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Thastian planoleha shoonery plumeri dianadori ineltori alturi banishtori lohran agnesnius mowen thastian thuwen lederhud shkilina agustahi galeir chunkal thaan dawan toga agath anish tara rash agga togun chach o hog thu tila olich eg go punk I e tul building Ireland chachterocht.
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O riltis naheren don't raise your voice to prove you're right. Focus your mind with every word of irrefutable fact you can find, because conviction is the calm that comes when you know that you really do know. People who read the Financial Times know that they can shape their own perspectives with confidence because their viewpoints are informed by genuinely unbiased journalism, clarity and conviction. Source ft subscribe to the financial times@ft.comSourceFT.
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AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation@rubrik.com that's R U B R-I K.com.
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Hello delicious friends, and welcome to who did what Now? The history podcast. That's not your history class with me, your host, Katie Charlewood, history harlot and reader of books who is starting this episode with a corrections corner because it is really bloody important. Accountability is where it's at, lads. So I was contacted by a domestic violence prosecutor I after my North Berwick Witch Trials episode, who was absolutely dismayed at my description of manual strangulation as a difficult and drawn out process. So here's the thing about manual strangulation. I'm talking like with your hands, not with a garrote or any other implement which can quicken the process. You can be unconscious in 10 seconds, you can be dead within a minute, you'll definitely be dead within five. And here's the thing. Manual strangulation is the most lethal form of domestic violence, short of murder. Right? Strangulation, then murder. Like, that's the jump as executions go though, death by strangulation. Manual strangulation is very specific and weirdly intimate. You know, as an execution it is though. But when it comes to domestic violence and strangulation, I never want to downplay or misrepresent any of that. So I am going to put a Link in the description down below, which is basically to educate you about the acute danger posed by even non fatal strangulation. There's a strangulation training institute and they've got a really, a really interesting infographic on the physiological consequences of structural triangulation. So check that out. And now that I've done that, now for something completely different. There were so many things happening out in the world that every now and again I am incredibly tempted to do a who's doing what now, like bonus thing and just like tell people, like, I'd really love friends to be involved in this and just tell them. And we talk about news events that are happening now, like Exodus 8 happening in Portland. Like what, what? Like what is happening? And also you can tell I was a cradle Catholic, can't you? And also like the heist. A heist in broad daylight in the Louvre. What. How dark is our timeline that. A major jewel heist of historical, historical gems, right? Artifacts even. And we're just like, oh, what delightful Sunday news. Like everything else is so horrible and terrible and, and the worst, right? And then this happens and we're like, jolly old show, like, what? Oh, but there's so much I want to talk about, but we have stuff to do and I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, katie, quit your jibber jabber and fact me and fact you I will. But first we've got to get our source on. Our sources are Witches of the north by Love Helena Williamson, Witchcraft by Marion Gibson, Female witches and Sami Sorcerers in the Witch Trials of Arctic Norway by Rue Blexhagen, John Cunningham by T.J. olson, Scottish witches and Witch Hunters by Liv Helen Williamson, the Witch Trials of Finnmark by Torbjorn Alm. And of course we have our old favourites, history.com and biography.com. are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then let's begin. By the 17th century, Scots were emigrating all over the globe, from the New World colonies in America to the Caribbean and even colonies up north of north. Medieval trading posts had expanded into towns and villages with less than 3,000 people spread over 20,000 square miles. And colonists were not the only inhabitants, though the indigenous Sami people had lived, hunted, herded, and just existed on the islets of Vardo and Wadsaw. So they're on these islets on the Finnmark region in northern Norway. Now Norway was part of Denmark Norway, like I think I mentioned this a little bit in the last episode. So from the 16th to the 19th century, the Dano Norwegian Union was a dual monarchy encompassing the Kingdom of Denmark and the Kingdom of Norway. Now, Norway also included several overseas possessions. So you had Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and then of course there were colonies in like India, Africa, the West Indies, so on and so forth. Now remember, Greenland is covered in ice and Iceland is very nice. So many colonizers who had emigrated were Catholic and they lived a rather unexcited life together. Right. They just got on with the Sami people. They just existed in the same place, which was shocking. Like two people out with these societies. I know. And you're thinking Catholics. We're just kind of