Thursday, October 5, 2017

WITCHES CHAIR

For about a 100 years....year 1600-1700......Norway burned "witches" at the stake or threw them into the bay with their hands and feet bound.(If they floated, they were guilty and left to drown...everyone floated)
We were in a far Northern town called Vardo, and there was a profound and moving monument to the 121 people who were burnt in that region. We set off on a hike across some fields and came upon a very moving monument of every person recorded whom was put to death for sorcery. A very long building on the shore of an inlet. There were small windows with a lightbulb hanging for each person killed. Also, their names and ages, and the crimes that they were accused. Somber. A few yards away was the "witches" chair......inside a large hut. The flame 🔥 never goes out. They were tied to a chair...ie...the witches chair on a bonfire pile, then lit on fire.   Very profound monument. The light of day was fading, and we walked in the strange Arctic twilight to a grave yard.  To think when someone was accused, they were probably also killed without proof or jury was creepy. Most, but not all, of the people burned were the indigenous people of Northern Norway, the Sami's, (called Laps in years past, and now considered a racist term). They held to their pagan beliefs that were threatening to the invading population who were jumping on board with a form of Christianity. 
As moving as it was, it was one of my favorite things we did....and to think they kept such complete records. I have a small booklet that describes each person's "crimes" and manner of and even descriptions of their death 💀. 




No comments:

Post a Comment