The Lore and Myths of Witches Chapter 4: The Witch-Hunts — Fire, Fear, and Folklore

0:00 Speaker 1: Grab your cloaks, dear listeners, and maybe a marshmallow or two,

0:04 Speaker 1: because Europe is about to light a lot of fires.

0:07 Speaker 1: From the late fourteen hundreds through the early seventeen hundreds,

0:11 Speaker 1: witchcraft accusations moved from village whispers to continent wide frenzies.

0:16 Speaker 1: Laws tightened presses, churned out pamphlets, and thousands of people,

0:22 Speaker 1: mostly women, but men and children too, found themselves on

0:26 Speaker 1: trial for impossible crimes.

0:28 Speaker 2: German Lands and Switzerland trials without mercy.

0:33 Speaker 1: If paranoia had a capital, it might have been the Rhineland.

0:37 Speaker 1: Here theology met legal zeal. Cities like Trier, Wurtzburg and

0:43 Speaker 1: Bamberg launched hunts so ferocious that entire neighborhoods were left

0:47 Speaker 1: fatherless or widow ridden. Pamphlets described weather witches summoning hail,

0:53 Speaker 1: or diabolical midwives stealing babies for sabbaths. Officials built a

0:58 Speaker 1: malafes house, a witch PRIs in complete with torture chambers,

1:02 Speaker 1: Confessions squeezed out under duress, told of ointments for flight,

1:08 Speaker 1: feasts with demons, and storms brewed in eggshells.

1:12 Speaker 3: Today's tempestuous tale is brought to you by eggshell umbrella company,

1:18 Speaker 3: because you never know when a neighbor's breakfast might double

1:21 Speaker 3: as a thunderstorm.

1:22 Speaker 1: France, possessions and pamphlets in Lorraine and labor trials mixed

1:28 Speaker 1: with theater. Priests debated whether village healers were holy or heretical. Cases,

1:33 Speaker 1: like the Possessions at Loudain sixteen thirties, blurred lines between

1:37 Speaker 1: exorcism and politics. A Convin's strange fits led to the

1:42 Speaker 1: execution of a priest, while pamphleteers sold out every printing.

1:48 Speaker 2: Scotland Storms Confessions and hair Shifters.

1:53 Speaker 1: North of Hadrian's Wall, suspicion ran colder than the wind.

1:58 Speaker 1: King James the six personal brush with rough seas on

2:01 Speaker 1: his wedding voyage convinced him witches were stirring up storms.

2:05 Speaker 1: The North Berwick Trials fifteen ninety to ninety two produced

2:09 Speaker 1: lurid stories, covens meeting in churches, cats tossed into waves

2:14 Speaker 1: to rouse tempests. Later, in sixteen sixty two, Isabelle Godie

2:19 Speaker 1: delivered one of history's richest confessions, not grim mumblings but

2:23 Speaker 1: vivid storytelling. She spoke of flying with fairies, changing into hares,

2:28 Speaker 1: and feasting in the hills scholars now see her words

2:32 Speaker 1: as a blend of folklore, performance and the crushing pressure

2:36 Speaker 1: of interrogation.

2:37 Speaker 3: Feeling wind swept, try storm stop now with extra charm

2:42 Speaker 3: proof technology not guaranteed against Scottish.

2:46 Speaker 2: Weather, England cunning, folk verses, malefic neighbors.

2:53 Speaker 1: Across England, witchcraft was as likely to involve sour milk

2:57 Speaker 1: as satanic packs. People trusted cunning men and women to heal,

3:01 Speaker 1: locate stolen goods, or unhex a cow. But suspicion brewed

3:06 Speaker 1: easily a quarrel, a broken butter, turn a glance at

3:10 Speaker 1: the wrong time, and suddenly someone was accused of overlooking.

3:15 Speaker 1: During the Civil War Chaos, Matthew Hopkins, self styled witch

3:19 Speaker 1: Finder General, charged towns for investigations. He used swimming tests,

3:25 Speaker 1: pricking for hidden devil's marks, and a lot of intimidation.

3:30 Speaker 1: Many innocents suffered, though his career lasted only a few

3:33 Speaker 1: stormy years.

3:35 Speaker 2: Scandinavia, Bla Coola, and children's tales.

3:40 Speaker 1: Farther north, Sweden and Finland experienced their own panics. Children

3:45 Speaker 1: claimed witches spirited them away to Blocula, a far off

3:49 Speaker 1: sabbath island where devils hosted banquets and goats served as waiters.

3:54 Speaker 1: Trip adviser would rate the atmosphere five stars, the menu

3:58 Speaker 1: maybe two. The Torsaker trial of sixteen seventy five condemned

4:03 Speaker 1: seventy one people in a single day, a grim record

4:06 Speaker 1: in Nordic history.

4:08 Speaker 2: Spain and the Basque country caves, councils, and compromise.

4:14 Speaker 1: Not all hunts ended in flames. In Zugaramurdi sixteen o

4:19 Speaker 1: nine to sixteen oh fourteen, inquisitors documented ointments, charms, and

4:24 Speaker 1: goat field dances, but most accused were reconciled, not burned.

4:30 Speaker 1: The Spanish approach was paradoxical. The Inquisition often preferred penance

4:34 Speaker 1: over pyres, leaving behind priceless notes on Basque folklore.

4:40 Speaker 3: Heading to a nocturnal goat field meeting, don't forget Sabbath

4:45 Speaker 3: snacks for all your moonlit grazing needs.

4:48 Speaker 2: Russia and Eastern Europe quiet shadows.

4:52 Speaker 1: Russia saw fewer mass trials, but village lore remained lively.

4:57 Speaker 1: Witches vedmai were blamed for hurdled cream or matted horsemanes.

5:02 Speaker 1: Some peasants sought forest sorcerers for blessings. Others feared Baba

5:07 Speaker 1: yaga lurking in the pines, hut legs, twitching. Poland, Hungary

5:11 Speaker 1: and Bohemia kept prosecutions mostly rural and small scale, often

5:16 Speaker 1: sparked by quarrels or dairy mishaps rather than high politics.

5:21 Speaker 2: Numbers, context and chill.

5:24 Speaker 1: Modern historians estimate between forty thousand and sixty thousand people

5:28 Speaker 1: were executed for witchcraft across Europe from about fourteen fifty

5:32 Speaker 1: to seventeen fifty, though accusations numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

5:38 Speaker 1: Peaks often coincided with climate stress, the Little Ice Age,

5:42 Speaker 1: wars or plagues. Gender played a role too. About three

5:47 Speaker 1: quarters of victims were women, especially those older, widowed, or outspoken.

5:52 Speaker 3: This sobering statistic is brought to you by Broom Life Insurance,

5:56 Speaker 3: because even in history's darkest storms, someone was all always

6:00 Speaker 3: selling peace of mind.

6:02 Speaker 1: From German dungeons to Scottish hair songs, from Basque caves

6:06 Speaker 1: to Swedish banquet goats. The witch hunts were a collision

6:10 Speaker 1: of belief, fear, and social pressure. They gave us many

6:15 Speaker 1: of the images we still carry, flying ointments, storm calling,

6:19 Speaker 1: secret sabbaths. Next we'll leave Europe behind and see how

6:24 Speaker 1: witchcraft lore took root in Africa, the Middle East, Asia,

6:28 Speaker 1: and the Americas, weaving stories as diverse as the lands

6:32 Speaker 1: themselves