In the Clutches of Satan

Malmstedt, Göran

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-76120-2_11

Göran Malmstedt⁵

Part of the book series: Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic ((PHSWM))

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Abstract

During the trials the Devil is mentioned primarily in the confessions of the defendants and usually only after they had been subjected to torture. It is evident that they then largely had to adapt their stories to given templates based on the court’s questions. There are indications that the Devil in general did not appear as powerful and terrifying as the church depicted him; according to some confessions, he had acted as a servant to the witches, and in one story, the Devil got flogged. The relation between witchcraft, at least in the form of maleficium, and the Devil also seems to have been ambiguous in the popular opinion. Furthermore, there is in the records testimony to the belief that the Devil could take physical shape, often in form of different animals, and walk the Earth, unlike God who was present in the world as a force and not a being.

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Notes

1.
Rannsakningarna, 140; VaLA, GHA 28 Oct. 1669, fol. 228.
2.
Olli 2007, 34–7, 132, 160–1. For cases studied by other researchers with the same pattern, see Sörlin 1993, 30–1; Oja 1999, 141–4.
3.
Olli 2007, 150–1.
4.
Sörlin 1993, 140.
5.
Bever 2013, 57. Oja 2005 325–7 discusses the association of magic with the Devil in Swedish folklore material.
6.
Rannsakningarna, 2 Nov. 1669, 81–7. Malin, however, had already been forced to confess on 19 August that she was a witch and that her name was written in Satan’s book (Rannsakningarna, 56). She then retracted her confession and protested her innocence in all subsequent interrogations until November.
7.
For proceedings in Hede (now Tanumshede), see Rannsakningarna, 14–16 Sept. 1671, 284–300; for proceedings in Kvistrum, see Rannsakningarna, 18–19 Sept. 1671, 273–9.
8.
Lagerlöf-Génetay 1990, 144–7.
9.
Bever 2013, 57; Wall 1992, 32.
10.
Wolf-Knuts 1991, 282–7.
11.
Rannsakningarna, 117; VaLA, GHA 22 Sept. 1669, fols. 268–9.
12.
Rannsakningarna, 133–4; VaLA, GHA 27 Oct. 1669, fol. 217.
13.
Johansen 1987, 310. Tales about people whipping little devils seem to have been told in various parts of Europe in this period (Hagen 2003, 192).
14.
Rannsakningarna, 4 Nov. 1669, 88.
15.
Rannsakningarna, 79; VaLA, GHA 22 Oct. 1669, fol. 119. Karin initially denied it, but under pressure later admitted the Devil had probably helped her spin. Stories of witches who used the Devil as a servant also appeared in Danish trials from the early seventeenth century, see Kallestrup 2015, 146.
16.
Rannsakningarna, 106; VaLA, GHA 21 Aug. 1669, fol. 258. When asked who had taught her witchcraft, she replied, ‘People talked and taught me.’

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University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Göran Malmstedt

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Malmstedt, G. (2021). In the Clutches of Satan. In: Premodern Beliefs and Witch Trials in a Swedish Province, 1669-1672. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76120-2_11

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76120-2_11
Published: 16 July 2021
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-76119-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-76120-2
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