Whispers in the Church

Book excerpt: This history explores the lives and trials of the accused during Swedens seventeenth-century witch hunts. It may come as a surprise that Sweden had a witch hunt and that it was a precursor to Salems witch trials. Mrit Hansdotter and Karl Karlsson lived in an age of war, religious upheaval, and general discord. Their home, Karlsgrden, was the site of tremendous heartache, tragedy, love and survival. It overlooked the Ljusnan River on a pilgrimage road between Uppsala and Saint Olafs shrine in Norway. Mrit was sentenced to death, twice, for things she could not have done. Karl was sentenced to death, twice, for things he might have done. Tapping into numerous historical sourcesmost of them unavailable in Englishauthor and historian Charlene Hanson Jordan details the customs, traditions, relationships, and lifestyles of seventeenth-century Sweden while exploring her familys history and considering the dangers of an imbalance of power between church and state that allowed the development and spreading of an extreme notion about evil.