Mora witch trial

This caused a hysteria among parents and a series of witch trials around the country, where children pointed out adults for having abducted them to take to Satan riding on cattle taken from the barns of wealthy farmers.

The bailiff informed the governor: In Älvdalen and Mora, children and teenagers are being seduced by old witches unto the Devil.

In May 1669, King Charles XI created a commission with instructions to use prayer to redeem the accused, rather than torture or imprisonment.

The witches said the Devil was threatening them with an iron fork, and was going to throw them into a burning pit if they continued with their confessions.

[1] Six other death sentences were suspended because of unclarity, a good reputation and the hope of improvement—among them also a man, Sven Maas from Selja.

The report of the execution describes the event: The sinners walked quickly, except the two last ones, who began to sigh and moan, although not such as to delay the procession.

In February 1670, the governor complained that there was suddenly talk of witches everywhere, and that this hysteria was spreading like fire in dry grass.

Descriptions of the trials appeared in Balthasar Bekker's De Betoverde Weereld (1691) (translated into English as The World Bewitched, (1695)) as well as Joseph Glanvill's Saducismus Triumphatus (1683).

The famous German illustration of the Mora witch trial, 1670. In the illustration the condemned are executed by burning at the stake, which was a common execution method in witch trials in Germany, but did not in fact occur at the Mora witch trial.