“Everyone knows that he goes around with the devil and was a werewolf.”
August 24, 2022 12:43 PM Subscribe
An English translation of the transcript of a trial of a 17th Century werewolf held in Swedish Livonia, modern Latvia. The defendant, a peasant known as Old Thiess, claimed to be a hound of god, fighting the devil to safeguard the Earth’s fertility. The judges, Bengt Johan Ackerstaff and Gabriel Berger, were perplexed. This case has fascinated historians, and two of them, Carlo Ginzburg and Bruce Lincoln, discuss the trial of a Latvian werewolf on Susannah Lipscomb’s podcast, Not Just the Tudors, where a couple of years ago Jan Michelsen discussed the trial of a teen werewolf in 17th Century Basque Country.
Is there a transcript for the podcast anywhere? I prefer not to listen to podcasts but as a longtime admirer of Carlo Ginzburg I would love to read the discussion. From the summary it sounds like the werewolf's defense is similar to that used by the person whose inquisitorial records form the basis of his work in The Night Battles.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:59 PM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:59 PM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
It’s the same case as Ginzburg discussed in Night Battles.
The book the transcript translation is from, Old Thiess, a Livonian Werewolf – A Classic Case in Comparative Perspective, is by both Lincoln and Ginzburg and is essentially the long form version of their podcast debate, as far I can tell.
posted by Kattullus at 1:07 PM on August 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
The book the transcript translation is from, Old Thiess, a Livonian Werewolf – A Classic Case in Comparative Perspective, is by both Lincoln and Ginzburg and is essentially the long form version of their podcast debate, as far I can tell.
posted by Kattullus at 1:07 PM on August 24, 2022 [3 favorites]
The Trial 15
"A: The werewolves go thither on foot in wolf form, to the place
at the end of the lake called Puer Esser, in a swamp below Lemburg
about a half mile from Klingenberg [today’s Akenstaka], the estate of
the substitute Herr Presiding Judge. There were lordly chambers and
commissioned doorkeepers, who stoutly resist those who want to take
back the grain blossoms and the grain the sorcerers brought there. The
grain blossoms were guarded in a special container and the grain in
another.
[6] Q: Which form do they assume when they transform them-
selves into wolves?
A: They have a wolf pelt, which only they put on. He had it from a
peasant of Marienburg [today’s Alūksne], who came from Riga, and he
turned it over to a peasant from Alla [today’s Allaži] a few years ago.
But in response to a question, he would not name either of them. And
when a special inquiry was made, he changed his story and said they just
went into the bush and took off their normal clothes and immediately
changed to wolves. They ran about as wolves and seized whatever horses
and livestock fell to them, but he had taken no large animals, only lambs,
kids, piglets, and the like. But in the area of Segewold [today’s Sigulda]
there was a farmhand named Tyrummen, now dead, and he was truly
extraordinary. The witness was nothing compared to him, as one person
is given more power than another by the devil and that man had taken
such large animals as presented themselves, including fattened pigs, and
he carried these off from the farm. And then he feasted with his com-
pany, as twenty or thirty of them often came together along the road,
roasted the animals, and devoured a huge amount.
[7] Q: How did they get fire and tools there?
A: They took fire from the farmstead and made spits out of wood.
They took a cauldron from the farmstead and singed the hair off the
animals. They eat nothing raw."
A re-direct to Petronius in chapter 68 of the Satyricon has the solder caught wounded after raiding a farm in which the Roman Lycanthrope had no time to cook said plunder.
posted by clavdivs at 1:31 PM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
"A: The werewolves go thither on foot in wolf form, to the place
at the end of the lake called Puer Esser, in a swamp below Lemburg
about a half mile from Klingenberg [today’s Akenstaka], the estate of
the substitute Herr Presiding Judge. There were lordly chambers and
commissioned doorkeepers, who stoutly resist those who want to take
back the grain blossoms and the grain the sorcerers brought there. The
grain blossoms were guarded in a special container and the grain in
another.
[6] Q: Which form do they assume when they transform them-
selves into wolves?
A: They have a wolf pelt, which only they put on. He had it from a
peasant of Marienburg [today’s Alūksne], who came from Riga, and he
turned it over to a peasant from Alla [today’s Allaži] a few years ago.
