Brita Biörn

She was active on Gotland and as one of the most reputed cunning women in contemporary Sweden, accused in two court cases.

Before court, she claimed that she had been taught her abilities by the cunning man Jacob i Halla, who had taken her to visit Di sma undar jordi, the little people in the underworld.

The court considered her tale to be a Satanic illusion or a symptom of insanity, and sentenced her to eight days on water and bread and Uppenbar kyrkoplikt for having worked on a Sunday and for having used the name of the Trinity in her chants.

The verdict, however, only served to make her more widely known as a cunning woman, and the vicar complained that many people travelled to her for her help and trusted her as if she was a deity.

This time, she claimed to have been taught by her cousin Gertrud Zakrisdotter (1647–1718), and she read five of her medical chants in court.