Steilneset Memorial, Vardø, commemorating the Victims of the Finnmark Witchcraft Trials
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Facts about the Finnmark Witchcraft Trials
The district of Finnmark in Northern Norway experienced severe witchcraft persecution during the 17th century. For a short introduction to the Finnmark witchcraft trials, click here: (PDF).Historiography Norway
At the Nordic History Meeting August 2011 in Tromsø, the following presentation about witchcraft historiography in Norway from 1994 to 2011 was given by me. Click here for text (PDF).
Books
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The Witchcraft Trials in Finnmark, Northern Norway
This book contains the original sources of the Finnmark witchcraft trials during the period 1620 to 1692. The court records of the 17th century witchcraft trials were entered into protocols by a magistrate. In this book the original facsimiles are rendered together with transcription of the sources.0 The Witchcraft Trials in Finnmark, Northern Norway. Bergen 2010. ISBN 978-82-7959-152-8. The book is published by Varanger Museum and Skald Publisher. May be ordered at: eksport@norli.no or at www.norli.no. The book can also be read here. -
Steilneset. Memorial to the Victims of the Finnmark Witchcraft Trials
This book contains all the 91 exhibition texts in the Memorial Hall at Steilneset Memorial, Vardø, Finnmark. Each of the victims of the Finnmark witchcraft trials has got one text, with factual information about the trial as well as information about the confession given before the court. The texts in the Memorial Hall are written in Norwegian. The Norwegian texts are translated into English,German, and Finnish. The book is available in these four languages. To see one of the texts from a trial in 1621, click here: (PDF) -
Seventeenth-Century Witchcraft Trials in Scotland and Northern Norway
Abstract of Ph.D. thesis: Seventeenth-Century Witchcraft Trials in Scotland and Northern Norway by Liv Helene Willumsen is a comparative study of witchcraft persecution in Scotland and Finnmark, the northernmost region of Norway. The hypothesis to be tested is that the historical witch-hunts in the two regions are complex phenomena, wherein several influential explanatory factors are at work: the demonological element, the role of the state, the local courts, the role of the church, neighbourhood disputes, the spoken word, folk belief, the superstitious north, the personal factor and lastly a direct connection between Scotland and Finnmark through a Scottish district governor installed in Finnmark. A wide range of quantitative and qualitative analyses shed light on the witch-hunts in the two regions during the period 1600-1700. The analyses are based on primary sources from witchcraft persecution, mainly legal documents. The quantitative chapters contain statistical analyses and give information about tendencies in the source material in total. The qualitative chapters contain close-readings of trial documents from a narratological perspective. Through discourse analyses the various voices heard during a trial are analysed: the voice of the scribe, the voice of the law, the voice of the accused person and the voices of the witnesses. The quantitative and qualitative analyses combined provide a broad view of the historical phenomenon in question as well as in-depth studies of individual witchcraft cases. The main finding of the quantitative analyses is that there is a strong correlation between use of torture, demonic pact confessions, panics, local courts and females. The same finding is strengthened by the qualitative analyses, which in addition point to the introduction of demonological notions by the learned elite, the spread of these notions in oral societies, the important roles of government officials and the direct Scottish connection through a governmental official as explanatory factors. The conclusion is that the impact of the demonological doctrine on legal and clerical institutions, the use of torture in local courts to extract demonological confessions and the pressure from local communities to start a witchcraft trial must be seen as influential factors during the witchcraft trials in Scotland and Finnmark.
Seventeenth-Century Witchcraft Trials in Scotland and Northern Norway, Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2008, 325 pages Trollkvinne i nord [Witch in the North]
This book was published in 1994. It is based on my Master's thesis from 1984, University of Tromsoe. The study is the very first to point to the strong influence of demonology in the Finnmark witchcraft trials. It is also the first study to point to the connection between the Finnmark witchcraft trials and the Scottish witchcraft trials. The similarities particularly come to the fore with regard to the contents of the accused persons confessions before the court. The occurrence of panics, linked witchcraft trials, is a similar feature in the two areas, so is the use of torture in local courts and a strong majority of women among the accused. Also a high execution rate related to the witchcraft trials is found in both areas.
Articles
- "Witches in Scotland and Northern Norway. Two case studies" i Peter Graves and Arne Kruse (red.): Images and Imaginations. Perspectives on Britain and Scandinavia, Lockharton Press, Edinburgh, 2007, p.35-66. (PDF)
- "Witches of the High North", s.199-221 i Scandinavian Journal of History, no.3,1996 (PDF)
Presentations
- "17th Century Witchcraft Trials in Orkney and Shetland", Departemental Seminar in Celtic & Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, 25 April 2008
- "Witch-trials in Finnmark and Scotland- Torture and Confession", The Midnight Sun Witchcraft Conference, Vardø, 29 June 2007
- "Seventeenth Century Witchcraft documents from Scotland and Norway", The Conference A Woman's Island? Shetland Women - Past, present and Future, Lerwick, Shetland, 21 April 2007
- "Witches in Scotland and Northern Norway", History Research Seminar, School of History and Classics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 1 March 2007
Exhibitions
- Exhibition texts, Memorial Hall, Steilneset Memorial to the Victims of the Finnmark Witchcraft Trials
Data
- List of persons accused of witchcraft during the Finnmark Witchcraft Trials, Northern Norway (PDF)