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.