Lore Podcast Episode 287: It Takes a Village
Host: Aaron Mahnke
Release Date: August 25, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Aaron Mahnke delves into the chilling world of child-centered folklore and history, particularly focusing on the recurring motif of children as monsters, scapegoats, or even witnesses in dark historical events. Through various stories — from ancient supernatural tales to infamous witch trials in Europe — Mahnke explores how societies have both feared and weaponized the idea of the monstrous or mystical child. The episode traces these themes across cultures, shedding light on how such stories have functioned both as cautionary tales and as mirrors of societal anxieties, especially during times of crisis.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Battle of the Frogs and the Power of Small Creatures

• [01:08] The episode opens with the story of the 1754 "Battle of the Frogs" in Windham, Connecticut. What began as a panic over mysterious, apocalyptic-sounding wails was ultimately revealed as the mass dying of local bullfrogs.
• Insight: This story sets the stage for the theme: how seemingly innocent or small beings can become the sources of outsize fear and mythology.

2. Creepy Children in Folklore

• [04:15+] Mahnke transitions into the horror trope of "creepy kids," noting this is not just a pop culture fascination but a reflection of centuries-old fears.
  • Filipino Chanak: Undead, vampiric infants who prey on women and children.
    • "You can protect your kids from this tiny vampire by giving them simple names... or adorning them in a necklace of alligator teeth." [04:50]
  • Jewish Banim Shovavim: Mischievous, demonic children who scheme around funerals.
  • Japanese Yokai:
    • Benign pranksters like makuragaeshi ("pillow swapper") and zashiki-warashi ("guest room child").
    • More sinister yokai: The kappa (predatory river demons) and paro ritaro ("licky boy") who eats greedy children.
  • Boogeyman archetypes:
    • Mesopotamia's Lamashtu (child-eating demon) and Greece's Lamia (vengeful, child-stealing monster).

3. Cautionary Monsters and Real-World Parallels

• [07:47] Mahnke underscores that stories of child-eating monsters served as cautionary tales to keep children safe "from supposed dangers—swamps, woods, being out after dark—by giving them a terrifying face."
  • Black Agnes (English folklore): "An old crone...who stole away children who stayed out playing after sundown. What does Black Agnes do with her victims, you might ask? Well, that's easy. She flays them alive, devours their flesh, and then scatters their bones across the land." [09:05]

4. Dark Historical Realities: Child Mortality and Folklore

• [10:32] These myths also helped adults process devastatingly high child mortality rates before modern medicine.
  • Example statistics: "In Greece, 40% of all babies did not survive childhood."
  • Quote: "By telling tales of child killing monsters, adults were able to anticipate and discuss the pain of losing a child through the soft veil of metaphor.” [11:25]

5. When Folklore Backfires: Children in Witch Trials

• [12:10+] The episode takes a darker turn into how children themselves became central in witch hunts.
  • Early witch trials formally excluded children’s testimony, but by the late 16th century, these safeguards disappeared.
  • Children as star witnesses: In England, "the law was firm, at least until it wasn't."
  • "In fact, by the 17th and 18th centuries, children were responsible for starting most of the witch panics across Europe and the colonies." [13:40]

Notable Case: Pendle Hill Witches (England, 1612)

• [15:02+] The story of 9-year-old Janet Device, whose testimony led to the execution of her mother, brother, sister, grandmother, and others.
  • “At some point in this testimony, her mother erupted into hysterics, screaming and pleading for her daughter to save her. But the woman’s cries fell on deaf ears...." [17:55]
  • Mahnke reflects: “Did you spend the rest of your life atoning? ... Or was the truth too painful to admit, did you choose to continue hiding inside a fairy tale?” [19:00]