But in response to a question, he would not name either of them. And
when a special inquiry was made, he changed his story and said they just
went into the bush and took off their normal clothes and immediately
changed to wolves. They ran about as wolves and seized whatever horses
and livestock fell to them, but he had taken no large animals, only lambs,
kids, piglets, and the like. But in the area of Segewold [today’s Sigulda]
there was a farmhand named Tyrummen, now dead, and he was truly
extraordinary. The witness was nothing compared to him, as one person
is given more power than another by the devil and that man had taken
such large animals as presented themselves, including fattened pigs, and
he carried these off from the farm. And then he feasted with his com-
pany, as twenty or thirty of them often came together along the road,
roasted the animals, and devoured a huge amount.
[7] Q: How did they get fire and tools there?
A: They took fire from the farmstead and made spits out of wood.
They took a cauldron from the farmstead and singed the hair off the
animals. They eat nothing raw."
A re-direct to Petronius in chapter 68 of the Satyricon has the solder caught wounded after raiding a farm in which the Roman Lycanthrope had no time to cook said plunder.
posted by clavdivs at 1:31 PM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
Page 5 (cited above by Clavdius): Oh god, they were Furries.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:20 PM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:20 PM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
This is great! Peripherally related, may I recommend this humorous and insightful historical novel/gentle satire/feminist parable from last year, Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch.
posted by latkes at 2:43 PM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by latkes at 2:43 PM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
When I was doing my MA at the University of Chicago, I audited a class with Bruce Lincoln (Religion and Empire, I think was the title). It was one of the stand-outs of an already great year.
posted by AdamCSnider at 3:07 PM on August 24, 2022
posted by AdamCSnider at 3:07 PM on August 24, 2022
If the devil can’t bear them, why do they become were-wolves and run to hell?
This is an excellent question following on the revelation that the Devil hates werewolves. Perhaps the Devil is so contrary, he takes steps to annoy himself!
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:04 PM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
This is an excellent question following on the revelation that the Devil hates werewolves. Perhaps the Devil is so contrary, he takes steps to annoy himself!
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:04 PM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]
The werewolves actually appear as Robin Hood like figures who run in and grab the grain that sorcerers and witches have given Satan, and get away with it before Satan can nab them.
Then what do they do with it? They give it back to the people who are thereby kept from starving!
I may have misread this, but there seemed to be some implication that the grain which came back from Satan had been toasted by the heat of hell and could no longer germinate, which is kind of an odd detail, but maybe that took it out of the category of seed corn and made it OK for hungry people to eat it.
I'm struck by the degree to which contemporary urban fantasies, such as Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson series as well as a number of others mirror this idea of an essential conflict between witches and werewolves.
posted by jamjam at 5:19 PM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
Then what do they do with it? They give it back to the people who are thereby kept from starving!
I may have misread this, but there seemed to be some implication that the grain which came back from Satan had been toasted by the heat of hell and could no longer germinate, which is kind of an odd detail, but maybe that took it out of the category of seed corn and made it OK for hungry people to eat it.
I'm struck by the degree to which contemporary urban fantasies, such as Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson series as well as a number of others mirror this idea of an essential conflict between witches and werewolves.
posted by jamjam at 5:19 PM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]
The Night Battles sounds really interesting. But some of the reviews note that it has been not particularly well received by historians in this domain. Anyone happen to know why? I'm fine with reading the book with a grain of salt under my tongue, I just wondered if there is a particularly relevant objection or criticism of the book.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:55 PM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:55 PM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]
I mean, what the transcript shows is that some old guy, probably in his 80's, was sentenced to a public flogging of 40 blows for the sin of... well, probably practicing pre-Christian healing rituals while in a state of heightened consciousness. And that a previous court run by different judges had let the case go, more or less stating that being a werewolf is a ridiculous thing to charge an obviously deluded person with.
It's like an illustration of the cycle of humane tolerance v fearful authoritarianism, which looks, from here in 2022, like a permanent aspect of human affairs. I'm reminded of the film The Return of Martin Guerre, which has a postscript, after a verdict with as little harm as legally possible to the wife and child of the imposter, noting how the judge himself a few years later fell foul of post-reformation zealotry and was sentenced to death.
posted by glasseyes at 2:38 AM on August 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
It's like an illustration of the cycle of humane tolerance v fearful authoritarianism, which looks, from here in 2022, like a permanent aspect of human affairs. I'm reminded of the film The Return of Martin Guerre, which has a postscript, after a verdict with as little harm as legally possible to the wife and child of the imposter, noting how the judge himself a few years later fell foul of post-reformation zealotry and was sentenced to death.
posted by glasseyes at 2:38 AM on August 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
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