chilling. Yep. I'm as surprised as you are. Okay, so King James VI of Scotland, he was the brother in law to King Christian iv and he had decreed anti witchcraft laws, right. So both of them just really hated the concept of witches. And Christian IV, he had decreed, you know, this in 1617 about witches and their accomplices, and this redefined like just the whole concept of witchcraft. So not only was it illegal to be a witch, it was illegal if you didn't report anyone that you believed to be a witch. And it combined variations of demonology, you know, some of the charms and such and the rest packed with the devil. It combined parts of the Malleus maleficarum with James's own demonology weaved through it. And this linked witchcraft to folk magic, traditional healing, devil worship and heresy. From 1617 onwards, all witchery and magic in the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway was, was punishable by death or for like lesser offences, exile. When the witch craze reached the extreme northern edge of the country, it was carried there by John Cunningham, a Scottish immigrant. See John Cunningham, he was born around 1575 at the manor Barns in the East Nuke of Fife in Scotland. It's also sort of in the area of Quail. So he was the illegitimate son of John Cunningham, the Laird of West Barnes. John Cunningham senior was married at least twice and at least one of those marriages produced a legitimate heir. However, it appears he may not have had a spare anyway. And John Cunningham Jr. Was, was legitimized in 1595. So when he's like around 20ish, and his father was a laird, which meant he had a little power, a little influence and buckets and buckets of money, which meant he could have easily forked out for a university education for his son, you know, like he did for his other children. But instead John was not given that same privilege as his siblings. And so he went to sea to see what he could ccc. But all that he could CCC was the bottom of the deep blue ccc. I regret nothing. So he manages to impress King James VI of Scotland. And so the seaman was highly recommended to James, brother in law. He, King Christian IV of denmark, Norway. In 1603, James writes a letter of recommendation, a letter that implies that the king knew John well and requested that Christian IV treat him with respect. So the kings, Christian and James, they got on really well. I mean, they're family, you know, they're kings. They both like nice clothes, the Bible, and accusing women of being witches and then killing them. You know, just king things. So anyway, he ends up treating him with the respect that is requested because it's like James knew him personally, it appears, but I'm not gonna read into that. So anyway, John Cunningham is hired by Christian and he is promoted within two years. And for what I assume was assimilation purposes, changed his name to Hans Koenig. I mean, at least he won't get confused with his dad anymore. Anyway, he's a naval captain now and he's commanding this small fleet of his own. So he's got the ship Trost, which means Comfort, and the ships Den Rodlov, or which mean Red lion, and the Katten, which means cat. It's just a ship called the Cat. What's your ship called? Red Lion. Comfort. You know, cat. So anyway, as a captain, John is quite impressive. Like, the fleet has been sent to re establish contact with Norse settlements in Greenland, and he guides the ships through very dangerous seas. Like, he's got a really cool head on him. Like, while everyone else is panicking, he's like, I got this right? Ciao. So some crew members, however, do find him, quote, a bit strange, especially after he had a tipple, right? At one point, he accuses two crewmen of being criminals and just leaves them in Greenland, like, with some supplies to keep them going, you know, for a bit. Like a bit. And again, Greenland is covered in ice, but Iceland is very nice. So they're also, like, charting, like, the area and they're naming things, you know, that probably already have names. Like, there's a mountain called Kakatsiak, which I've probably horribly butchered there, but they change it to Mount Cunningham. Yep, that's Mount Cunningham now. Cool. So apart from naming places, dumping men on the coast, and making people uncomfortable whenever he drank, John also managed to kidnap four indigenous people, which I feel like I shouldn't have to say this, but kidnapping people, especially indigenous people, is wrong. Don't do that. Unsurprisingly, a skirmish occurs because the native people of Greenland, they don't want them kidnapping their people. I end up firing cannons at them. It's ugh. Like. And he's just. He's just there stealing these people because he's a dick. I guess. Naturally, these men weren't super keen on being stolen from their homeland, you know, and trafficked. And so they start causing problems on the ship to assert his dominance. John shoots one and surprise, surprise, no more issues occur on board. Now, once they return to Denmark, by the way, right? Any information about these Greenlandels just who gone, they just disappear from the records, which usually means something bad happened, right? There's nothing anywhere at all. They're just like, taken. Sir John, he continues his naval career exploring around Greenland. He reaches the land that is known as Canada. It becomes known as Canada at one point. And, like, he's just, you know, scooting around the globe. He is earning his stripes for Denmark, Norway. He patrolled the North Sea