“Sami witchcraft should be persecuted without mercy” was the decree King Christan IV of Denmark-Norway sent to his feudal overlords in 1609.
These words came after his risky journey to Finnmark and the Kola Peninsula in 1599 under false identity. His goal was to seize control on trading European fishermen and the northern inland territory to avoid them being taken by the Russians, or the “evil neighbours” Swedes. By cleaning up the area from witches and witchcraft, the King hoped to send a signal that it was safe for other Norwegians to settle and trade in Finnmark. It wasn’t given that Norwegians would, because superstition and religion went hand in hand for most people at the time causing fear rumors. One example from the King’s journey is the black, long-haired cat stolen from a Sami woman that got blamed for being bewitched and causing a storm on the journey. The crew wanted it drowned, but the King liked the cat, and got it made a box with some food before the cat was sent on the sea to hopefully return to its owner.
Why did they burn witches in Norway
In the Middle Ages it was death penalty for diabolism and maleficium, or the effects of dark magic aiming to injure. Since the 1400s burning accused witches had been a practice in Europe, but the big witchcraft persecutions didn’t really start until after the Reformation. In Norway the first witchcraft case is registered around 1560, but sources of court proceedings are few and lacking the further back you look. Many were probably not written down at all, and under half of the calculated 2000 witchcraft cases in Norway can be documented. About one third of the cases led to death penalty and about 350 people were burned. 75% were women and the rest of the men was accused of trolldom as a trollkvinne or trollmann. Witches or hexe itself was not mention in juridical documents until 1690 here, instead the law used the old Norse term of trolldom which involved things like a pact with the Devil, Witch sabbaths, maleficium and nightly rides on brooms, goats and such. The more of these things a person was accused of, the more severe the crime became. Even worse was it if you were found to own a “Black Book”, consisting of formulas to do dark magic which also gave the owner power over the dark forces according to legends.
In 1590 the authorities in Denmark-Norway decided that also signeri or white magic was a crime as well. Translated roughly it means healing, and it consisted of rituals to heal and help people and animals from sickness and injuries, often done by an old woman. It was seen to break the faith in God and the forgiveness of sin, as the Reformation’s beliefs and teachings on demonoly treated superstition, folklore and witchcraft way harsher than the Catholic church did. On top of this, the population grew and so did unrest and the lack of help since the Catholic welfare systems disappeared. Those who were accused of witchcraft was mostly poor people or those who caused trouble. In other cases such as in Bergen and Stavanger, it could be rich women or widows who caused envy, rumors or problems with their bad behavior to others. The examples with Anne Pedersdatter in Bergen in 1590 and Johanne Pedersdotter in Stavanger in 1622 confirms that. Both were either widowed or married to money, but their frenemies of same social class accused them of causing accidents, sickness and death of their families, friends or animals. The accusations often came from a long time of several incidents were the accused had behaved uncustomary or been rude towards the person who accused her. And then a fatal incident had happened which led to the accused being convicted. Local men of power led the accused through a court process, and if one of them were a strong believer of witchcraft penalties it often led to the accused being found guilty. In Stavanger the city bailiff Søffrensson were one of these, and got Johanne burned, plus seven others in his 16 years of service.
Anne Pedersdotter was the wife of priest and lecturer Peder Absalon Beyer, and was early faced with accusations of witchcraft when her husband’s uncle and bishop died while her husband tried to become the next bishop of Bergen. After being widowed, Anne’s position became more exposed and weak so the following accusations of people from town made her bitter and resentful which again caused more trouble. When her long term frenemy Tolliken died, rumors seemed to spur up around her. Despite good defenders she was convicted for killing 6 people, a child and a pear tree, so she was burned.
What happened in Finnmark
After 1619 when the Scottish fisherman John Cunningham became the authorities’ representative in Finnmark, accusations of witchcraft exploded. This region was a special case, with 14% of the witchcraft cases but only 3000 inhabitants, or 1% of Norway’s population. Of those 135 accusations 91 were burned: 77 women and 14 men. Of 37 convicted Sami, 25 were executed.
