PaganSquare.com - WitchesAndPagans.com

BE IT THIS 16 day of february in the year of Our Lord 1654 that one SVEIN HARDIN of Malmö in Skåne Parish did testify

ITEM to whit that on the 3 day of june in the Year of Grace 1643 that day being a Thursday that as he gathered diverse Mushrooms in the forest he did meet in said Forest with a skögsrå a man of the forest who was clothed all in GREEN from his head to his foot and that

ITEM he being fairer than the sons of men he did have carnal Dealings with said skögsrå and moreover did suffer him to know him per ano which the laws of God and man do plainly forbid and that he did call him his GREEN HANS and that this did call him His Darling lad and further that

ITEM for 10 years thereafter he did at each full of the moon meet with said skögsrå and his Fellows in said woods for dancing and Witch-sabbat and carnal Intercourse therewith and that

ITEM said skögsrå did teach him all herbs and roots and every manner of LEECHCRAFT wherewith he hath these ten years since healed many and many Lives saved withal or so he claimeth

and so for these Crimes do we hereby CONDEMN him for this is no skögsrå but a Fiend from hell from intercourse with which no Good can come however fair its Seeming

that on the 23 day of february in this Year of Grace 1654 for these hellish deeds he the aforesaid SVEIN HARDIN of Malmö in the aforesaid parish shall be BURNT in full public witness in Malmö Square of the aforesaid parish

If you intentionally kill someone, are you legally responsible for their death?

If you intend to kill someone, but get caught before you succeed, do you still bear legal responsibility?

Is it possible to kill someone with magic?

If you intentionally kill someone with magic, are you legally responsible for their death?

If you intend to kill someone with magic, but get caught before you succeed, do you still bear legal responsibility?

If you've answered “yes” to all these questions, you're down with witch trials, right?

Yes I am a witch

Yes I have flown to the Sabbat

Yes I have seen the Dark Man from Boston

Yes I have signed his Book

Yes I have drunk his Wine

Yes I have danced to his Piping

Yes I have suffered him

to know me per ano

Iceland, 1655. The reverend Jón Magnússon is convinced that he's bewitched.

The devil haunts him whenever he tries to carry out his priestly functions. His livestock have fallen ill. One of his servants is struck dumb.

Obviously, someone has hexed him.

His suspicions fix on two of his parishioners, a man and his son, both named Jón Jónsson. (The vast majority of Icelanders accused of, and executed for, witchcraft were men.) He denounces the two to the sheriff and they are brought before the local court on charges of witchcraft.

A search of their home turns up galder-books and galder-staves. Galder—sung magic—has long been a primary form of magic in the North. (The word derives from galan, “sing, chant,” as in nightingale, “singer by night,” and gale, the “singing" storm.) One gales (chants) the spell and rists (engraves) it on a stave to “set” it.

On this evidence, both father and son are condemned. Both are burned alive.

But the burnings do not end the haunting.

A woman convicted of witchcraft centuries ago gets a second look. Illegal sand mining in Taiwan raises concerns among environmentalists. And trade between Europe and the United States is debated. It's Fiery Tuesday, our weekly segment on political and societal news from around the world! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!