A Victim of Slander: Margrette Jonsdatter

On the 8th October in 1662 an autumn session was held at Vardøhus court on the island of Vardø.

The island of Vardø 

Margrette Jonsdatter, the wife of Styrck Oelsen, alleged that she had been the subject of malevolent gossip and slandered a witch. Although the people present at court attested that they knew nothing about her 'except what was good and honest in every way', Margrette Jonsdatter had made a grave mistake bringing her name to the attention of the Governor of Vardø. Although she left the court officially cleared of any witchcraft, it had been noted in the trial records that indeed slander had been heard about her. She was now a marked woman.

Already Margrette had a reputation for witchcraft

Just over two weeks later Margrette was back in court, this time accusing two women in particular of calling her a witch. The case gives an insight into the paranoia and stress of the women of Vardø. And of the powerful consequences of gossip. During the court proceedings Margrette was unable to prove that the women accused her of witchcraft although she described in detail an argument that took place when she was shovelling snow off the doorstep of one of the women. Here a petty fight with neighbours began to take on more sinister implications. Since Margrette was unable to prove the slander against her, she was fined 4 marks of silver by the court, an amount she was unlikely to be able to come up with since she worked as a servant herself. More disturbing was the notation in the court records of 'her alleged reputation for being versed in witchcraft.'

Indeed the unfortunate Margrette became one of the central figures of the witch panic of 1662 / 1663. Her name was uttered again and again by other accused women. Not only was she named a witch, but she was singled out as their ringleader, and given the name Liren Sand, a reference to the seabird, a petrel, that she apparently transformed into when doing the Devil's work.

Margrette was accused of transforming into a seabird, known as a Liren

But Margrette did not confess. Not at first. Maybe she was not initially tortured, like the other accused women, because she was pregnant. Since confession meant certain death, one can only imagine that it was the extreme pain and duress of the horrific methods of torture that would make a woman admit to witchcraft.
One of the first to be thrown into the wretched Witches Hole, a tiny windowless prison in Vardøhus fortress, yet Margrette Jonsdatter was one of the last to be condemned to the stake. She must have lived that whole desperate winter, half starved in the freezing cold, and watching her neighbours, maybe friends, or other family members, being tortured and sent to the stake. All the while she knew as the baby grew inside her that it was her child alone that kept her alive. They would not condemn a pregnant woman to the stake, but as soon as she gave birth, Margrette's fate would have been sealed. It is hard to comprehend her absolute terror at her knowledge of her impending trial. Moreover the belief was that the accused women who were with child, were carrying Devil's spawn. She was one of those marked as particularly depraved, to have fornicated with the Devil, although she was married.

It was believed that Margrette's baby, was the Devil's child

Margrette desperately tried to defend herself as more and more accusations stacked up against her after each trial. After what must have been about four long dark months in the Witches' Hole, on 9th March she was finally brought before the court. Clearly she had now given birth. What happened to her baby? Was she even allowed to nurse the child? It is likely that Margrette's baby would have been fostered within the community, but if a girl, she would be marked by her mother's reputation. Maybe one day herself be accused of witchcraft, and the desperate cycle would go on and on.

When asked by the Governor to make a full confession before the court, Margrette still refused to do so. Like so many of the other accused women, she 'requested' to be tried by the water ordeal. Imagine those arctic waters in early March, still with heavy snowfall, and ice, in the near dark. As Margrette Jonsdatter was trussed, tied hand to feet, and thrown into the water, her undergarments would have billowed like sails, and the intense cold would have made her inhale sharply. Nature would have made her float. And so to float was to fail the test, for water was sacred and if it did not receive you, than surely you were from the Devil, too evil to be bathed in its purity.

The Water Ordeal

And thus once it had been 'ascertained that she floated on the water like a fishing bob' Margrette stood before the court again, and after 'diligent questioning' (more like aggressive interrogation of a shivering half drowned woman, fragile from recent childbirth,) Margrette finally broke.

