What happened
On 24 December 1617 a sudden storm struck the eastern coast of Finnmark – “sea and sky became one.” Ten boats sank and forty men drowned. A few years later, after a new law against sorcery was proclaimed in Denmark-Norway, the first great witch trial of northern Norway began at Vardøhus Fortress. In January 1621, under torture, Mari Jørgensdatter of Kiberg testified that Satan had come to her at Christmas and that a neighbour had turned her into a fox and taken her to a sabbath on Lyderhorn mountain near Bergen, more than 1,600 kilometres to the south. Women subjected to the ordeal of water admitted that witches had raised the 1617 storm by tying and untying knots in a fishing line. The wealthy Kirsti Sørensdatter was named as their leader – she was burned on 28 April 1621 as the last victim of this wave, after several other women.
Witnesses
The confessions of the accused recorded in the court records at Vardøhus; further waves of trials followed in Finnmark in later decades (1651–1653 and 1662–1663).
Explanations and hypotheses
Finnmark had the highest rate of witchcraft accusations and executions in Norway. It was governed by officials from Scotland, Germany and Denmark, steeped in European demonology and the belief that evil came from the North, home of the non-Christian Sámi. A tragic storm that hit small fishing communities demanded a culprit – and found one among women. In 2011 a memorial designed by Peter Zumthor and Louise Bourgeois opened on the Steilneset headland, where the pyres had burned, commemorating the 91 people executed for witchcraft in Finnmark in the 17th century.
Explained The phenomenon has a widely accepted, down-to-earth explanation.
Sources
- Architecture Norway – The Witch Memorial at Steilneset (2011)
- ArchDaily – Steilneset Memorial / Peter Zumthor and Louise Bourgeois (2012)
More: Wikipedia (en)