Mora witch trial

The Mora witch trial, which took place in Mora, Sweden, in 1669, is the most internationally famous Swedish witch trial. Reports of the trial spread throughout Europe, and a provocative German illustration of the execution is considered to have had some influence on the Salem witch trials. It was the first mass execution during the great Swedish witch hunt of 1668–1676, leading to the death of fourteen people.

Background

After the trial against Märet Jonsdotter in Härjedalen in 1668, rumours began to spread throughout the country that witches abducted children to the Witches' Sabbath of Satan in Blockula. This caused an hysteria among parents and a series of witch trials around the country, where children pointed out adults for having abducted them to take to Satan riding on cattle taken from the barns of wealthy farmers. In Älvdalen, thirty people were put on trial and eighteen sentenced to death: the national court revoked eleven death sentences and executed six women and one man 19 May 1669. These people were executed on the testimonies of children, which was to be common during this witch hunt.

The trial

In March 1669, the hysteria reached Mora. The bailiff informed the governor: In Älvdalen and Mora, children and teenagers are being seduced by old witches unto the Devil. In June, distressed parents forced the governor to send a list of 35 children, claimed to have been abducted to Satan, to the capital with an appeal to send a commission to Mora to deal with the problem, because if: the old is not dealt with as it should, there is a risk that will become much worse than anyone can imagine.

On 12 August, the newly-created commission of magic of Dalarna arrived to Mora, half of whose members consisted of priests. Over five days, 60 accused adults and numerous children were interrogated. The official responsible for recording their statements openly admitted he did not bother writing down many of them, as they were all so similar. There were so many accused that the trials were conducted at two different locations in the village.

On 23 August, 23 of the 60 accused were sentenced to death for sorcery, for denouncing God, making a pact with the Devil, and child abduction. Six of the condemned, however, were to be imprisoned instead of executed, as the court remained doubtful about their guilt.

The condemned at the Mora witch trial

• Nisses Anna (70 years)
• Jerp Anna from Oxberg (50 years)
• Anders Perssons Anna from Selja (50 years)
• Sol Märet from Selja (58 years), sister of Anders Perssons Anna
• Enghies Anders from Morkarlby (40 years), the only man executed
• Finnes Anna from Morkarlby (70 years), known as "the old sorceress"
• Finnes Märet from Östnor (70 years), sister of Finnes Anna.
• Hära Kerstin from Vika (79 years)
• Butu Margareta from Våmhus (50 years)
• Hindrick Lasses Karin from Våmhus (40 years)
• Hollnus Olofs Brita from Våmhus (36 years)
• Ask-Elin from Våmhus (50 years)
• Mats Hanssons Anna from Bonäs (60 years)
• Hede Hans Märet from Märet (70 years)

• Bäcke Pers Karin from Våmhus (26 years) (execution suspended because of pregnancy)
• Knubb Eriks Anna from Våmhus (35 years) (execution suspended because of pregnancy)

Six other death sentences were suspended because of unclarity, a good reputation and the hope of improvement—among them also a man, Sven Maas from Selja.

The execution

The execution took place on 24 August 1669. The condemned were to be decapitated, after which their corpses were to be burnt at the stake. The report of the execution describes the event: The sinners walked quickly, except the two last ones, who began to sigh and moan, although not such as to delay the procession. The stakes had been built opposite the church on a sandy peninsula on the other side of the river. On the place of execution, the fourteen women and the man were decapitated with an axe, and their corpses were lifted up unto the stakes: first seven on the first stake, five at the second and three at the third, a terrifying spectacle, and burnt.

A boy was sentenced to running the gauntlet between the other village boys and 148 children were whipped. Thereafter, the commission left Mora. Additionally six women were subsequently executed.

Aftermath

The vicar continued to send complaints to the governor about witches. In December 1669, another 60 stood accused of sorcery in Mora, but the local authorities were no longer willing to conduct any witch trials: the harder you conduct these things, the more dangerous it becomes, wrote the governor, and the more difficult it seems to me to be able to separate the guilty from the innocent. Therefore, no one was sentenced harsher than to a whipping.

In February 1670, the governor complained that there was suddenly talk of witches everywhere, and that this hysteria was spreading as fire in dry grass. Vicars were constantly writing to him asking for more witch trials, but he refused and advised them to preach to the suspected witches instead. The government gave the order that a special prayer, the witch prayer, was to be held in the churches of the kingdom: that prayer was said from 1670 to 1677.

There were no more witch trials in Mora, but the witch craze spread, among others reasons being because the vicars were to inform the public of the sentences as a warning. The Mora witch trial was the first mass witch trial in the great Swedish witch hunt and, in the following years, it grew until it reached its peak in the Torsåker witch trials of 1675, and stopped after the execution of Malin Matsdotter in the capital.

The famous German illustration of the execution, however, depicts the event incorrectly, as it depicts the condemned being executed by burning alive, as they were in Germany, rather than decapitated, as they were in Sweden.

References

• Alf Åberg: Häxorna. De stora trolldomsprocesserna i Sverige 1668-1676(The witches. The great Swedish witch trials of 1668-1676) Novum Grafiska AB, Göteborg 1989. ISBN 91-24-16385-6. (Swedish)
• Birgitta Lagerlöf-Génetay: De svenska häxprocessernas utbrottsskede 1668-1671 (The eruption of the Swedish witch trials 1668-1671) (Swedish)