And so Margrette got to have her say. Her tale of her descent into life as a consort of the Devil was long and detailed. She described how she learnt the craft from an old milkmaid, who gave it to her in a piece of cheese dipped in milk. She talked about going to the Devil's mountain, Domen, and dancing with the other accused women, drinking beer and wine, and playing board games. Indeed she danced so wildly with the Devil one night that she lost her shoe.  In the guise of a seabird, she described plotting to cast a spell on the previous Governor's sleigh so that it lost control. She took part in beating the fish away from the shore with stalks of seaweed the previous Easter. Along with some of the other women, who had already been executed as witches, Margrette took on the shape of a seal and cast a spell on Captain Jens Ottensen's ship, raising a tremendous storm the previous Autumn. Most serious of all, she was part of a large convention of witches that congregated outside the castle with the purpose of destroying the Governor within.

Of course to our modern minds, these misdeeds appear ludicrous but to the 17th century court in Vardø Margrette Jonsdatter was a dangerous terrorist. She could wield the power of the Devil to kill, and destroy. She was part of a conspiracy to tear down the very Government, threaten the King himself. The court saw no other option but to condemn her to the flames. In their minds, she had made that choice herself, when she agreed to follow the Devil. How could they pity her?

But we must remember she was a poor woman, a wife, a maid, and a mother, her breasts sore and swollen, her heart broken from the loss of her baby, her mind in terror at her fate. All she could hope for was a life free of the Devil, at least the pain of the fire would give her that. The flames would purge her evil, the prayers of those same accusing neighbours would speed her towards redemption, and freedom at last. Flying and swooping over the wild sea, with all the other lost women of Varanger.

The Condemned Women of 1662 / 1663

Steilneset Memorial to the condemned in Vardø

Twenty women died as a result of witchcraft persecutions between October 1662 and April 1663. Eighteen burnt at the stake and two were tortured to death.

My desire is to let their voices be heard with the tenderness they deserve. The women were: Dorette Lauritsdatter, Maren Sigvaldsdatter, Ragnild Clemidsdatter, Maren Mogensdatter, Maren Henningsdatter, Maritte Rasmusdatter, Sigri Olsdatter, Ingeborg, Peder Krog’s wife (tortured to death), Guri,Laurit’s wife, Sølve Nilsdatter, Ellen Gundersdatter, Karen Andersdatter, Margrete Jonsdatter, Sigri Jonsdatter, Gundelle Olsdatter, Dorette Poulsdatter (tortured to death), Barbra Olsdatter, Bodel Clausdatter, Birgitte Olufsdatter, and Karen Olsdatter.

The following women were acquitted at the court of appeal on 23rd June 1663:

Gertrude Siversdatter, Ragnild Endresdatter, Magdalene Jacobsdatter, and Karen Nilsdatter.

Six girls between the ages of six and thirteen were acquitted: Maren Olufsdatter, Ingeborg Iversdatter, Karen Iversdatter,Karen Nilsdatter, Kirsten Sørensdatter and Siri Pedersdatter.

Later in 1671, a Sami woman by the name of Elli died in custody accused of witchcraft. 

During the witchcraft trials in Finnmark in Northern Norway 135 persons were tried, 91 of which were executed, most of them at the stake.

The last person to die in a witch trial in Finnmark was Anders Poulson in 1692, a Sami man of 100 years of age accused of having a runebomme, a Sami drum used in rituals, and practising shamanism.  

Reconstruction of Anders Poulson's runebomme, Tromsø Museum

The original is in the Kulturhistorisk Museum in Oslo

Accused witch: Maren Sigvaldsdatter, mother of Ingeborg & Karen

Maren Sigvaldsdatter appeared as a dove

Maren Sigvaldsdatter was one of those denounced by Dorette Lauritsdatter in the Autumn of 1662. From the same fishing village of Vadsø as Dorette, Maren Sigvaldsdatter was also the mother of two girls, Ingeborg and Karen Iversdatter who were later accused of witchcraft. 

Transported from Vadsø to the island of Vardø, Maren Sigvaldsdatter was incarcerated in the witches' hole before she appeared before the court at Vardøhus on 6th November 1662 accused of practising witchcraft. As in Dorette's case it is highly likely she was subjected to torture before her court appearance, as almost immediately she 'pledged to state the truth to the extent it was known to her, and she was willing to die upon what she said.' The words of a broken woman. 

Maren confessed that Dorette had given her the craft the summer before in some milk she gave her to drink. Dorette made her foreswear God the Almighty. A short time later a small sparrow came to them in the turf hut, running back and forth across the floor. Shortly after, a small black man dressed in black came in and told Maren to serve him. Afterwards she would have anything she wanted and plenty of wealth. 

