Lore 287: It Takes a Village

If these dark tales from history prove anything, it is that powerful things often come in small packages. Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing by GennaRose Nethercott, research by Jaime Vargas, and music by Chad Lawson. ————————— Lore Resources: Episode Music: lorepodcast.com/music https://www.lorepodcast.com/music Episode Sources: lorepodcast.com/sources https://www.lorepodcast.com/sources Official Lore Merchandise: lorepodcast.com/shop https://www.lorepodcast.com/shop All the shows from Grim & Mild: www.grimandmild.com https://www.grimandmild.com ————————— Sponsors: BetterHelp: Lore is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at BetterHelp.com/LORE http://www.betterhelp.com/lore, and get on your way to being your best self. Acorns: Acorns helps you automatically save & invest for your future. Head to Acorns.com/LORE http://www.acorns.com/lore to sign up for Acorns to start saving and investing for your future today! Quince: Premium European clothing and accessories for 50% to 80% less than similar brands. Visit Quince.com/LORE http://www.quince.com/lore for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Chime: Chime is banking done right. Open an account in 2 minutes at chime.com/lore https://www.chime.com/lore. ————————— To report a concern regarding a radio-style, non-Aaron ad in this episode, reach out to ads @ lorepodcast.com with the name of the company or organization so we can look into it. ————————— To advertise on this podcast please email: [email protected]. Or go to: https://advertising.libsyn.com/lore ————————— ©2025 Aaron Mahnke. All rights reserved.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:10Aaron Mahnke?

  On a warm summer night in 1754, the people of Windham, Connecticut awoke to a terrifying noise. It sounded like thousands of voices, all wailing in unison. And what's worse, the cries seemed to come from all around, and even above the village. And they were only growing louder. The people were terrified. Mind you, the French and Indian War had broken out only a couple of months prior, and the threat of ambush was on everyone's mind. So, when they heard that terrible cacophony, the locals figured that there were only two possible explanations. Either the apocalypse had finally arrived, as the Bible promised it would, or they were being attacked. Now, if it was the first option, there wasn't much they could do about it.

• 1:55Aaron Mahnke?

  But the second, well, they had a bit of say over that. And so fearing that the noise came from descending Wabanaki or Algonquin warriors, a scouting party was sent out to investigate. They searched all night, until at last, as the morning sun crested over the horizon, the scouts discovered the cause of the racket. But it wasn't a military attack. It was... bullfrogs. Hundreds upon hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of screaming, dying bullfrogs, whose tiny corpses now filled a dried-up mill pond. And whether done in by drought or disease, they certainly weren't a threat to the poor people of Wyndham. It wasn't long before the story of the town's big scare got out. The incident came to be known as "The Battle of the Frogs",

• 2:39Aaron Mahnke?

  and for years, Wyndham was the butt of countless amphibian-centric jokes, and a number of comical ballads to boot. It just goes to show, sometimes the smallest characters can stir up the biggest trouble. I'm Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

• 3:10Aaron Mahnke?

  The twins from "The Shining", the children of "The Corn", Damian from "The Omen". Creepy kids are one of the most common tropes in horror movies, and it makes sense. After all, what could be more frightening than childhood innocence giving way to evil? And if world folklore proves anything, we've been afraid of child-shaped monsters for a very long time. Take for example this terrifying tyke from the Philippines called the Chanuk. If a baby dies before being baptized, they say, the infant just might become one of these subterranean demons that crawl up out of the ground, creeping upon sleeping women and drinking their blood. As for other hobbies, Chanuk are also known to abduct living children,

• 3:52Aaron Mahnke?

  but don't worry, you can protect your kids from this tiny vampire by giving them simple names, draping them in garlic, or most powerful of all... Adorning them in a necklace of alligator teeth. Meanwhile, in Jewish folklore, there is the banim shovavim. These cuties are the love children born of the unholy union between humans and demons. They have a tendency to hang around funerals where they'll try to steal the dead's inheritance, which was apparently such a problem that entire burial rituals cropped up to prevent it. Circling the dead in the cemetery, for example, and forbidding surviving sons from accompanying their father's body to the grave were both put in place to ward off the banim shovavim.