The reasons for this high number in Finnmark could be many, such as different languages, culture, religion and a harsh climate. People needed reassurance to survive, and so the use of Sami shamanism and religious rites were common among fishermen and locals as well as the mysterious Sami themselves. With the authorities literary miles away, local gossip, reputation, and “ganding” (from Old Norse and Sami, throwing curses at someone) became a way to control the society. Women were especially vulnerable, as they were considered weaker, evil and could easily be lured by the Devil himself, the ultimate evil that everyone tried to avoid. Gossip of local townspeople led the accused man or most often, woman, being arrested and shipped to Vardøhus fortress in the easternmost part of Finnmark, on the Russian border. Here the prisoner was kept in a dungeon and tortured until confession, and then thrown at sea to have the “water test” done — if one floated, one was a witch. If they sank, they were innocent but also dead. 32 women and men were tied up and thrown at sea, and neither of them survived.
Women were especially persecuted in Finnmark, which also aggravated the seriousness of the accusations due to their link to the Devil. Diabolism, witch sabbaths and malficium are used way more often in local court protocols of witch trials (or trolldom trials). The problem was that such events as witch sabbaths and a pact with the devil often happened in private or away from people with a group of witches — hence these accusations were difficult to prove and often led to a string of several individuals being accused, tortured and executed. Domen became a known “witch mountain” outside of Vardø in Finnmark in 1662/1663 due to the 19 women who confessed they had been there on a witch sabbath that June. Satan himself played a red violin by a big festive bonfire and the women were dancing around it, mimicking the known St.Hans/St. John’s Day bonfire tradition. Such confessions came out after psychological pressure and torture at Vardøhus fortress. Children and pets of witches was also kept in dungeons for a long time, even after their mother was burned on the bonfire. Luckily, they were released in the end.
Sami people were also vulnerable due to their shamanism and separate religious practices. Misunderstandings and bad trade could spark gossip amongst the fishing villages directed towards the Sami. So authorities often arrested those Sami who were in close contact with fishermen and lived by the sea, not the nomadic reindeer Sami in the mountains. The case of Quiwe Baarsen is one such example: he was born around 1570 on today’s border between Finland and Norway, but spent most of his life at Årøya in the Alta Fjord. Amongst the locals he was known to be a Sami with magical powers, and he made a business by selling predictions of good weather to fishermen. He created good winds by throwing a piglet at sea while yelling “Havvær, havvær!” or he could create offshore wind from washing his right foot in the sea, while yelling “Landvær! landvær!”
For years his business went well, he helped local fishermen and assisted those sick and in need. Until autumn 1625, when a small fishing boat with five fishermen got into bad weather and everyone drowned. The wife to one of the five had paid Quiwe Baarsen to give them good winds so that the boat could return quickly, but sadly Baarsen was accused of using bad witchcraft and caused the boat to sink. Two years later he was trialed in Alta, and he explained that the storm could have been caused by a kicking piglet or that it was close to All Saints Eve which was a particularly dangerous day to use magic as it became way stronger than usual. The same was doing magic on Christmas or St. John’s Day (Midsummer), which is why it was punished way harder to do magic on such days. Quiwe Baarsen was found guilty the 11th of May 1627 for unreservedly doing diabolism causing the death of five people. He was most likely burned the same day.
In the late 1600’s laws in Denmark-Norway became very clear and hard on witchcraft, and the word “witches” is replaced by “trolldom” after European influence. It was now more linked to having crossed God and become close with the Devil, as contrary to before when it was about evil magic in itself. The last known burning of an accused witch in Norway was Johanne Nielsdatter in Kvæfjord, Troms region, in 1695. Sami people got amnesty for using their “trolldom” or magic some years later, and people were no longer persecuted or trialed for witchcraft after 1700. Today there are many memorials around in Norway, stating the names of those who died. One of them is in Finnmark, as pictured below.
Sources:
Store Norske Leksikon, heks
Arkivverket, Statsarkivet Hamar, heksebrenning i Norge
Norgeshistorie, trolldomssakene i Norge
Book: Landet Mot Nord, Mona Renate Ringvej
Magazine article: Hekseprosessene i Norge, Helene Limås
