You see? So the boy was like, yeah, totally.

Like she fed me food. It was a snake. It's living in my stomach now. And it's like, yeah, totally. She fed me food. It was a snake. It's living in my stomach now. And it's like, I think that's just a tapeworm. But I also think that's just indigestion. Yeah. So the boy then was like, oh, but you know what's cool? An angel appeared to me later that day

and told me the only way to rid myself of the snake was to go to the Paris priest, confess my sins. And I did that. And then what's awesome is I regurgitated the snake after that. So the angel was right, but this bitch, she gave me the snake. Why? During the trial, the boy's story was confirmed

by his parents and two other adults. Fuck y'all. This is real fucking life. I did not make that up. That is a real trial. I did not make that up. That is a real trial. I gotta go. That happened. A little boy said,

Kirsten Larsdotter fed him a fucking sandwich or something that had a life snake in it. It was living in his tum tum. A holy angel appeared to this little shit said, if you go to the priest and confess all your sins, you'll puke out the snake and be fine. So he did. He puke out the snake and his parents were like, y'all confirmed what? Yeah. What? Yeah. Feeling under the weather this cold and flu season? Well, good Rx is here to help with saving some prescription cold and flu meds for the whole family.

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Yeah. And they were talking about consorting with serpents, renouncing God, turning their backs on the altar. And this was all Kirsten's fault. Kirsten, for her part, strongly and consistently denied having any knowledge of any of this, or any knowledge of witchcraft, or doing anything of the sort. She's like, I'm just raising my kids out here. But it did no good.

She'd already been accused. There's no way to undo it once you've been accused. The toothpaste cannot go back in the tube. At the end of a four-day trial, Kirsten was found guilty and sentenced to death by beheading. And after that, her body was burned at the stake.

After she was beheaded, her being headed body was burned at a stake. And they wondered where the plagues came from. Now among the many problems with Sweden's witch hunting commissions was that it put, like we've already mentioned a billion problems, but one of the off-shoot problems of this commission was that it put an impossible burden, even on the like just random men that they put on these commissions, because they made them responsible for quelling the growing fears and anxieties

of everyone in the village. But everyone's getting accused. But that's the thing. So they specifically were being told to root out and eradicate witches by the church. And in that way, they were being responsible for proving and dealing with something that was impossible to prove and deal with.

But then their failure to meet the demands of the state and their neighbors meant that even the best on the commission were ineffective and at worst, they would then be accused of which craft themselves. So this was a horrible cycle with which pulled everyone into it. Even the people that were placed on this commission, some of them were simply doing it so they themselves wouldn't get wrapped in it and executed it beheaded. This is not to say that the men on these commissions were greater or anything. I'm just saying like there's so many layers to who got affected by this. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, pulled into this. Like these kids, these kids are not inherently evil kids. No, they're being pushed into it. They're being terrified into this. Like this is all, everyone is working off of fear. It's so scary. And it's fear that's being trickled down by this giant authority that's looming over them.

Kind of like how that happens now. And it's like, look what's happening, even the, and I, because I'm even gonna give it to these men on the commission, some of them were not inherently evil like before this, but they were just, this was their job. It's an impossible thing for anybody to be involved in.

So fucked up. And then they're being told, well, if you don't do this, you're going to be beheaded. And it's like, what the fuck? Like, how does anybody act in this way? Whatever it is, just getting, launch myself into the sun.

Everyone's just getting pitted against each other. Yeah. And that's just to say, like, you know, it was just chaos. It was chaos. Sure may have. With zero kind of like clear thinking involved from anywhere. This motherfucker is saying he threw up a snake

in front of his priest. Like that's not clear thing in my mind. And it's like you got like nine year old saying this kind of shit. And these nine year olds aren't inherently evil. Like when they say stuff, they make up stories. Like fucking pottenham. But like the, like the nine year old. And I don't know.

The special kind of fucked up. But like these nine year olds and shit, like not all of them were just dicks. Like a lot of them were just fucking terrified. And they were acting from men and women, because there were women who were accusing these witches who were just trying to stay out of that. Well, and they're just,

they're trying not to get flogged. It's everyone. It's scary. Everyone is basing it out of fear. And then there's those random evil pieces of shit that are in here just have in a fucking party because this is what they couldn't wait for. And it's hard to distinguish between everybody.

Really quite honest. So it's scary. Now this was particularly true in the small village of Torscherkar, which is what we, this is all about. In Sweden's Angermanland, true in the small village of Torscherker, which is what we, this is all about. Yes, it is. In Sweden's Angermanland, it is actually spelled Angermanland. I think that's more fun personally. But I think you say it Angermanland.

This whole place sounds like Angermanland. Angerman. It does. It's fun. Everyone is in angry mind. It really does. In the land. It's Sweden's Angermanland province in the northern part of the country. Okay.

