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Map of werewolf witch trials
by subthings2
Mapping the location of 223 witch trials that included accusations
of turning into a wolf, mostly based on Lorey’s online list (just under
200 listed). Blécourt gives a few corrections to Lorey’s list, Klaniczay
has 13 Hungarian trials, and Madar, Metsvah and Winkler collectively
give 14 Estonian trials; Metsvah says there are 30 recorded in Estonia
in total, but data on the rest weren’t provided. When a location has
multiple trials, the crosses form a circle around the city so as to not
overlap – this is most obvious for Tallinn, Riga, and Sopron.
The initial point was to visualise how the trials spread over time,
but what it also makes really obvious is how tightly clustered most of
them are – this matches how regional the witch trials in general were,
but also that beliefs in werewolves weren’t evenly spread across
Europe; hence the lack of anything in Great Britain, Basque Country, but
weirdly also Scandinavia where southern Sweden is known for having a
decent number of werewolves in its folklore.
Finally, after going through all of Lorey’s descriptions, there’s a
few that stood out that I wanted to share (machine translated from
German):
1619 Tonnis Steven von Grevenstein, shepherd in Kallenhardt (Electoral Cologne Office of Rüthen). “Out
of pain and unbearable torment, I had to say that I was a magician and
a Wehrwolf, but God in heaven knows that everything is a lie and I have
never seen a devil in my life.”
1652 Wilhelm Scheffern, shepherd from Metterich (di Metternich near Münstermaifeld, Kurtrier). One
of the reasons he was talked about was because – in contrast to his
successors – there were never any losses due to wolf attacks during his
time as a shepherd. “It is entirely believed that the defendant
could turn himself into a werewolf” (6th count) and “that he … once
made himself invisible in the field” (point 15). However, previously in
points 2 and 3 “that his “The father was burned because of the vice” and
“that the defendant’s sisters were burned years ago because of the vice
of magic.” (Court verdict not received; according to Krämer, however,
probably executed.)
1661 Cuno Jung, a shepherd from Westerburg, had not defended himself
strongly enough against being called a werewolf. Because his parents
were already under suspicion and his sister had been executed as a
witch, he spoke out against the witchcraft trials. He also refused to
take part in an execution as a lay judge. He once even tried to buy his
way out as an observer at a witch trial. Executed in Westerburg.
there’s also the WAR WLF of Lemgo, featuring this funky little guy that’s also had several people write about the rather unfunky little trial
the single case aaaall the way up in Finland is Erkki Juhonpoika
Sources:
Willem de Blécourt, ‘The Differentiated Werewolf: An Introduction to Cluster Methodology’, Werewolf Histories (2015), pg 7
Gábor Klaniczay, Bengt Ankerloo & Gustav Henningson (ed.),
‘Hungary: The Accusations and the Universe of Popular Magic’, Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries (1993) pg 254, footnote 122
Elmar Lorey, ‘Werwolfprozesse in der Frühen Neuzeit’, http://www.elmar-lorey.de/prozesse.htm (2000)
Maia Madar, Bengt Ankerloo & Gustav Henningson (ed.), ‘Estonia I: Werewolves and Poisoners’, Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries (1993), pg 270-271
Merili Metsvah, Willem de Blécourt (ed.), ‘Estonian Werewolf History’, Werewolf Histories (2015), pg 210 & footnote 25
Rudolf Winkler, ‘Uber Hexenwahn und Hexenprozesse in Estland wahrend der Schwedenherrschaft’, Baltische Monatsschrift, 67 (1909), pg 333-4
