Anne Pedersdotter

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Anne Pedersdotter (* around 1530 in Trondheim , † April 1590 in Bergen ) was a woman who was executed in Norway for alleged witchcraft . Her trial became one of the best-researched and well-known cases of witch hunt in Norway thanks to the court documents that have been preserved .

Life

Anne was born in Trondheim . On February 1, 1552, she married Absalon Pederssøn Beyer , a well-known humanist and Lutheran clergyman from Bergen, who was a college friend of her brother Søren Pedersson. Absalon and Anne had several children.

After another woman accused her of being a witch, a trial took place in 1575. She was accused of killing her husband's uncle, Bishop Geble Pederssøn , so that her husband could become a bishop.

The Bergen court came to the conclusion that the evidence was insufficient for a conviction. Her husband, who gave her a charter from the Danish king , died in April 1575. As a result, the rumor that Anne practiced witchcraft spread ever further. She became increasingly bitter and angry at the allegations, which helped fuel the rumors.

Another trial

In March 1590, the accusations led to another trial. The documents from this indictment are among the most extensive surviving documents from a witch hunt trial in Norway. They were found in a Danish archive in 1890 and later published in several books.

The documents show that Anne did not appear herself at the first negotiations, but her son, Pastor Absalon. This was perceived as a gross disregard for the legal process and she was later forced to appear in court. She was alleged to have been involved in the deaths of five people to whom she transmitted a fatal disease. When she was accused of poisoning a child with a loaf of bread, she replied that many children in the city were dying, but not all of them killed.

Anne was also accused of using her maid Elina, who worked for her for about 20 years, as a horse three times so that she could ride to witches' meetings on the Lyderhorn at Christmas . Elina testified as a witness in court that she stood there tied up with other horses when the alleged witches planned to destroy the city of Bergen by fires and natural disasters. At the third meeting, according to Elina, a man in white clothes appeared who smashed the group with the words "My highest master would not do what you say". Anne denied having ever been to the Lyderhorn. The cultural scientist Nils Gilje stated that the transformation of a person into a horse probably did not sound absurd to the jury , as this was considered generally possible at the time of the trial and was in line with other testimony.

death

Anne was eventually sentenced to burn at the stake , despite protests from some clergymen . The court justified this with the fact that the Scriptures required a penalty in such cases. The judgment was signed by 37 people, in addition to the lagman , members of the city council and the mayor of Bergen also signed. Anne protested her innocence until her death.

aftermath

Anne Pedersdotter's conviction sparked a wave of further convictions of alleged witches. Thirty years later, a mass trial took place in eastern Finnmark in which parts of the arguments from the Bergen trial were repeated.

Reception in culture

After the court files were found, Anne Pedersdotter's fate was dealt with in various novels and plays. Hans Wiers-Jenssen's play Anne Pedersdotter from 1908 formed the basis for Carl Theodor Dreyer's film Day of Vengeance from 1943. Edvard Fliflet Bræin used the story in the 1970s as the basis for his opera Anne Pedersdotter .

In 2002 the so-called Heksestein (German: Hexenstein) was unveiled in memory of the approximately 350 people who fell victim to the trials. It is located near the place where Anne was cremated.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eivind Pettersen: Bergen 1876: Halshugd med øks foran "halve byen". In: NRK. December 25, 2015, accessed June 7, 2020 (Norwegian Bokmål).
  2. ↑ a b c Troll cathedral sprouts mot Anna Pedersdotter - Norgeshistorie. In: norgeshistorie.no. University of Oslo, June 11, 2018, accessed June 7, 2020 (Norwegian).
  3. ↑ a b c Rune Blix Hagen: Anne Pedersdotter . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon . September 28, 2014 ( snl.no [accessed June 7, 2020]).
  4. ↑ Nils Gilje: Trolldans på Lyderhorn. Fagbokforlaget, accessed in 2003 (Norwegian).
  5. ^ Rune Blix Hagen: Norges understand justismord. Class kampen, accessed June 7, 2020 (Norwegian).
  6. ↑ Absalon Beyers gate. In: Bergen byleksikon. Bergen Byarkiv, accessed June 7, 2020 (Norwegian).
  7. ↑ Heksesteinen. In: Bergen byleksikon. Bergen Byarkiv, April 7, 2009, accessed June 7, 2020 (Norwegian).
  8. ↑ Heksesteinen. Retrieved June 8, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Bergen Heksesteinen Nordnes i Bergen. (PDF) Retrieved June 8, 2020 (Norwegian, German).
personal data
SURNAME Pedersdotter, Anne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian supposed witch
DATE OF BIRTH 16th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH Trondheim
DATE OF DEATH April 1590
Place of death Mountains