Exporting the Devil | EP 2

Who brought the Devil to Vardø? I follow a trail Professor Liv Helene Willumsen calls the witchcraft triangle. It runs from Germany to Scotland, through a royal wedding, storms at sea, and women who confessed to sending devils after a Danish princess's ship.

In Tromsø, Liv Helene opens the surviving 17th-century court books of the Vardø witch trials for me. Written in a Gothic hand, they take us back to a coast of widows where a Scottish sea captain has just arrived as the new governor.

From there, we follow the case of Karren Edisdatter, a young healer whose confession would set off the first great chain of witch trials.

Find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vardowitchtrials/

Sound design by Craig Edmondson.

Featuring Professor Liv Helene Willumsen, historian Rune Blix Hagen and Professor Jennifer McNabb of the University of Northern Iowa.

Research draws on the original trial records and the work of Professor Liv Helene Willumsen and historian Rune Blix Hagen.

With thanks to the National Archives of Norway in Tromsø for access to the original court books.

Voices by Klara Blooma Mohn and Sven Conradi. With everything the accused say, I've tried to stay strictly faithful to the original records.

Written, hosted and produced by Lisa Williams.