Curiosity 10: Witches

It's Halloween. I know I dressed as a witch a time or two back in the old days, when children roamed the neighborhood hoping for treats. Tonight, there were no trick-or-treaters at our door. I have to think all the kids go to "designated" neighborhoods. It's strange. Is everyone so afraid of their neighbors that Halloween has become a carefully coordinated event?

But anyway, it being Halloween, I got to thinking about witches. And memorials for witches. And I found a few. 

There's Salem, of course, and Proctor's Ledge, commemorating the 1692 witch trials and the hangings (not burning) of Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wildes, among a dozen or more others.

Also in Salem, there's another memorial, somewhat more fully representing (24 victims):

Then, there's this memorial to Maggie Wall, one of many hundreds in Scotland who were accused of witchcraft and murdered. 

But finally, here are a few photos I took this last June, of a remarkable memorial to 135 women and men condemned as witches, 91 of them killed, in Finnmark, the far north of Norway, in a place called Vadsø. It's one of Louise Bourgeois's last projects. I found it so moving.

Each of the stations presents a story, such as this one, for Mari, Østeri's wife:

Brought before the court at Vardøhus Castle on 31 July 1638

ACCUSED

of having cast a deadly spell on Oluf Pedersen and his four hired hands in 1636
of having cast a spell on Oluf Bottelsen so that he drowned with three others in 1637

CONFESSED

that she contributed to spells on Pedersen and his four men sailing eastwards in 1636
that she and others cast a spell on Oluf Bottelsen so that he drowned with three others in 1637
that she was in the likeness of a white swan on that occasion

Convicted of practice of witchcraft

Sentenced to death in fire at the stake

I'm honestly not sure we've changed that much since 1638...