In 1674, the commission contracted Laurentias Christophry Hornias. Another, is it, wasn't there already a Hornias? No, you said it yet. I was going to say you heard me say it out loud because I was trying to pronounce it correctly. Yeah, you didn't want to say the wrong way. So he had served as the local clergyman for the year prior

after the previous minister had passed away. RIP. And as they had done in the other villages, the commission tasked Tornayas with investigating and eradicating witchcraft in the parish. Wolf. Using whatever means necessary. No, thank you.

Now in pursuit of his goal, Tornayas recruited a group of local boys. Oh, first was that. That's always good. Who claimed they could, and it gets worse. Because he recruited this local boy group that was like, we can actually identify those marked by the devil just by looking at their face. Good.

How Cornayus was like, this seems legit. He was like, this checks. What's kind of interesting though is that he almost gets real checked himself for choosing to do this. And I'll love it, you know. Oh, nice. So they're like, yeah, yeah, we can totally, we're gonna figure out who's marked by the devil just by looking at their fucking mug.

And he's like, that sounds great. So over time, such people, those who capitalized on the hysteria, like we talked about, there were the bad people who were capitalizing on this. There's always the bad people capitalizing. They did become a common. But while it may appear that as though these individuals sought to benefit from this unspeakable horror going around them, again, it was more likely that most of them, not the little boys, but some, most of them were trying not to be accused themselves. Yeah.

So it was basically align yourself with the witch hunters or align yourself with the witch. Fuck. And it's like, you would fall in the same situation. And it's like, or just run into the forest and never stop running. That would be what I would do just by, truly, but then if you're found in the forest, you're fucked. Also, speaking of witch trials, again, go read slew foot. It's really good. Oh, yeah. By, uh go read Sluffitt. It's really good. Oh, yeah.

By Braum. It's really good. Braum. So either way, whatever their motivations, these boys, which they referred to as viscosa, which loosely translates to something like wise boys or smart boys or sage boys, sounds like biscoph cookie stew. Right, it does. They became common in witch trials across Europe, particularly in cases where to something like wise boys or smart boys or sage boys. Sounds like Biscoph cookie stew. Right, it does.

They became common in which trials across Europe, particularly in cases where children played a large part of the trial, which is so chilling to me. It is. It's fucked up. As like witnesses or accusers, in many cases these boys, such as those positioned outside the church and doll, were paid for these services. I bet they fucking were. So like many people who were in Hornayas' position here,

he was a true believer in the teachings of the church and saw himself as a soldier in this battle against the devil. And in a very short amount of time, Hornayas had rounded up 71 people in a small parish. 65 of those were women, 65 out of the 71. Many of them were elderly or poor. And the accused were all identified by two boys, the viscosser, who were stationed outside of the doors of the church to identify them as they left church. As their map. As they left church, these boys will be sitting out there

and go, hurt you, marked by the devil. What the fuck? This is what's funny, though, because one of the boys identified Horneus's wife, Horneus's own baby mama. Brida Rufina as one marked by the devil. What a pretty name, Brida Rufina. Well, and then this boy was slapped for having identified the minister's wife as a witch and he corrected himself and said,

oops, I must have been blinded by the sun, just getting, oh, has that happened before? And it's like, friend. Fuck you. Wow. And also, fuck you, Hornayus. Put your wife through the sound of my wife. Fuck you, your wife was, fuck you, Horeneus. Put your wife through the same shit. You mean my wife.

Fuck you, your wife was, I would, I'd be like, no, no, no, no, no, no. He said, well, he said, he said what he said. He said, Britta, get out there. So the trial began. So the trial began October 15th, 1674 in Torshuker. That's like hard to say. It is.

With Judge Johann Andersen Humbres, presiding over all 71 cases, which included residents of Torshuker, Dal, and Eterlannis. All 71 had been accused of practicing witchcraft and abducting children who were then forced to participate in whatever was happening at blockula. Okay. At the time, the population total for all three villages was 675 people. So the accused accounted for more than 10% of everyone over the

age of 15 in the entire parish in this one day. Holy fucking shit. Yep. So as in every other case of witch hunting, the accused at Torshiker had already been accused almost all by children, and so stood no chance of proving themselves innocent. That's it. You're accused. And not only that, you're accused because two little shit stood outside of a church and said, you marked by the devil. Wow. And just at random. Yeah, just at random. Clearly, because they accidentally got his wife. stood outside of a church and said, you mark by the devil. Wow.

