One Single Idol (Anne Pedersdotter Part 1)
On April 7, 1590 Anne Pedersdatter was burned for witchcraft in the city of Bergen, Norway. Remarkably, this was not the first time Anne had been tried for witchcraft. How did the wife of a prominent Lutheran clergyman find herself the defendant in multiple witch trials? In this episode, the first of a two-part series, we look to the Protestant Reformation for answers.
Researched, written, and produced by Thomas Ignatius and Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.
Music
Purple Planet - Chimera
J. S. Bach - Goldberg Variations, BWV. 988 - Variation 1 - Performed by Shelly Katz
Frederic Chopin - Waltz in A minor, B. 150 - Performed by Aya Higuchi
Purple Planet - Botanic
Purple Planet - Deadlock
Purple Planet - Harbinger of Doom
Purple Planet - Sense of Loss
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
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Hagen, Rune Blix. “Weihnachtserzählungen auf Leben und Tod.” The Witches Sabbath at Yuletide (2020).
Hall, Thor and Herbert W. L. Burhenn. “The Making of a Witch: The Guilty Triangle, as Illustrated in the Case Against Elline Klokkers of Gjerpen.” Scandinavian Studies 60, no. 3 (1988): 347-370.
Kallestrup, Louise Nyholm. “‘He Promised Her So Many Things’: Witches, Sabbats, and Devils in Early Modern Denmark.” In Demonology and Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Europe. Edited by Julian Goodare, Rita Voltmer, and Liv Helene Willumsen, 243-260. New York: Routledge, 2021.
Kallestrup, Louise Nyholm. “The Infected and the Guilty: On Heresy and Witchcraft in Post-Reformation Denmark.” In Contesting Orthodoxy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Heresy, Magic and Witchcraft. Edited by Louise Nyholm Kallestrup and Raisa Maria Toivo, 233-254. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG, 2017.
Kallestrup, Louise Nyholm. “Lay and Inquisitorial Witchcraft Prosecutions in Early Modern Italy and Denmark.” Scandinavian Journal of History 36, no. 3 (2011): 265-278.
Knutsen, Gunnar W. “Norwegian Witchcraft Trials: A Reassessment.” Continuity and Change 18, no. 2 (2003): 185-200.
Laugerud, Henning and John Ødemark. “‘Superstition’ in the Reformation Polemics of England and Denmark-Norway and the Emergence of Folklore and Popular Religion.” In Northern European Reformations. Edited by James E. Kelly, Henning Laugerud, and Salvador Ryan, 347-375. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020.
Levack, Brian P. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. Fourth Edition. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Tangherlini, Timothy R. “‘How Do You Know She's a Witch?’: Witches, Cunning Folk, and Competition in Denmark.” Western Folklore 59, no. 3/4 (2000): 279-303.
Willumsen, Liv Helene. “Board Games, Dancing, and Lost Shoes: Ideas About Witches’ Gatherings in the Finnmark Witchcraft Trials.” In Demonology and Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Europe. Edited by Julian Goodare, Rita Voltmer, and Liv Helene Willumsen, 261-281. New York: Routledge, 2021.
Willumsen, Liv Helene. “Children Accused of Witchcraft in 17th-Century Finnmark.” Scandinavian Journal of History 38, no. 1 (2013): 18-41.
Willumsen, Liv Helene. “Witches of the High North: The Finnmark Witchcraft Trials in the Seventeenth Century.” Scandinavian Journal of History 22, no. 3 (1997): 199-221.