and was a captain the. During the Kalmar War. And again, we have to slip into some context here. Basically, the Kalmar War ran from like 1611 to 1613. So two years. And the long and short of it is, is that Sweden did not want to pay sound dues to Denmark, Norway. Denmark, Norway controlled the strait between the Baltic Sea and. And the North Sea. And it charged a toll to use it. And so Sweden decided that they were gonna try and avoid that by traveling through Lapland. Now, Lapland was sparsely populated, and that's also where Santa lives. So King Carl IX of Sweden declared himself King of the Lapps in Nordland. So, yeah, the indigenous people, by the way, around these areas, they were known as Finns and Laps. Okay? And so here's Lapland. And he's like, this is mine now. So he declares himself king, and then he starts collecting taxes in Norwegian territory. And there was a land grab. And then Denmark, Norway declared war. They're like, you can't have this. This is ours. So John's involved in that. And two years after the Kalmar War, John is sent to Spitsbergen, which is an island off the north of Norway, right? And here's. He's one of the commanders of a naval exhibition to demand tools from foreign whalers, because they're like, you can't be whaling inerties. Give us the money. In the following year, he captains another ship as part of an exhibition to rid Norwegian territories of whalers and pirates. Ahar, Sir John, Hans here was really cementing his position as a loyal subject of Denmark. Norway, a man who could be trusted to enforce the Dano Norwegian king's laws and the like. John Cunningham, he's in his 40s now, and with his harsh personality, life experience, and of course, his naval and colonial leadership made him the perfect candidate for the Finnmark governorship. What's interesting, actually, is that quite a lot of the royal officials of Northern Norway were typically foreign nationals. Like, it was a very deliberate choice by the king. Like, why? Probably because they were more likely to go the extra mile and prove themselves to the king. Like, don't get rid of us. We'll do the right thing or the wrong thing, more so, actually. So in 1599, King Christian had visited Finnmark and he was not happy. The Sami and the Catholic settlers were living harmoniously together. Like, they just kind of got on with it. And so on the return journey, the fleet sails into a storm on a treacherous sea. And of course, it's blamed on magic. Then they discover a member of the crew has just straight up stolen a Sami woman's cat. Naturally, they are convinced that the cat is evil and it is carrying a curse because it was stolen. And the plan is to just dump the cat overboard. But, like, what if that angers the witches more? The king orders that the cat be sent adrift with a month's supply of food in Lake A raft. Right, here's. Here's a horrible fact for you. The majority of people that try to ferry themselves off of an island on a makeshift raft or whatever have a much higher risk of dying than those waiting to be rescued. Right? Cats, I don't know if you know this, don't have opposable thumbs. And so I'm not entirely sure how great they'd be at sailing. And so they put the cat in this raft with food and it goes into the distance. And then once the cat is out of sight, the weather gets better. So they're like, clearly it was the cat. Right? So the fleet does make it back home, despite the evil Sami magic, right? There was this belief that the Sami could control the wind and stuff. And so, like, they made the storm happen. It's like, okay, so, like, this is. This is an event, really. So less than two years later, the governor of Finnmark dies suddenly, and his sudden death is blamed on the Sami people and their magic. To be clear, King Christian was convinced that the Sami had magically murdered the previous Finnmark governor. Now, this isn't altogether surprising when you consider that his brother in law, like, along with his brother in law, he believed that there was an international conspiracy of witches out to get kings. Right, right. In Finmark. Right. Some Sami were nomadic, trekking into the mountains following reindeer or caribou. Others lived permanently in fjord villages. All of them were no stranger to southern incomers, those who settled and those just passing through. And unlike other indigenous peoples, the Sami rarely caught the southern European diseases like the plague. Like, they're fairly hardy, you know, and they had their own culture, their own languages and their own traditions. Like, there were like so many different languages and dialects. And most of them are probably just wettered away now because, you know, colonization. The spirits and deities in the Sami religion were connected to nature spirits, ancestors, unincluded divination, and to the Christian king. Christian. This was barbaric. As if in a man in a robe leading a group to chant in unison before and after consuming the flesh and blood of an undead deity isn't fucking weird. Yeah, I am talking about the Eucharist and Christianity. You're welcome. Sami seers were thought to cast evil spells on others. And this leads to a bunch of ethnographers like Olaus Magnus, who had never even met a Sami person, and Peter Claus and Friess to claim that the Sami were evil tempered, dangerous enemies steeped in demonic paganism and witchcraft. It should be no surprise then that the first person to be tried as a witch after Cunningham's promotion to governor was a Sami woman.
