Finnmark

He was a man who wanted to make himself known as an eager witch hunter.

It was not only Anna Rodius, but also Orning as a man of power who wanted to have this witchcraft trials taken one step further because we had not heard before in Finnmark that children were accused of witchcraft.

But Anna and Ambrosius weren't locked up with the witch folk after all.

They were kept in a house inside the fortress which Ambrosius later called our jailhouse.

Then Anna was alleged to have said to another pregnant woman in the cells, You are carrying not a

child, but a devil.

So she's coming up with new ideas that we have not heard before in Finnmark.

Demonological ideas about mother-daughter, that a mother could sacrifice her eldest daughter, and that the father of a child could be a pregnant woman, could carry a devil.

But this is deeply unpopular with populations that remain in those counties.

So in a recent referendum in Finnmark, the highest, the farthest north county, 87% of voters voted against merging with the next-door neighbor.

The central government overrode this decision and merged them anyways.

So not only did depopulation change the political boundaries, but it also really changed how voters in those two counties felt about the central government and the parties that were in the central government at the time.

And three days later, he died.

And because Finnmark is the nearest bit of land to Aberdeen, they believed at the time he came from Finnmark.

So hence why the book is called Searching for Finmen.

But if you go and see his kayak and see his hunting equipment in, I think it's Aberdeen Maritime Museum today, you'll see that actually lots of his kayaking equipment was very traditional from Greenland.

Karen Jonstadter, she came from the village of Andenes, an island placed almost on the continental shelf so that they see whales outside.

When you are looking out, she went north to Finnmark.

Many of the Young women accused of witchcraft in Finnmark came from further south along the coast of Norway, and most often they worked as maids.

In 1654, Karin told the court where it all began, and I'm going to actually read what it says in the records.

She now willingly elaborated, confessing first,

And there was no one there.

And standing there, I kept thinking about the records because back then you really do get the impression that people were watching and listening to every small detail.

Even though Finnmark is vast, people were living here on top of each other in these like small communities or outposts like Vadu, Kaiburg and Hamningburg.

But should there be found any stubborn enough to persist in their suspicions, in spite of these certificates, we will anticipate their objections and endeavor to subdue their incredulity with other weapons.

It is a known fact that in a section of Norway called Finmark exist people who have advanced so far in the study and practice of natural witchcraft, a science into which other nations have scarcely looked, that they can excite and subdue storms, transform themselves to wolves, speak several, and in our world entirely unknown, languages, and travel from the north to the south pole in less time than one hour.

One of these Finns, by name Pavis, came lately to Bergen, and exhibited so many strange proofs of his art and science that all present deemed him worthy of a doctor's hat.

At the same time a fierce critic came out with a review of the subterranean travels, which he assumptively tagged the long list of old women's stories.

Part 3, Their Master and Admiral.

What follows is the first great chain of witch trials in Finnmark.

It began with Karin in 1620 and it became the chain of 1621 and this is quite a special episode as I really wanted to give space to the 11 women who followed Karin and you can hear directly from their court testimonies what they were alleged to have said and listen out for who they keep mentioning.

As far as we know, this way predominantly was Norwegian women.

with the man playing an instrument in front.

They are dancing along the graves and then afterwards they go into the church of North Berwick and the devil enters the pulpit and he's calling out the names of the members of his congregation.

And then there is Finnmark.

In Finnmark, they are innocent, they are joy, they are dancing, drinking, music.

She wrote novels.

In fact, there's a novel where it takes place in the very far north, in the kind of Sami area of, um, northern Norway, Finmark, and she basically was fascinated by this area, really harsh conditions, a beautiful landscape.

The opening of that novel from, it's, I think it's 1879, and it's really fascinating because there's a woman and her husband and her young son, and the woman suddenly says, she turns and says, "Well, I'm leaving you," and she skis off, never to return.

And it's [laughs] just such a great opening when you think about A Doll's House, you know? So there's a dialogue going on there, I think, that's really interesting.

[laughs]

Like, I have this dialect, and people who hear, like, wonder, "Where the fuck are you from?" Because it's like a combination of, like, Finnmark, Bodø, Tromsø, all these small places around there.

Because I've just had friends from everywhere and just pick up words and stuff, so it's becomes, like, a weird blend.

So it doesn't feel like I'm from Tromsø.

Now the king has one more job for him.

He is the new governor of Finnmark.

He reaches the top of the hill, Varduhu's fortress, the seat of power for the whole of Finnmark and his new home.

And what he finds at the top is a ruin.

Rotting timber and earth walls slowly falling into the sea.

It is an incredibly beautiful campus surrounded by snow-topped mountains and the air here is so fresh.

I'm at UIT, the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, and it's actually the northernmost university in the world.

I've come here to see the original witch trial documents for Vadu and Finnmark, and with me is Professor Liv Helena Wilhelmsen.