Olaus Magnus History of the Nordic Peoples

Illustration depicting wind magic with devils & witches

Maren tested her craft on one of her own lambs by spitting on a piece of bread three times, and saying, 'Burst in the name of the Devil!' She fed the lamb the bread, and it died shortly afterwards. 

Maren also admitted that she, Dorette, Ragnild the Sami, and Sølve, practised weather magic, trying to cast a spell on Jens Ottesen's boat. She said that she was shaped as a dove, and the others were an eagle, a swan, and a crow respectively. They left the village of Vadsø on an overturned barrel and flew upon the Domen Mountain. They undid one knot each, saying, 'Wind in the name of the Devil!', and afterwards they flew out to the ship, and Dorette perched on the rudder, trying to wrest it off the ship. 

Alongside Dorette, and Ragnild, Maren Sigvaldsdatter was condemned and sentenced to fire at the stake. Yet her story does not end with her death, for she was posthumously accused of sacrificing her two daughters, Ingeborg and Karen, to the Devil and teaching them the craft. Both girls were to stand accused of the same crime as their mother in the coming months. It is unclear whether Maren Sigvaldsdatter confessed anything of the sort herself. I feel it unlikely since it would have been recorded in the court documents of her own trial. However there were other mothers who were forced to denounce their daughters in later trials. 

Dorette Lauridtzdatter

On 26th and 27th September 1662 Dorette Lauridzdatter was accused of causing the deaths of two hired hands who worked for the Bergen merchant Lauridtz Bras. Due to adverse weather conditions among other things, the local fishermen of Vadsø and Vardø were struggling to make ends meet and often in debt to the Bergen merchants. There must have been some tension between them. We know that Dorette's husband and Bras did not have good relations. Dorette had previously been accused of killing two of Bras' cows in 1657 but at that time she had been acquitted. However she was a prime target once the new Governor Orning instigated his purge of sorcery and witchcraft in 1662.
From the court records of the time Dorette refused to confess to witchcraft, this is what she says:
'As for her being guilty of their (the hired hands) deaths, and the like, as she has been accused of, she declares before the court, under the most solemn of oaths, upon whatever part, allotment or share she may expect to enjoy in the Kingdom of the Lord, that she never was the cause of the late persons' deaths. She is utterly and completely devoid of guilt, she is innocent. As far as she is concerned she has nothing more to state.'
However the court in Vadsø was not satisfied and Dorette was brought to Vardøhus where she was imprisoned in the Witches' Hole. Over a month later on 6th November she is brought before the court again. Without doubt she would have been subjected to threats of torture, if not torture itself, during this time, being personally 'interrogated' by the Governor himself. When asked in court if she is willing to confess the full truth, Dorette replies that she will willingly oblige him. She goes on to tell how she learnt of her craft from an old beggar woman who taught her to blow into a pipe to bring about what ever evil she wished.
'She admitted to casting a spell on Lauridtz Bras' two hired hands, when she blew into the pipe in the Devil's name that he should enter them...'
Dorette goes on to denounce three other women for witchcraft, and she says that together they attempted to cast a spell on Captain Jens Ottesen's ship. The women were in the likeness of birds, an eagle, a swan and a crow, sitting atop an overturned barrel.

A witch performing weather magic from Olaus Magnus' Description of the Northern Peoples 1555

Dorette's fate was sealed. Once you admitted a pact with the devil there was no going back. Although torture was illegal under Danish law until a witch had confessed (after which she could be tortured to get the names of other witches) it is probable that all the accused women who confessed were subjected to torture beforehand. The paranoia that a woman you know might denounce you for witchcraft must have been intense. Anyone who was a little different, or an outsider such as a maid who came from a different region of Norway, was particularly vulnerable. It was not a good time to be a woman in Vardø.
Along with two of the women that she had denounced, on the same day that she had finally confessed, the three received the following verdict:
'....we have no other course, in view of the seriousness of the matter, than to decide and to judge that for such committed misdeeds they shall be punished in fire at the stake.'
Dorette Lauridsdatter was one of the 20 persecuted women who was burnt at that stake during the witch panic of winter of 1662 in Vardø.

(Court transcripts are taken from the book, The Witchcraft Trials in Finnmark Northern Norway by Liv Helene Willumsen and they are translated by Katjana Edwardsen)