• 4:33Aaron Mahnke?

  Now, if there's one country that goes above and beyond when it comes to child monsters, it's Japan. They have not one, not two, but honestly countless terrible toddlers in their supernatural folklore. Some of these yokai or demon spirits are pretty benign, like the makuragai eshi, or pillow swapper, which will simply mess up your sleeping by twisting up your pillows during the night. Or the zashiki worashi, which translates to guest room child, a domestic scamp who plays evil pranks around the house. Not so bad, right? But others aren't so harmless. Take the kappa, who swim around in rivers hunting for their two favorite snacks, cucumbers and human anuses.

• 5:15Aaron Mahnke?

  Or the flabby, child-shaped peroritaro, which eats greedy human children and whose name translates to, I kid you not, lickie boy. Oh, and speaking of eating children, there's plenty more where that came from. Folklore contains an unnerving number of creatures specifically known to devour kids. We all remember checking under the bed and behind closet doors for the boogeyman. But did you know that children have been doing this same thing for literally thousands of years? Heck, in ancient Mesopotamia, there were legends of a winged, lion-headed beast called the lamash tu, who, when she wasn't busy causing epidemics, had the pesky little habits of feasting on children's flesh and blood. Meanwhile, in Greek mythology, there is lamia, a demon with the body of a snake and the head of a woman.

• 6:00Aaron Mahnke?

  Back when she was still fully human, she slept with Zeus, and when his wife Hera found out, Hera murdered lamia's children. Grief-stricken, lamia transformed into a monster and developed a thirst for blood, bent on stealing babies from the cribs and even in utero, the way that her own children were taken from her. Now, the most famous Slavic child stealer is, without a doubt, Baba Yaga. Of chicken-legged hut fame, not the John Wick movies. But she's far from the only one. Snakes and lion heads are one thing, but how about wild swamp ladies with little red hats? They call her Ziva Zona. She comes from Slavic folklore and is a bog-dwelling demon with long, unkempt hair,

• 6:42Aaron Mahnke?

  and, yes, a cheeky red cap, festooned with a fern leaf. And meanwhile, the rest of her clothes, if she's wearing any, that is, are always in tatters. Her favorite pastime? Why, kidnapping newborns, of course. But don't accuse her of taking something for nothing. She's always careful to replace any stolen babies with a changeling. English children were warned of Black Agnes, an old crone with a blue face, yellow fangs, and long, sharp claws, who stole away children who stayed out playing after sundown. What does Black Agnes do with her victims, you might ask? Well, that's easy. She flays them alive, devours their flesh, and then scatters their bones across the land. And reflecting on this VIP list, it may seem obvious why they exist at all.

• 7:27Aaron Mahnke?

  A monster who eats kids that stay out late or wander into the woods are clear cautionary tales that parents would tell their children to keep them safe. After all, what's a kid more likely to avoid? Supposedly dangerous swamps? Or a terrifying swamp demon who will rip their skin off of their body? But the truth is, these stories didn't only exist for the sake of children. They also helped adults feel safe. And to understand why, we have to dig a little deeper into the places in which these stories were born. Because, as it turns out, most of these cultures share one tragic trait: an uncommonly high infant mortality rate. In the Philippines, 29 out of every 1,000 children will die before their first birthday, 40 before the age of 5.

• 8:11Aaron Mahnke?

  In Mesopotamia, giving birth before the age of modern medicine was exceedingly dangerous, leading women to desperately turn, not to medicine, but to magic to keep them and their babies safe. While in ancient Greece, 40% of all babies did not survive childhood, and the list goes on and on. By telling tales of child-killing monsters, adults were able to anticipate and discuss the pain of losing a child through the soft veil of metaphor, and slowly, ever so slowly, begin to heal. And yet, sometimes telling stories of magic and mayhem doesn't keep children safe at all. In fact, every now and then, it can actually do the opposite.