And just at random. Yeah, just at random. Clearly, because they accidentally got his wife. Yeah. Oops. The sun was in my eyes. Wow. In one case, one of the accused confessed

to having made a bijara, which is a magical ball of yarn. And I was like, that sounds like the light. That's what I like. They said they made it by dripping her blood onto the yarn and asking Satan to give it life. Okay. Deer and an American. It just smeared how like they wrap Satan up so much in witchcraft because I'm like witchcraft really

doesn't have anything to do with Satan. They don't even like give a shit. It's not even real. In another case, a girl of only 11 or 12 years old was forced to testify that her own mother 12 years old was forced to testify that her own mother had brought her to blockula. Oh, that is so fucked on another level. And she said when she was there, she watched the women chop up and boil children in a cauldron. Honey, you've been watching too many programs, but she was forced to testify. Wow. Now, another young boy accused his neighbor of kidnapping him and taking him to blockula where he watched her eat, drink, and dance and blockula and lying with the evil one under the table and kneeling before Satan. Sounds pretty rad. Part-E. I was going to say,

I see you at 10. Now according to Hans Hogman, many of the children who testified at the trials in Torshiker did so against their own family members, and in some cases, like we mentioned, their own mothers. That's horrific. Hans says, in the course of the trials, it seems that most of the accused had serious doubts that the authorities would go to such lengths to impose the death penalty. Rather, those who confessed did so to return home to their children as soon as possible. Right.

A church sentence could one always put up with. So they were like, I'll deal with the church sentence. That's what they thought they were gonna get. They had no idea it was gonna go this far. But obviously those doubts were very misplaced because by the end of the trial, all 71 were convicted and sentenced to die.

71. On June 1, 1675, the accused, along with a bunch of people from the villages, were all gathered at the Chorshikr Church where they learned that they were going to all be beheaded and all of their bodies would be burned at the stake. All 71. And can you imagine? In one day, first of all, what? And second of all, can you imagine, if one of those was your mom that you had to testify against and then you'd be headed in burn.

And because of you, she's being beheaded in burn. And they had no idea. They thought they were just like, let's get them. They can deal with the church sentence. Right. And their mom was probably told that their mom was probably like, I can deal with it just, you know, just whatever it takes to get this done

and I'll get home to you. And then they're like, no, we're gonna cut off our head and burn her body at the stake. Oh my God. Yep. It's horrific. So from the church,

after they learned of their sentences, they were all led up to a spot in the mountains known as Hacksburget, which is Witch Mountain, where three pires had been built to accommodate this unusually large group. In many cases, the prisoners fainted or became too weak to carry on because they were so upset. And family members were forced to carry them to their execution. Oh my God. The executions were overseen by the parish mayor

and carried out by two or three executioners who worked all day be heading each of these people. How are you ever the same after that? 71, what is 71 divided by three? Or two even? 71 divided by three? Or two even, 71 divided by three? The answer is approximately 23.6666. Everybody is beheading that many people, likely.

Or more if it was only two executioners, because it's two or three. 71 divided by two. The answer is 35.5. 35 people. That's on another level. And you just have to go about your life after that. And they would do these beheadings in the location below the piers,

where the piers were built, because they wanted to ensure that the blood flow wouldn't extinguish the flames. Oh. Once the head had been't extinguish the flames. Oh. Once the head had been cut off, the body was carried to the pyre. A family member had to do this, by the way. Carrier, but headed body over to the pyre,

where you would be thrown on there and burned. That's, yep. And after this was all done, after all the execution, I just have to say it again, sorry. This is real. This is real, like this isn't a horror story. Like youutions. I just have to say it again, sorry. This is real. This is real, like this isn't a horror story. Like you keep having to tell yourself over and over again.

This fucking happens. The amount of times I like cognitively like dissonance to myself away from this. But then I like had to come back and be like, oh no, this is not a fiction story. This is real. This happened to people's ancestors. This happened.

That's so fucked. Like, there's listeners that have Swedish ancestry that could be tied to either side of this. Wow. Yeah. It's wild. Sorry, go on.

No, it's true, because I even think that way with the Salem which tells when I go into it. Because it's hard to think of it as real. It's hard to think of it as real. It sounds like fiction. It does. So when this was all done,

the executions were concluded. The clothing of the accused, which also had been stripped before they were executed. They were returned to the family. And then the family was instructed, just go home. Sorry, what was returned to the family?

They're clothing. Oh, okay. And so they would say, here's their clothes. Just go home, I guess. See you guys on Sunday for Mass. Oh, and you know you want to be at Mass on Sunday. You know your ass was going to be there that day.

But then you don't know, am I going to come out of Mass on Sunday and some little shit is going to point at me and say, I'm, I'm Jesus. Because did these, so where their subsequent ones are afterwards. There was, but this is one of the main, like this is a wild one. Yeah. And it's just, I, and there are some sources that you can read records

that say that a couple of individuals might have been spared that day because of they might have been pregnant. But if they were spared that day, then they were weighted to give birth. After they birthed the same fate befell them. So that's somehow that's like works because you knew what was coming. Yeah, it's all it's all bad. Now, the trials and

executions that Torshik are approved to be something of a turning point. There were trials, but it changed after this, especially in Sweden, in particular, it proved if nothing else that when it came to accusations of witchcraft and sorcery, no one, not even children were safe. And later that year after the executions at Hacksburg it, Horneas' own mother and aunt were accused of witchcraft. Wow.

