Finnmark—What Figures Can Tell Witchcraft Trials Occurred Throughout

Chapter nine

Finnmark—What figures can tell

Witchcraft trials occurred throughout the whole of Norway. They were mostly characterized by maleficium, even if occurrence of trials contain- ing diabolism to a minor degree are documented in areas of Norway south of the district of Finnmark, as shown in the previous chapter. With regard to Finnmark, a more severe character of the trials comes to the fore. The witchcraft trials in this district are more linked up to Continental Europe and Scotland than we find for trials further south in Norway. The statis- tics for Finnmark presented in this chapter are based on my Ph.D. thesis, wherein details of calculation procedures are found.1

Earlier Research and Source Editions

The Finnmark witchcraft trials have been studied by several scholars. Perhaps the most active witchcraft research in Norway the later years is related to this district. Studies of the Finnmark trials have been per- formed by Kirsten Bergh, Einar Niemi, Randi Rønning Balsvik, Liv Helene Willumsen, Ole Lindhartsen, Berit Roth Niemi, Rune Blix Hagen, and Torstein Stave. Kirsten Bergh wrote an article on this topic in 1960, very much based on primary records.2 Studies by Niemi and Rønning Balsvik have been conducted as parts of local history series.3 Einar Niemi has a comprehensive chapter on witchcraft trials in his history book about Vadsø, Vadsøs historie from 1983. In her history book about Vardø, Vardø. Grensepost og fiskevær 1850–1950, from 1989, Randi Rønning Balsvik writes about the witchcraft trials taking place there. I have myself worked on this topic since the early 1980s, written a Master’s thesis in 1984 and published several books and articles about the witch-hunt in Finnmark.4 In

1 The only statistical treatment of the material from Finnmark is Willumsen’s studies Trollkvinne i nord, 12–51, and Seventeenth-Century Witchcraft Trials, 91–110. 2 Bergh, K., ‘Til ild og bål’, in G. I. Willoch, (ed.), Vardøhus festning 650 år (Oslo, 1960), 126–44. 3 Niemi, Vadsøs historie, 219–28; Balsvik, Vardø. Grensepost og fiskevær 1850–1950, 33–36. 4 Willumsen, Trollkvinne i nord i historiske kilder og skjønnlitteratur (University of Tromsø, Master’s thesis, 1984), Trollkvinne i nord (Tromsø, 1994), ‘Witches of the High North. The Finnmark Witchcraft Trials in the Seventeenth Century’, Scandinavian Journal of History, xxii, no. 3 (1997), 199–221, ‘Witches in Scotland and Northern Norway: two case finnmark—what figures can tell 243

1994 I published Trollkvinne i nord [Witch in the North]. The book is the first research work pointing to the strong demonological elements dur- ing the Finnmark trials as well as to the connection between Scotland and Finnmark when it comes to demonological notions. Berit Roth Niemi has similarly pointed to the international context of the trials.5 Ole Lind- hartsen has focused on the increase in witchcraft trials after installation of a new district governor.6 The last decade, Rune Blix Hagen has written several articles about the Finnmark witchcraft trials, particularly focusing on Samis. His research has been a valuable contribution to the knowledge of ethnicity and male sorcerers in Finnmark.7 Torstein Stave has in 2012 written a Master’s thesis, focusing on demonological ideas in the Finn- mark witchcraft trials.8 They seventeenth-century court records are written in the gothic hand. Therefore transcribed versions of the records are of help to persons who do not read the gothic hand. Until quite recently, only a very few, and none complete, source editions of the Finnmark sources have been published. The first one is Hulda Rutberg’s edited version of some of the court records from Finnmark, Häxprocesser i norska Finnmarken.9 This book is not a verbatim transcription, compared to the original records many lin- guistic changes have been made. Still, it is valuable particularly because it contains the whole case of Karen Mogensdatter from 1626, where the main part of the record otherwise has been lost.10 Another source book is Hans H. Lilienskiold’s manuscript: Trolldom og ugudelighet i 1600-tallets Finnmark, edited by Rune Blix Hagen and Per

studies’, in A. Kruse and P. Graves, Images and Imaginations. Perspectives on Britain and Scandinavia (Edinburgh, 2007), 35–66; Willumsen, L. H., ‘Children accused of Witchcraft in 17th Century Finnmark’, Scandinavian Journal of History, 38:1, 18–41; Willumsen, L. H., ‘Exporting the Devil across the North Sea—John Cunningham and the Finnmark Witch- hunt’, in Goodare, Scottish Witches and Witch-Hunters. 5 Varanger Ǻrbok (1989). 6 ‘Lensherrer, heksejakt og justismord i Finnmark på 1600-tallet’ [District Governors, witch-hunt and judicial murder in seventeenth-century Finnmark], in G. J. Valen, K. Skavhaug, K. Schanche (eds.), Flytting og forandring i Finnmarks fortid (Alta, 2002). 7 Among them are ‘Sami Shamanism: The Arctic Dimension’, Magic, Rituals, and Witches, i, no. 2 (2006), 227–33 and ‘Female Witches and Sami Sorcerers in the Witch Trials of Arctic Norway’, Arv, Nordic Yearbook of Folklore, vol. lxii (2006), 123–42; ‘Forfølgelse av samiske trollfolk i Vest-Finnmark’ [The Persecution of Sami sorcerers in West Finnmark], Heimen. Lokal og regional historie, 1 (2010): 43–45; ‘The Sami—Sorcerers in Norwegian His- tory. Sorcery Persecutions of the Sami’, Calliidlagadus (Kárásjohka-Karasjok, 2012); ‘Lap- land Witches’, in Golden, Encyclopedia, 625–27; ‘Witchcraft Criminality and Witchcraft Research in the Nordic Countries, in Levack, Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft, 375–392. 8 Stave, Da Lucifer kom til Vardøhus. 9 In the series Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkeliv (Stockholm, 1918). 10 Willumsen, Witchcraft Trials in Finnmark, Northern Norway, 10.