• 9:06Aaron Mahnke?

  We like to think of progress as forward-moving, to trust that with each passing year, we can be wiser and more sensible than the people in the past. But unfortunately, as we've seen in our own time, that isn't always how it shakes out. And for the people of the late 16th century, they were forced to learn that lesson the hard way. Witch trials have never been grounded in, let's just say, rational thinking. But you might be surprised to learn that in the early days of the practice, there were some pretty firm rules in place for keeping things from getting out of hand. One of the most important being, no children were allowed to testify in court. And, look, everyone knows that kids are prone to superstition. Sometimes it can be hard for them to tell the difference between stories and real

• 9:49Aaron Mahnke?

  life. And so, knowing this, those early courts absolutely forbid the testimonies of children when it came to condemning people for witchcraft. Their reports simply weren't reliable, and could put innocent people in danger. In Jewish courts, for example, witnesses had to be 13 years of age or older. In England, that age was probably lower, around seven, but still the law was firm. At least, until it wasn't. Because by the time the late 16th century rolled around, all that common sense went right out the window. The laws were dropped, and not only were children allowed to testify, they became star witnesses. In fact, by the 17th and 18th centuries, children were responsible for starting most of the witch panics across

• 10:31Aaron Mahnke?

  Europe and the colonies. Remember, the most famous witch hysteria of all the Salem witch trials happened because kids cried witch. And I know I'm not the only one who still gets chills when I think of those scenes in The Crucible where Abigail and her fellow girls chant in unison as if possessed. Oh, and, by the way, over in Europe, children weren't just being called as witnesses. They were actually being employed as professional witch hunters. In the Basque province of Navarre, two young girls were hired to do just that in 1525. At only nine and 11 years of age, they had been accused of witchcraft themselves and, in exchange for a pardon, they were basically used as the witch-finding equivalent of metal detectors.

• 11:13Aaron Mahnke?

  Essentially, one by one, villagers would be brought before the girls, who would stare deep into their eyes, searching for a witch's mark. And let's just say, you better pray they didn't find one, because by the end of August of that same year, they had led 50 people to the gallows. In hearing this story, I can't help but think about what it must have been like for these children to grow up and realize what they had done. Did they continue to believe in the lies they were told? Or was there a horrible moment of clarity, when they realized that their game of make-believe was, in fact, all too real? Well, for one nine-year-old girl named Janet Devise, this question must have been all the more horrifying, because by the time she had finished her accusations, her entire family was dead.

• 11:56Aaron Mahnke?

  It all started on March 21st of 1612, when Janet's older sister, Allison, bumped into a peddler on the road, and asked if he would sell her some pins. The peddler said no, and allegedly, Allison, frustrated with being refused, cursed the man. Which was not a great idea, especially given the fact that shortly after, that very same peddler suffered a stroke, and announced that Allison Devise was to blame. Add to that the fact that pins were known witches' tools, and Allison was starting to look pretty guilty. So she did what any terrified young woman might do. She accused a whole bunch of other people of witchcraft to save her own skin. These included her own grandmother, as well as a bunch of folks from another family called

• 12:38Aaron Mahnke?

  the Chaddixes, with whom her own family had been feuding for years. Who knows, maybe she saw it as a chance to shoot two birds with one stone, avoid the noose, and take down her Chaddix rivals while she was at it. One thing led to another, and it wasn't long before the jail was stuffed with Devises and Chaddixes alike, with everyone pointing fingers at each other. The court needed answers, and they needed them fast, which is when, on April 27th of 1612, Allison's two younger siblings would change the course of history.

• 13:09Aaron Mahnke?

  First, her 12 or 13-year-old brother James insisted that even before the incident with the peddler, Allison had cursed a local child. And that's not all. He told the court that there had been a witch meeting hosted at his house, a meeting where not only insidious magic was discussed, but also a plan to blow up Lancaster Castle. And I know, that escalated pretty quickly, right? Now, this was only seven years after Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament in the gunpowder plot. So, let's just say authorities were not taking these allegations lightly. But it was Janet's testimony that sealed the family's fate. Because she, at only nine years old, told the entire courtroom that not only was Allison a witch, but so was her brother James and their mother Elizabeth.

