Liv Helene Willumsen

The Witchcraft Trials in Finnmark, Northern Norway

Women come to the fore in witchcraft trials as accused persons or as witnesses, and this book is a study of women’s voices in these trials in eight countries around the North Sea: Spanish Netherlands, Northern Germany, Denmark, Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. From each country, three trials are chosen for close reading of courtroom discourse and the narratological approach enables various individuals to speak. Throughout the study, a choir of 24 voices of accused women are heard which reveal valuable insight into the field of mentalities and display both the individual experience of witchcraft accusation and the development of the trial. Particular attention is drawn to the accused women’s confessions, which are interpreted as enforced narratives. The analyses of individual trials are also contextualized nationally and internationally by a frame of historical elements, and a systematic comparison between the countries shows strong similarities regarding the impact of specific ideas about witchcraft, use of pressure and torture, the turning point of the trial, and the verdict and sentence. This volume is an essential resource for all students and scholars interested in the history of witchcraft, witchcraft trials, transnationality, cultural exchanges, and gender in early modern Northern Europe.

Northern Europe

The Voices of Women in Witchcraft Trials

Forfatteren Regine Normann (1867- 1939) er blitt omtalt om Norges Selma Lagerløf. Hun skrev hovedsaklig romaner fra Nordland, men det var som eventyrforfatter hun for alvor slo igjennom. Hennes omskiftelige livsløp var preget av oppbrudd og valg som varuvanlig for en kvinne i hennes samtid. I denne biografien kommer mange stemmer til orde, både muntlige overleveringer på folkemunne og skriftlige kilder, samt Regine Normanns egne ord gjennom selvbiografiske tekster og intervjuer hun har gitt. Forhåndsomtale.

Regine Normann, et livsløp

Havmannens datter

Julian Goodare

Rita Voltmer

Demonology - the intellectual study of demons and their powers - contributed to the prosecution of thousands of witches. But how exactly did intellectual ideas relate to prosecutions? Recent scholarship has shown that some of the demonologists' concerns remained at an abstract intellectual level, while some of the judges' concerns reflected popular culture. This book brings demonology and witch-hunting back together, while placing both topics in their specific regional cultures. The book's chapters, each written by a leading scholar, cover most regions of Europe, from Scandinavia and Britain through to Germany, France and Switzerland, and Italy and Spain. By focusing on various intellectual levels of demonology, from sophisticated demonological thought to the development of specific demonological ideas and ideas within the witch trial environment, the book offers a thorough examination of the relationship between demonology and witch-hunting. Demonology and Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Europe is essential reading for all students and researchers of the history of demonology, witch-hunting and early modern Europe.

Demonology and Witch-hunting in Early Modern Europe

Drawing on wide range of legal documents from the seventeenth-century, this book contains quantitative and qualitative analyses of witchcraft trials in Scotland and Finnmark, Norway. Attention is drawn towards the voices of the accused persons, the witnesses, and the law.

Liv Helene Willumsen

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