6. The Legend of the Wizard Jackal and the Salzburg Witch Trials

• [19:40+] Shifts focus to 17th-century Salzburg, Austria, to explore the "Wizard Jackal" story — a beggar accused of leading a child-witch gang.
  • Authorities, after arresting Jacob's mother for theft, hear her claim (under torture) that her son Jacob had recruited a gang of child thieves and witches.
  • Boys as young as ten imprisoned and interrogated under torture. Rumor spirals transform Jacob into a supernatural boogeyman: “These kids claimed that Jackal could become invisible, shapeshift into a wolf, ... and even bring on great calamities like wildfires and storms.” [22:35]
  • Chilling conclusion: “Between one and two hundred children had been executed. The youngest was only ten years old. And as for the Wizard Jackal himself, he was never found.” [24:10]
  • Reflection: “If you strip away the big fish stories and the rumors...what you’re left with is a moneyed class waging a bloody campaign against those they deem undesirable.” [24:45]
  • Insight: Mahnke suggests that the myth of Jackal may have served as a psychological refuge or even a secret hero figure for the vulnerable children themselves.

7. Children Who Believe Their Own Guilt: Norwegian Witch Trials

• [28:15+] The 17th-century Norwegian witch trials of Vardø feature children accused after their mothers are executed.
  • Ingeborg Iversdottir claims: “Her mom had taken her to the sheep shed where she had fed her a bowl of milk...she noticed some icky black stuff in the bottom of the bowl, and so she refused to drink the rest, pouring it onto the floor. But it was too late. She had already swallowed enough. Her stomach began to ache. And that’s when her mother called for the evil one.” [28:59]
  • Other children give similar testimonies, including tales of evil dogs and devilish bargains.
  • Modern analysis suggests the hallucinations they described may have been caused by ergot poisoning: “According to some scholars, that description sounds a whole lot like the black grain-like appearance of ergot, a fungus...that can cause vivid hallucinations in those who ingest it.” [32:03]

Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• "Sometimes the smallest characters can stir up the biggest trouble." — Aaron Mahnke, [03:05]
• “Heck, in ancient Mesopotamia, there were legends of a winged lion-headed beast called the Lamashtu....” — Aaron Mahnke, [06:32]
• "We like to think of progress as forward moving, that with each passing year we can be wiser and more sensible than the people in the past. But... that isn’t always how it shakes out.” — Aaron Mahnke, [11:51]
• On the Wizard Jackal: “He was more than just a street kid. He was a sorcerer. But most vitally, he possessed the one thing that these children longed for the most...the wizard Jackal was never alone." — [25:30]
• "While today’s subject may have been sweet faced, barefoot and barely tall enough to reach the altar, to their neighbors they were harbingers of storms, sickness, and sin." — [26:50]

Timestamps for Major Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|-----------------------------------------------| | 01:08 | The Battle of the Frogs in Connecticut | | 04:15 | Creepy children in myth and folklore | | 10:32 | Folklore as processing child mortality | | 12:10 | Children in witch trials — legal history | | 15:02 | The Pendle Witch accusations (Janet Device) | | 19:40 | The Wizard Jackal and Salzburg Witch Trials | | 28:15 | Norwegian children accused of witchcraft | | 32:03 | Ergot poisoning theory for “demonic milk” |

Episode Tone & Narrative Style

Aaron Mahnke's characteristic storytelling is evident throughout — dry, gently sardonic, and empathetic toward victims of historical paranoia. He blends dark humor (“...the flabby child shaped paro ritaro, which eats greedy human children and whose name translates to, I kid you not, 'licky boy.'”) with sobering commentary on the abuse and scapegoating of children (“...what you’re left with is a moneyed class waging a bloody campaign against those they deem undesirable.”).

Conclusion

This episode of Lore weaves together monster tales, child-centered superstitions, and the tragic misuse of children in societies gripped by fear or seeking scapegoats. By excavating folklore alongside historical events, Mahnke highlights the complex ways in which children — real and imagined — have carried the weight of adult anxieties, superstitions, and cruelty. The stories may be unsettling, but they ask enduring questions about innocence, belief, and the cost of collective fear.