Dømt til ild og bål was the usual sentence, condemned to be burnt at the stake. In the seventeenth century Vardøhus fortress, that time the easternmost remote outpost of the Kingdom of Norway, 91 people — in the vast majority Norwegian women and a few Sami men — were sentenced to death for practicing witchcraft — if they had not been already tortured to death during interrogations. The detailed court records concerning the trials survived, bearing witness to the insanity of terror in the name of religion. Read More
