Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/20/vardo-the-witch-capital-of-no.html
…
2 Likes
Gosh, that’s interesting. What’s the Warlock capitol of the World?
I mean… it’s about women who were killed there for being witches…
3 Likes
Curse successful!
10 Likes
witch trials remind us why we do not want to return to a time of ignorance and mob justice.
the republicans are trying to whip up the same sort of frenzy against immigrants labeling them as terrorists. let’s not repeat the darker chapters in human history.
5 Likes
Anyone want to go in and buy a village in Norway?
4 Likes
4 Likes
In most witch craft traditions the term warlock does not convey gender or sex, but is a term labeling someone a betrayer or oath breaker. Not sure how Papasan was referring, but just an interesting tidbit. It would be interesting to know the betrayer capitol of the world though… and no, I don’t know how to reply to two accounts at once.
1 Like
Which capital of Norway?
4 Likes
The whole point of the article wasn’t about the mythical witch or warlock, though. It was about the women who were killed in this particular town for being “witches” which probably meant they defied the patriarchal order in some way. I know it’s not nearly as cool and fun to think about how just existing as a woman can be dangerous, but considering that women still get killed for defying the patriarchal order, the history here matters.
4 Likes
Which village?
Who do?
I was agreeing with you. But to say witches are mythical is completely wrong. Vampires and werewolves are mythical, but witches exist. They are real human beings practicing a spiritual path in today’s modern world. They are both men and women.
1 Like
And who said or implied anything of the kind? I certainly did not.
This book is horrifying:
Basically, it’s a miserable litany of how poor people living on top of each other, with their fortunes tied to livestock that would die way too easily of weird diseases, would accuse their neighbors of witchcraft and get them killed/murder them. The author mentions that the trials would tend to break out when there was a power vacuum at the top of the social order, and no one was empowered to regain a locked-down social control by stopping the trials.
He also mentions that a few areas had legal systems that dictated that if you accused someone of a crime and they were found innocent, you’d be given the punishment the person would have received if they’d been convicted. And in these places witchcraft accusations were almost unknown.
3 Likes
Washington D.C. Hands Fucking Down!
1 Like
I’m a descendant of the brother of an executed witch.
As a pre-adolescent, I was told that a certain corrupt family from the British East India Tea Company had been stationed in India. They decided that they could acquire cheap or free land by instituting the custom of suttee in other countries: burn the widow, steal the inheritance. It didn’t work, so they instigated witch hunts to accomplish that purpose.
A member of the Bush family, which was in Salem, claimed that the Salem hunts occurred because the young ladies of the town were rebelling against arranged marriages and took to spells and charms to get the husbands they wanted instead of those assigned to them.
This is anecdote and I have no citations to support either claim.
3 Likes
Every witch Norway but loose?
I’m sure @anon61221983 is well aware of that. What she’s saying is that it’s off-topic since this article is about something else despite one very superficial similarity.
People flying on broomsticks, eating babies, and worshiping a real satan is entirely mythical. I’m well aware of the people who are witches in a modern context, as I’ve known enough people who practice those faiths. This is not what this is about, however. It’s not about wicca or other neopagan faiths.
1 Like
If they are like many other family histories, there is probably some truth to both, as well as some family embellishment.