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AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation@rubrik.com that's R U B R I K.com.
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Tilla Olich EG Gov Punk I E tul Building Ireland King Christian IV's decree had made a sea of witch trials likely. But John Cunningham's leadership made it a certainty. The king wanted this district, made up of indigenous peoples and settlers, fishing and farming and just, you know, living side by side, to be crushed into a good little tax paying Protestant islet, conforming to the colonial rule. As discussed in the previous episode in the North Berwick witch Trials, accusing people of magic and persecuting them was not a new occurrence. It had been happening for quite some time. So John settles right in in Finnmark. He's governing, he's raising taxes, he's watching out for pirates, building Castle Vanhos and teaching people about witches. So, like, there's this whole thing with the devil. So like in all of the previous witch trials in Norway, none of the confessions mentioned the devil. It just wasn't a thing. Right. So they would mention all of these other stuff, but never the devil. But Cunningham here, he's heard about James's demonology and how witches caught with the devil. So like he brings that concept here. So when King Christian's decree comes about in 1617, which was for, by the way, the 100th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, just a weird way to commemorate that, but still, like, I'm not entirely sure that when Martin Luther was nailing his treaties to the door of the church, that he was like, oh, in a century's time, I do really hope they use this as an excuse to murder women. I feel like that might not be the case. So he's like, Emma's decree. So it's. It's like bad witches get killed, good witches get their property seized and then get banished. Banished. And here we've got John with his broad demonological theory and the vague knowledge at least of the Scottish witch confessions. Like he grew up just across the road from it really. I mean, he's across the river, right. And he would have been a young man, a teenager when this was kicking off. So there's no way he wouldn't have heard about it, Right. This would have been very much around and in his. In his vicinity, you know. Which brings me to an event on Christmas Eve in 1617 where more than 40 men from the Finmark fishing fleet, they were fishing off East Finmark and their in their Nordlanders, which are fishing boats. So the Nordlander fishing boat is sort of a similar design to a Viking longship. It's light, it's narrow and strong and it's got like a shallow profile and a short keel. So if the nets are over the sides and they get hit by a rough sea, they could very easily just flip over, which is exactly what happened. And these were men used to these waters with generational knowledge and experience. And this was a freak of nature, an unexpected accident. This violent storm sinks 10 ships and killed 40 men, leaving grief filled villages in its aftermath. And at the time it was just accepted as horrible tragedy. But we will come back to this. The first witch trial after John's announcement as governor was that of Find Carri or Carrie the Finn, also known as Caron Edistate, a naming method of the colonial power. How shocking. Carrie was accused of witchcraft and using her magical ways to. To kill two men. He had it coming he had it coming. He had it coming. Anyway, under bailiff Sophren Nielsen, a ten man jury surprising tried Carrie on 13 May 1620. She was accused of murdering Abraham Nielsen of Hop because he went to take a p at sea. Anne went over the rail of his ship and drowned. She was also accused of drowning Henrik from Umgang, which is the same village as Carrie was from. So Carrie allegedly had a feud with Henrik because she asked to borrow a pot and he refused. So obviously she had to drown him. Abraham Neilson Nevat a wee bit more convoluted. His maid was pregnant and had been shagging a dude called Johannes, who Carrie was known to have been having a sexual relationship with. So Abraham and Johannes, they get into an altercation and Abraham is demanding that Johannes marry his maid and be, you know, like a decent man. He's like, you did this. You now have to support her and do your duty. And Johannes is like, I will give her stuff if I find it. And he's like so non committal and kind of like maybe, I guess. And Abraham Nielsen