About this book
Den vidtudraabte Besættelse udi Thisted by Arne Magnussen thrusts listeners into one of Denmark’s most notorious 17th-century episodes of alleged witchcraft and mass possession. Drawn from original acts and contemporary documents, this historical non-fiction account—first printed in 1699—recreates the atmosphere of a provincial town in the final years of King Christian V’s reign, where belief in witches, public trials, and the psychology of collective panic converged. Magnussen’s plain, eyewitness tone and the preserved records illuminate how superstition, legal practice, and social tensions produced dramatic accusations and courtroom spectacle. The narrative not only chronicles alleged possessions and interrogations but also probes the cultural context of early modern Denmark and the wider European witch-trial phenomenon, offering insight into belief systems, community dynamics, and the mechanics of a scandal that scholars later identified as fraudulent. Part criminal history, part cultural study, the work is a vivid primary-source portrait of a vanished world. Ideal for listeners who enjoy true crime history, Scandinavian and early modern studies, witchcraft and witch-trial scholarship, or anyone fascinated by how fear and authority shaped public life in premodern Europe.
