Last night at my coven's Samhain ritual, we read aloud the names of some of the witches who perished in the Burning Times. After each name was read, we chanted "what is remembered lives."
The list is long, and we can only read a portion of it every year. So this year we omitted Lisbet Pedersdatter Nypan. She was one of the very last witches executed in Norway, burned alive by civil authorities in Trondheim in 1670. She was one of about 70 witches tried and 15 executed in the part of Norway from which my family comes.
By most accounts Lisbet was some kind of folk healer, for the evidence against her included some of the prayers she said for those who were ill. It was also alleged that she rode her broomstick to witches' gatherings on Dovre Mountain A broom believed to have been her flying besom is on display at the Sandvig Collection in Lillehammer. Lisbet's husband Ole Nypan was also charged with witchcraft, but because he was considered to have committed a lesser offense than she, he was beheaded, rather than burned.
About 40 years ago, Norwegian writer Torbjørn Prestvik created a dramatization of Lisbet's trial. The plan is performed occasionally in Trondheim. I once saw some photos of the production, with a gorgeous red-haired woman playing Lisbet. But Lisbet was 60 when she was killed, and in those days, people who were 60 looked and were considered very old, so there was a certain amount of artistic license in the casting and production.
In any case, Prestvik's play turned the tide for Lisbet, as he wrote that her only crime was helping people. In 2005, on Syttende Mai (Constitution Day, Norway's national holiday). a statue of Lisbet Nypan was dedicated at the Nypvang Elementary School in Trondheim. Here's a photo of the statue taken that day. How cool is it that a statue of a real witch has been placed at an elementary school? Do you think we'd ever see such a thing in this country? What is remembered lives!
Samhain Halloween Witch Witchcraft Pagan Paganism Norway Ancestors Trondheim