is pissed, right? He's so mad at this just apathy at this situation that he takes a swing at Johannes. And Carrie, she's watching the whole thing, she's watching it all unfold and now she's angry. So she jumps in in the middle of this argument to protect Johannes and then threatens Abraham. Now she says something about like a devil getting him or something. And a few days later Abraham falls to his death. And so he falls. It's at Biatsford, I think. And here's the kicker. The boy's on is Hans Konig's boat. John Cunningham at the trail. Johannes claims that Carrie bewitched him into sleeping with her. I'm sorry, what? So he claims that she used her magic to seduce him and that she knew all about the ship and Abraham's death before it had returned to port. Johannes is a sneaky little shit. He cheats on Kari, impregnates women who he abandons and then accuses his girlfriend who of a crime that will absolutely get her killed. All because she was trying to protect him. Carrie is also accused of making Anders Rasmussen's wife have a gami leg until she paid for repairs that she owed her. The all male jury, made up of settlers and having no Sammy on it whatsoever, were told not to give their verdict until one last test was performed. Bailiff Soften Nielsen had Carrie swum in the harbour. An ordeal for the accused. Dunking. It's basically dunking. She's thrown into the Arctic water. So here's the thing. Swimming was not something that modest, respectable settler ladies did, right? It was seen as something peculiar and odd. They didn't swim, they didn't float. Didn't do any of that jazz, right? And of course, by this ordeal, if she floats, she's guilty. If she sinks, she's innocent but dead. And if she weighs the same as a duck. So Carrie is thrown into the icy waters and says fuck this for game of soldiers and manages to thrash and kick and keep herself from sinking beneath the waves just long enough to be convicted of witchcraft. But she's not done in Norway. It's after the conviction that the torture begins. Sicari is put on the rack and she is tortured until she confessed. She confesses to meeting a spirit as a girl. A headless ghost had given her keys that if she accepted, would make her a witch. She's a fin, right? She lives in a Lavu tent, which is like. Not too dissimilar to like a Lakota teepee, but it's domed in flatter. And the fuck does she need keys for? Instead she accepts a decorated ribbon and now she's a witch. Her accusers tortured her into changing her story so that the ghost or the spirit was now the devil. And this. This is fucking horrible. She confesses that the devil had tortured her to insanity, stretching her limbs and assaulting her till she bled until she did his bidding. But it wasn't the devil stretching her limbs on the rack, but her Christian accusers, Nielsen, on behalf of John Cunningham and King Christian. At the end of this torture, after obtaining the answers they wanted, the innocent Sammy Herder was burned to death as a witch. In Norway, witches were burned alive. In France, Germany, Switzerland and Scotland, witches were typically strangled, then burned. But no, in Norway, burned alive. But before she was executed, Carrie named two more witches. Lisbeth Nilesdatter and Morton Nilsson Ann from Langefjord. Lisbeth was tried on 28 April 1621, and she knew witchcraft and had no second thoughts about killing a man or two. She was also tested by swimming when she was tortured. Lisbeth claimed that Carrie taught her the magic of stealing milk from animals and that the devil appeared as a goat. Now, in this region, goats weren't common, right? That was something brought from down south. So this is where part of that ideology, the iconography of the goat devil, like where that connection is just really reaffirmed because they've just brought it up here. She even confesses to being an accomplice in the magical drownings of of Abraham and Henrik. She even goes on to say that a coven had met to drink and dance into the long night at the Arctic Circle. July. And so she confesses to all this. And then Lisbeth was burned alive like her stepsister Carrie. So, remember the tragic fishing accident off the coast of East Finn mark back in 1617? Well, a thought comes to pass. What if it hadn't been an accident after all? What if it was an act of malevolent witchcraft?
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AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation at rubrik.com that's R U-B-R-I-K.com.
