Geske

Geske, or Horegeske, (dead after 1597), was an alleged Scandinavian witch, Swedish woman of Danish descent, put on trial for witchcraft. Her trial was one of the first witch trials in Sweden, the first Swedish witch trial involving references to the Devil and was potentially the first Swedish witch trial where the sabbath of Satan was mentioned.

Geske's trial

In September 1597, Geske and another woman, Brita Åkesdotter, widow of Hans Profoss, were put on trial accused of witchcraft in the city of Stockholm. Her nickname Horegeske means "Whore-Geske", and she was possibly a prostitute. According to the documents of the trial, she was originally from Denmark.

Geske was accused of depriving people of "power and courage". A widow and her son claimed she had put them through much hardship, despite the fact that they had submitted to her blackmail and given her a "Gold-ring, money and a piece of gold"," while Brita was accused of having left magical butter and the feet of a rooster in a house and thereby making the family of that house sick. Both of them denied the accusations.

The known witch Karin, who was known for her ability to point out magicians, testified that both Horegeske and Brita belonged to "The breed that are riding" ". Karin claimed that she had often seen them at the Sabbath of Satan in Blåkulla and they both had the mark of him on their bodies - and she added, that Brita recently had had intercourse with the Devil. She encouraged the court to undress Brita so they would be able to see her marc, and claimed that Geske's marc was up her nose. The claims of Karin represented a change in attitude about sorcery and magic in Sweden; until the late 16th century, magic was not seen as a very serious crime in Sweden, nor did it involve references to the devil; this is perhaps the first time the Devil was mentioned in a Swedish witch trial.

The records of 1597 states; " she was not of the good kind; she was also of the breed that rides to Blockula and it is not long since she fucked with the Devil. But she was encouraged to tell the truth and not to show lies and fraud."

Karin adds, that she herself and many other women in the city often had sex with the Devil, and the trial against Geske and Brita grew until about over ten women women were suspected, and was in danger of becoming a mass trial. Many reports came in to the court about magic, where they were said to have hidden bites of bones from humans and animals "and many other such evil things, that were hidden under the floor of her cottage". The absence of any real witch law and the lack of experience in dealing with witch trials, however, made the authorities unwilling to let the whole affair develop into a mass trial, which might have been the reason that Geske and Brita were, in the end, treated with mildness.

The court remained doubtful about her guilt. The authorities kept Geske in prison for some time, though it is not known what happened to Brita, or to Geske after this. The poor documentation is typical of Swedish witch trials before 1668. During the witch trials of the 1590s most of the condemned witches were not executed; the normal punishment was whipping.

Context

The trial against Geske was part of the first witch hunt in Sweden, which took place in 1596-1597. When Sweden became a protestant country after the reign of John III of Sweden, and the law of religion was established in 1594, after the defeat of the Catholic king Sigismund III Vasa of Poland and Sweden, Archbishop Abraham Angermannus, made a long journey of investigation throughout the country. The purpose of the trip was to ensure there were no remanants of the Catholic faith, Pagan customs, or anything that went against the customs of Christianity and the Lutheran faith. The priests interviewed congregations and asked them to report anything suspicious. This was far from only a witchhunt, the priests punished everything from adultery to theft and old habits of both Catholic and Pagan origin.

Also at this time, were references to sorcery, something that had never been taken as seriously in Sweden before, and therefore, Sweden now saw its first witch trials. Up until then, sorcery had only been forbidden if it led to someone's death; the new ideas from the continent about sorcery being something inspired by the Devil was previously been unknown in Sweden, and was now discussed by the Swedish church for the first time. People were put on trial for witchcraft throughout the route of the Archbishop's journey.

The Archbishop met many women claiming to be able to heal the sick through old spells they had learned from former Catholic monks, such as Hans Pauli; one of them was Elin i Järsnäs, who claimed to have learned magic from her grandfather, who had been a "Monk-priest". In Uppsala, a whole group of women were put on trial for having healing powers.

In Jönköping, the sisters Gunnil and Anna were put on trial. Gunnil had used nine tails with five knots to get Fish from Vättern, milk from cows and read magical songs an old woman had taught her; she claimed to have met the Devil one night who promised her wealth if she gave him her soul, and that nothing ill should befall upon her, and she agreed; but after she took communion, he had told her he had no power over her any more. It is not known how the trial against Gunnil and Anna ended, but judging from the ending of other such trials, they were probably whipped and then set free.

However, this witchhunt was not to be a very serious one. As there were few earlier examples of witch trials in Sweden, there was much uncertainty about how to conduct them. The old mediaeval law about sorcery also stated it was a minor crime, punishable only if it was a part of murder. Torture does not seem to have been used.

These first Swedish witch trials are poorly documented, the verdicts of most of them are not known; when the verdict is recorded, however, the person in question was whipped and then let go with a warning not to repeat the crime. It does not seem any executions were recorded, and it is doubtful, whether any of these trials led to executions at all.

One of the trials, where the verdict is recorded, can testify to the normal punishment of the witch trials of 1596-1597. One woman claimed she was able to get coins from the earth. She was whipped fiften times, had three buckets of ice water thrown over her and was threatened that if she ever used sorcery again, she would be thrown in the lake with a stone around her neck.

In 1608, ten years after the first trials, a new law concerning sorcery and witchcraft was introduced in Sweden. This law was founded on an interpretation of the bible and was much stricter than the old law, it now stated sorcery was punishable by death. Witch trials, however, were to be very uncommon in Sweden until the great witch mania of 1668-1676, when this new law was to be used.

See also

* Lasses Birgitta
* Brita Pipare
* Elin i Horsnäs
* Blockula

Sources

* Alf Åberg, "Häxorna" ("The Witches"), sv icon.
* Herman Lindqvist, "Historien om Sverige", sv icon.
* Bengt Ankarloo, "Satans raseri", sv icon.