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Wed 12 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
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    14.00 - 16.00
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Fri 14 April
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    14.00 - 16.00
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Wednesday 12 April 2023 16.30 - 18.30
B-4 WOM05 Biographical Methods and Social History: Gender and Experience in Witchcraft
Volvosalen
Networks: Religion , Women and Gender Chair: Louise Hauberg Lindgaard
Organizer: Raisa Toivo Discussants: -
Louise Nyholm Kallestrup : Christian IV of Denmark and the Experience of Witchcraft
This paper concentrates on the experience of witchcraft and the agency of the Danish king Christian IV in trials for witchcraft. It builds on a systematic investigation of the trials in which he interfered. From early in his life, the king had encountered witchcraft personally, most famously the failed bridal ... (Show more)
This paper concentrates on the experience of witchcraft and the agency of the Danish king Christian IV in trials for witchcraft. It builds on a systematic investigation of the trials in which he interfered. From early in his life, the king had encountered witchcraft personally, most famously the failed bridal journey of his sister, when she was to marry the Scottish king James VI in 1589. His second sister, Elisabeth, was married to the duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a duchy in the Holy Roman empire and known for its intense prosecutions of witches. In other words, Christian IV became familiar with witch trials from an early age. However, it was not until after 1617 that he started actively interfering in trials. (Show less)

Raisa Toivo : The Village Witch Alone in the Forest or Social Experiences from a Distance?
Christer Olofsson, a fisherman turned estate-owner in rural Finland, was accused was accused of killing his sons’ brother-in-law with witchcraft to promote his daughter-in-law’s chances of inheriting her family estate in 1693. The paper uses court and tax records before and after the trials. It shows a recurring suspicion of ... (Show more)
Christer Olofsson, a fisherman turned estate-owner in rural Finland, was accused was accused of killing his sons’ brother-in-law with witchcraft to promote his daughter-in-law’s chances of inheriting her family estate in 1693. The paper uses court and tax records before and after the trials. It shows a recurring suspicion of witchcraft on three decades, a relatively successful life despite never being cleared of the charges, as well as repeated attempts to shed suspicion by moving away. Eventually Christer ended up clearing a new homestead in the forest, but the networks of suspicion and accusations still followed him. The accusations and the trial outcomes – or what was deemed as witchcraft by different actors – also reflect changes in his lives as well as the witnesses. Eventually the paper shows Christer’s life story as a way to explore how experiences of witchcraft were socially formed even if at times from a distance. (Show less)

Emilie Luther Valentin : Trusting a Clergyman: the Parish Priest as a Figure of Authority in Witchcraft Trials in 17th-Century Denmark
The parish priest was a the centre of the local communities in early modern Denmark. On behalf of the crown, they were tasked with gatekeeping the moral standards of society, thereby linking the agenda of the state with that of the local communities. In 1617, all lay authorities, including the ... (Show more)
The parish priest was a the centre of the local communities in early modern Denmark. On behalf of the crown, they were tasked with gatekeeping the moral standards of society, thereby linking the agenda of the state with that of the local communities. In 1617, all lay authorities, including the parish priests, were tasked with the immediate responsibility of eradicating any diabolical threat to society, yet, the parish priests were rarely at the centre of the witchcraft trials of the period. Looking into the life trajectories of pastors and their relationship with their parishioners, this paper will explore to what extent the local communities trusted the parish priests as a figure of authority in connection to trials for witchcraft in seventeenth-century Denmark.

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