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Was witchcraft the cause of the terrible fishing tragedy in 1617? Well, suspicion fell upon 11 women. Mary Drogensdata, Kirsten Sorensdatter, Gori Oldsdatter from Lil Ekaroy, Guri's Oldsdatter from Stove Ekoroi Ragnahilda, Olofsdatter, Ciri and Elsa Knudsdatter, Ann Lardsdatter, Marite Oldsdatter, Karu Olofstata and Mette Thogestarta. I'm gonna apologize now for all of the names that I struggled to say. I'm very sorry. Mara Jogostrata was interrogated and tortured, after which she proclaimed that the devil had led her into witchcraft, which Also conveniently led to her neighbour Kirsty Sorenstadl's house. Kirsty was allegedly a coven leader, originally from Helsingor in Denmark and had worked in a servant in Norway in the town of Bergen. Shortly after marrying Anders Johansson, the couple moved to Finnmark in 1597. He was a merchant and had ambition, so they moved up there with thoughts of just mercantile stuff, trading and so on. In 1621, Anders is doing well for himself and the couple are steady. Kirsty is 57 at this point and had previously been suspected of witchcraft. Like she was accused of killing four cows, a charge that would only really come up four years later. Back to Mary for a sec, though. The devil bites her and turns her into a raven and she flies to a coven meeting outside of Bergen. And all of the coven had travelled as animals, ravens, foxes, cats, dogs, a duck billed platypus, so on and so forth. They had a Sabbath and then flew back to Finnmark. All except Kirsty, who sailed for reasons. I don't know what that reason was, but apparently she did. Mary admits to this event and also magically causing the violent storm on Christmas Eve 1617. Not only did she confess to that, but also that the women shagged other men when their husbands were out at sea. I mean, I get in for a penny, in for a pound, but like, you can just stop now. You can, you can stop. More accusations are made and those accused are held in a dungeon in the Vadhus Fortress, right. Called and I shit you not, the Witch's Hole. Elsie Neudstadter was accused of being seen with demons in the shapes of dogs and cats. A woman was seen with demons in the shapes of dogs and cats. Has anyone considered that maybe she was just near dogs and cats? Maybe she liked animal. Maybe she always carried bacon in her pocket. Whom's to say she claims innocence until, of course, she's tortured. So at this point, at this point so far, 12 women had been burned to death for causing the storm of 1617. Carrie and Lisbeth, by the way, were accused retroactively. Right? They were like, oh, that was also them. They were involved in this. Then we have number 13 custody, Soren's data, who was again allegedly a coven leader. She had been reported for arguing with Anders Blom, like one of the fishermen who died on Christmas Eve four years earlier. Kirsty, according to her neighbors, had been assaulted by Anders Blom and so she enlisted the help of her coven to exact revenge upon him. This trial, unlike the trials of Carrie And Lisbeth had the unfortunate point of having Hans Coning or John Cunningham present. Her trial occurred at the vadajos fortress on the 26th and 28th April 1621. Now that had to be terrifying. The governor seated with the jury and the bailiff and he took charge like they were all deferring to him. And at first Costi denied everything and that she was a victim of slander. Then the court threatened to swum hurt sea. But it's April and this woman knows the sea is absolutely Baltic, right? And so she confesses cuz she knows like she's dead if she's in that water one way or the other. And she tells the illustrious Hans Conning what he wants to hear. She tells him that she was herding geese. But of course it's geese. It's geese that are the true agents of the devil. So she's herding geese and that's when the devil appeared to her as a dog and told her to serve him. She's like 16 years old and asks her employer, she's like a maid for an old lady. And she's like, what do I do? And this old lady's like, take the deal. Well, I'm assuming making an old timey Werther's original. So let's just pause for a moment and remember that John Cunningham grew up in the Crail of Fife. He was 15 when the North Berwick witch trials happened. And what a crazy random happenstance that Kirsty is admitting to a demon dog, just like Agnes Samson did. Kirsty claimed not to have used her magic for a whole decade, but John wanted blood under his hand. She confessed to using witchcraft on her neighbours in Finmark. She admitted to the Sabbath, to flying through the air and murder on the 27th of April, right? So the trial is the 26th. She then is tortured on the 27th. So she's on the rack, she's tortured. And on the 28th the broken 57 year old woman was back in court confessing to more witchy crimes. She admits to conspiring with witches and causing the deadly storm four years prior. Kirsty, like Lisbeth and Carrie, is found guilty. John ensures that she gets her punishment and Kirsty Sorensdatter is