• 13:53Aaron Mahnke?

  The courtroom was rapt, as little Janet laid out point after point, promising that she lived among witches. At some point in this testimony, her mother erupted into hysterics, screaming and pleading for her daughter to save her. But the woman's cries fell on deaf ears. Because on August 18th, Janet climbed up on a table, clasped her hands, and calmly denounced her mother as a sorceress once and for all. Just two days later, Janet's mother, brother, sister, and grandmother, along with six more victims, were hanged at the Lancaster Gallows. So, tell me Janet, did you finally realize the consequences of your stories? Did you spend the rest of your life atoning as you grew up, reached womanhood, had children of your own?

• 14:38Aaron Mahnke?

  Or, with the truth too painful to admit, did you choose to continue hiding inside a fairy tale?

• 14:56Aaron Mahnke?

  Today is not your lucky day. One minute you're scampering through the streets of Salzburg with other boys your age, roughhousing, telling jokes, maybe picking a few pockets as you wend your way through the square. And the next minute, you've been arrested and dragged into a dark room. And you know what happens next. You've heard stories from the other boys, terrible rumors of interrogation and torture. And you know too, the very first question the Inquisitor will ask. After all, it's the same thing he's demanded of every other young beggar he has held here. And so, when it comes, you're ready. "Do you know," the Inquisitor says, "the Wizard Jackal?" It's a question that requires us to back up a bit and cover some

• 15:38Aaron Mahnke?

  context. The year is 1675 in Salzburg, Austria, and there is no such person yet as the Wizard Jackal. Instead, there's simply an ordinary 20-something-year-old man named Jacob Kohler. He lives in a German empire split somewhat in two. On one hand, there are the archbishops, who police Salzburg with an iron fist, and on the other hand, are ordinary citizens like Jacob. Now Jacob was no stranger to blood. His father was an animal slaughterer and executioner's assistant after all, while his mother worked in the animal skinning business. And I'll admit, knowing what we do know now, it's tempting to view all of this as a bit of an ill omen. Because the truth is, Jacob would end up with a lot of

• 16:20Aaron Mahnke?

  blood on his hands. His mother, you see, wasn't only an animal skinner, Barbara was also an accomplished thief, and she raised her boy to be a thief as well. And they were good at what they did. At least until they weren't, right? Because in 1675, an offertory box was stolen from a church, leaving the archbishops none too pleased. And who was accused for this crime? But the queen thief herself, Barbara Kohler. After her arrest, she and an accomplice were tortured, during which she admitted to not only thievery, but practicing sorcery as well. And it was under this duress that Jacob's mother threw another name into the ring. That is, her sons. Now she didn't only accuse Jacob of

• 17:02Aaron Mahnke?

  theft. She also claimed that her son had recruited and trained up a gang of child thieves who did his bidding. Basically, think Fagin from Oliver Twist but set in 17th-century Austria. And all of this led the authorities to a deadly conclusion. If Barbara, a sorceress, had taught her son to steal, she had probably taught him witchcraft too. And if the rumors about Jacob's young acolytes were also true, then it was safe to assume that he wasn't only training a gang of thieves, he was building an army of child witches. And with that, the hunt began. Jacob, or Jackal as he was called, was on the run with a price on his head. And meanwhile, authorities began arresting his supposed child prodigies to squeeze them for info.

• 17:47Aaron Mahnke?