If that is in karma, I don't know what it is. For real. Horneas himself was later shunned by the community and retired in shame. By Hornayas. Yeah. Fuck you, dude. By the following year, 1676,

public opinion on witches and accusations of witchcraft shifted a bit. This was a turning point. That's good. There were other things after this, but this was a big turning point. By the time the hysteria had reached Stockholm that year, it had all but petered out, to be honest.

There was still one final case to be tried though before everything came to an end. Because just a few months after the executions at Torscherker, a boy in Stockholm by the name of Johann Graeus accused a neighbor, Mel and Matt Stodder of witchcraft. Matt Stodder was put on trial and refused to confess to being a witch. And she was, of course, deemed guilty and burned alive at the stake. And how old was she? I don't know how old she was.

Oh, I thought I missed that. No, that's okay. But she was, she was just a neighbor. Wow. And he just, a kid and she was burned alive at the stake. And a short time later, it was learned that Johann had lied when he accused Matt's daughter. And when that was learned, he was executed. So suddenly, according to Jenny Tidermann, Osterberg, a majority began to question the truthfulness of child witnesses, several of whom later confessed that they had lied.

And were they executed? I don't know all that. child witnesses, several of whom later confessed that they had lied. And were they executed? I don't know all that. But I'm like, are we just going to execute and execute and execute until we can't execute? No more? Well, for a lot of their role in spreading the hysteria, some of them were executed. Wow. And in the months and years that followed, accusations of witchcraft and sorcery suddenly became increasingly rare. I bet. And when they were leveled, they were pretty quickly shut down, either by neighbors or authorities. Because they were like, we're not doing this again.

And with that, the great noise came to a rather unceremonious end in Sweden. After having led to the death of nearly 300 people in the end, mostly women. But it's more likely that it's a very much higher number. I'm sure. Right, like some people just weren't documented. Now, in the decades that followed the big noise, there were attempts to obviously accuse and try witches, but they never really gained any attraction.

And in some cases, we're just completely shut down by authorities. By then, they had reached a more enlightened age. In 1858, for example, a priest in Dalarna, a county in Central Sweden accused an entire group of local women of witchcraft, so priesthood, hoping the case would be brought to trial. Instead, the authorities went out of their way to silence him and the accusations. They said that it brought embarrassment to their government that he even accused them of this.

So Sweden turned it around. I'm glad to hear that because Sweden turned it around. Yeah, that's pretty fun. They have been embarrassing. They learned. Now, as Titter Manastarberg wrote, in heritage discourse, the histories of marginalized peoples, whereas oppressed as the peoples themselves, because heritage is so often forged and preserved power and maintain precedence. The story of the women in the Swedish witch trials, which trials serves as an example.

So Torscherger has not tried to hide this brutal history of witch hunting. They've actually just tried to kind of like rebrand it a little bit as like they're a destination for like those with an interest in history. But they don't hide it. They're like this happened. Yeah. They might like not give you like I don't know. They're out there. Like let me tell you all the gory details, but like they don't they don't hide from it. They're like this happened and you can come here and learn about it. You have to recognize that. They actually have a memorial to those executed that's been erected in the village and it was erected in 1975. Wow. And it's still there.

I don't know when that one was erected. You can visit Torshiker, know that they know what happened there, and that they have done all they can do to get past it. But it is unthinkable that this is real. It's unthinkable, but this is real. It's unthinkable. Truly. I'm like, without words. Because then the fact that even more people were executed after when they were like, yeah, I lied. It's like two executions don't make one go away.

Exactly. It's just not a good. And because I know some people and they see witch trials, they're like, okay, whatever. Like what? But when you read about it, you know, you don't realize how intense these things are. It's not just like, oh, they got to put on trial and some people were screaming and pretending that they were being bit by specters and shit. It's like, no, no, no, no, this is real brutal.

Kids are just defying against their own mothers. Yes, this got real brutal. So that is the story of some of the European witch trial madness and the Malia's Smolificorum and the Torshiker witch trials. Fun, except not at all. Sweden learned. So good for Sweden.

Yeah, thanks Sweden. You've done well for Sweden, you know? You know, the killin' it since. Well, with that, we hope you keep listening.. I hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it. We're not so sure that you put anybody on trial for witchcraft because I think you're probably lying and then it's gonna come out that you're lying and then everybody's gonna get executed

and then really who wins will not happen. It's no one, not you, no one. And put itons of bitch. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Morvid, Early, and Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen Add Free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. Hey listeners, it's Mr. Ballon here, and I'm here to tell you about my brand new podcast. It's called Mr. Ballon's Medical Mysteries.

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