burned alive. And Kirsty was the last person to be executed in 1621. But John Cunningham, he would continue to accuse, prosecute and burn a few witches a year to keep him in Christian IV's good graces. Now, in a move that surprises absolutely no one, the Sami People started moving away from settlers, migrating north or even westward towards the New World. The colonial aspect of witchcraft would always be a threat, hanging over a people who just wanted to live their lives. A minority persecuted by colonial powers. The majority of women accused were settlers. But the impact and the accusations, they were rooted in bigotry and racism. And John, he continued this war on witches and continued serving as governor up until his death in 1651. Like, so. Like at one point actually, and I forgot to mention this, is that John Cunningham breaks his foot, right? He just breaks his foot and he accuses witches of causing it. Like, not him, not him being a clumsy. No, clearly witches, right? And the women accused, they say they did it because he was being an asshole. Like, it's not verbatim, but that's me paraphrasing it for you. They're like, fck this for a game of soldiers. And they break his foot, right? That's, that's what they do. They're like, we did it because you're just an awful, often scum of a human, right? As governor of Finmark, John Cunningham accused 52 people of being witches, and 41 of those accused were executed. I'm no mathematician, but those are not good odds. Witch hunting in Finnmark didn't even end with his death, though. The next two governors, Danish Jorgen Friess and Norwegian Christopher Orning, were also really into finding witches and burning them alive. Over the course of the witch trials in Norway, Finnmark had 135 witch trials over 92 years and 111 women were killed. 4.5% of the population were accused of being witches. Finnmark had 16% of all Norwegian witchcraft trials and 31% of the death sentences. Now, you can bring isolation into this. You can blame religious fervor. You can also blame deep rooted fucking misogyny, right? And this is used to destroy, to overtake, to crush it. Like it made it a good little Protestant region, right? Paying its taxes, doing what it wanted, following society's rules and the colonial rule. And anyone who didn't fit in, that was gone one way or the other. Whether they migrated away because the land that was theirs was just taken, or they were just murdered. So, I mean, banishing happened too, but mainly murder. And so ends our story of the Vardo Wedge trials. This may be the shortest episode I actually recorded on witchcraft trials. I think thus far, like, I was getting so angry writing this, because I write it all by hand, is that I didn't realize how many words I'd skipped in pure rage. So I'm just like, oh, there's supposed to be the here. There's no the. There's no of. There's no whatever. And so some of the sentences I said, they might not make full sense. Oh, I know what I meant to say, and it came out right in my head, but I'm not sure if those words left my mouth correctly. If you want to hear me say things correctly and incorrectly, come to see me in London. Now, more dates for other places are going to be coming out soon, but London is soon. It's the closest one. It's November 8th, and it is my birthday next month. So if anyone wants to get me those American Duchess Burgundy boots, they've just been released. I wouldn't say no. No. That being said, I like corsets. Although I'm trying to find some, like, fancier ones than the ones I normally get because my shapewear currently is, like, from what Katie did. So recommendations, please, for those for, like, you know, sexy, cool. Like, I want them still to be corsets. Like, I will take burlesque corsets. I don't mind forking out for them. That being said, if anyone wants to treat me, I wouldn't say no. I use my witchcraft on you diddle diddly. So, yeah, that is that. And I think it's recommendation time. Ooh, for watching. Like, you know what? For watching, I think everyone should watch Bed Knobs and Broomsticks. I. I saw. I actually went to see. Oh, my goodness. I actually went to go see Live a Solve a Long Murder She Wrote. It was a really good time. I had a great time. But, yeah, watch Bedknobs and Broomsticks because Angela Lansbury plays a witch, and the whole reason she's doing stuff is she's going to fight Nazis. And I think that's just a good role model for anyone for listening. You know what I listened to this week? Actually tickled to death. It's like a horror movie, quiz show thing, podcast. It's very fun and a little unhinged, and I'm absolutely here for it. So, like, go listen to that. And for reading, you know what? I have a beautiful, beautiful book by Willow Winchum. It's called the Story of Witches, Folklore, History, and Superstition. Go read that. Okay. And with that, I shall bad you. Good evening. Adios. Au revoir. Au revoir, my friends. Bye bye.
- [54:17]
C
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A
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