  At first, only one child, a 12-year-old homeless boy named Dionys Feldner, claimed to work for the Jackal. Then, a second boy named Matthias, who affirmed that yes, Jackal was indeed a sorcerer, and yes, he'd been teaching them the dark arts. From there, the authorities began sweeping more and more children off the streets, and the more boys they interrogated, the wilder the rumors became. These kids claimed that Jackal could become invisible, a useful skill for a thief, if I do say so myself. But that's not all. He could also shapeshift into a wolf, transform chunks of wood into mice, and even bring on great calamities like wildfires and storms. He could ruin harvests and cause animals to miscarry. And on top of all of that,

• 18:30Aaron Mahnke?

  some insisted the wizard Jackal would lead evil initiation rituals to bring more and more street kids into the fold. It was even worse than the archbishops had feared. Jacob Kohler had officially transformed into something far more dangerous than a mere beggar thief. He had become Jackal the Sorcerer. Not just a man, but a legend. A legend who, for what it's worth, still had not been found. Between the years 1677 and 1690, Salzburg authorities arrested countless tiny witches off the streets. And by "tiny witches", I mean homeless and impoverished young people, primarily boys between the ages of 15 and 25. Imagine how horrible that must have felt. Being vulnerable and just trying to get by,

• 19:13Aaron Mahnke?

  but haunted by the reality that at any moment, you could be kidnapped off the streets with no hope for justice or freedom. No one should have to live like that. And still... One by one, the young beggars were tried for witchcraft. And one by one, they admitted to performing black magic. Never mind the fact that, like Barbara before them, these children's confessions were made under duress of torture. None of that mattered to the prosecution. By the time the smoke had cleared, between one and 200 children had been executed. The youngest was only 10 years old. And as for the Wizard Jackal himself, he was never found.

• 20:08Aaron Mahnke?

  The Salzburg witch trials have gone down in history as the most horrendous massacre of accused witches in Salzburg's entire history. But the truth is, this isn't a story about witches. Not really. If you strip away the big fish stories and the rumors, the shape-shifting and the invisibility spells, what you're left with is this: A moneyed class waging a bloody campaign against those they deem undesirable. In short, the Archbishop was sick of seeing poor people and beggar children on his public streets. And so with a noose woven of superstition and fear, he killed them. Through torture and brainwashing, officials were able to force testimonies out of these kids to back up their obscene claims.

• 20:51Aaron Mahnke?

  Whether those testimonies were true or not, the courts needed a larger-than-life villain, and so they made sure the children they interrogated created one in the form of the Wizard Jackal and his merry band of prodigies. But you know, there might be another layer to all of this. Because some scholars believe that the children didn't only speak of Jackal in the interrogation room, but secretly among themselves as well. And it makes me wonder, perhaps the children needed the Wizard Jackal just as much as the courts did. Not as a scapegoat, mind you, but as a hero. Think about it, here we have a group of completely powerless children. Already, they are hungry and sick, pushed to the furthest margins of society and abandoned by the powers that be.

• 21:34Aaron Mahnke?

  And now they're being locked away, terrified and alone, in some awful city prison. What these kids needed was something to believe in. And what could be a more empowering figure than a beggar boy just like them, lofted to the status of folk hero? To the authorities, the Wizard Jackal was a monster in need of vanquishing. But for the street kids of Salzburg, Jackal represented a more powerful version of themselves. He had magic, he was wily and impossible to catch. He was more than just a street kid. He was a sorcerer. But most vitally, he possessed the one thing that these children longed for the most, as they sat there in the dark, silent hollows of the torture chamber. The Wizard Jackal was never alone.

• 22:33Aaron Mahnke?

  While today's subject may have been sweet-faced, barefoot, and barely tall enough to reach the altar, to their neighbors, they were harbingers of storms, sickness, and sin. But what happens when a child accused of witchcraft fully and entirely believes in their own dark powers? Well, I have one more story for you that answers that question. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. This is an ad for BetterHelp. These days, it feels like there's advice for everything: cold plunges, gratitude journals, screen detoxes, you name it. But how do you know what actually works for you? With the internet and information overload about mental health and wellness, it can be a struggle to know what's true and what actions to take these days. Using trusted resources and talking to live therapists can get you personalized recommendations

• 23:18Aaron Mahnke?

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• 24:03Aaron Mahnke?

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• 24:47Aaron Mahnke?

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• 25:30Aaron Mahnke?

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• 26:12Aaron Mahnke?

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• 26:54Aaron Mahnke?

  And finally, this episode was sponsored by Chime. Our day-to-day spending can often feel easy and normal, but all it takes is a quick pause to glance at your checking account to realize all those little things end up impacting your long-term financial stability. Now through Chime, you can be smarter about how you manage your credit scores. Build credit history with everyday purchases and regular on-time payments. Plus, get access to credit tracking tools and personalized tips for a stress-free credit experience. Chime offers you smarter ways to build your credit history. It has tools designed to help you build, protect, and maintain your credit with less stress. And you can increase your credit scores with automatic credit reporting. I know for a fact that my younger self would have greatly benefited from this. I spent years not understanding

• 27:37Aaron Mahnke?

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• 28:17Aaron Mahnke?

  Way back in 1993, the first Got Milk ad aired on national television, beginning what would become one of the most recognizable and successful advertising campaigns in history. And you can see it, can't you? That ubiquitous image of a celebrity with a white-stained upper lip, the classic two-word slogan in blocky lowercase letters beneath. Over its two-decade run, everyone from Britney Spears and Hulk Hogan to Kermit the Frog sported that famous milk mustache. But here's the thing: there were other ads that were part of the Got Milk campaign as well, including one that the California governor desperately tried to prevent from airing. To quote the summary from Wikipedia, "The ad featured two children who refused to drink milk because they believe milk is for babies.

• 29:02Aaron Mahnke?

  They tell their mother that their elderly next-door neighbor, Mr. Miller, never drinks milk. They see him going to use his wheelbarrow when suddenly his arms rip off because, having not consumed milk, his bones are weak and fragile. The children scream in horror and then frighteningly start imbibing every last drop of milk they have." And this isn't the only time that milk has gone hand-in-hand with horror. From Alison Williams' creepy milk-sipping character in Get Out to the drug-laced milk in a clockwork orange, the childhood drink has been used as shorthand for tainted innocence for a very long time. And I mean, a really long time. In fact, all the way back to the early 1620s, two little Norwegian girls claimed to drink milk that was downright demonic.

• 29:45Aaron Mahnke?

  The first girl's name was Ingeborg Eversdottir, and her mother had just been burned at the stake for witchcraft, right there in their remote little fishing town of Varda, a spot that had been going through a bit of a witch-hunting fad as of late. Now, if the story of Jackal has taught us anything, it's that in the eyes of the state, the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree when witches are concerned. And so, after an accusation from a local woman named Sigrid, Ingeborg and her sister were tried as witches themselves. Now, I'm relieved to say that no torture was used in the interview process this time. But honestly, that only makes what Ingeborg said even weirder. Because the stuff she claimed, well, let's just say, it's not what you'd expect someone to willingly admit.

• 30:27Aaron Mahnke?

  Ingeborg said that her mother had indeed taught them witchcraft, but not using any method that you might assume. No, the little girl insisted that her mom had taken her out to the sheep shed, where she had fed her a bowl of milk. As Ingeborg drank, she noticed some icky black stuff in the bottom of the bowl, and so she refused to drink the rest, pouring it onto the floor. But it was too late. She had already swallowed enough. Her stomach began to ache, and that's when her mother called for "the evil one." This evil one arrived in the shape of a black dog, and he dragged Ingeborg into a field with his teeth. She cried and her arm bled where he bit her, but there was nothing she could do. Days later, he returned, dragging her into the snow this time, and tearing off her clothes,

• 31:11Aaron Mahnke?

  and then days after that, in the shape of a cat. A cat that spunky little Ingeborg kicked and told to scram, which he apparently did. A month later, Ingeborg's eight-year-old sister Karen corroborated this story. And a couple of months after that, another little girl went to trial, with a strikingly similar testimony. Karen #2 also claimed that her mother had given her satanic milk to drink, and that an evil black dog had sauntered in, promised her good fortune and magical powers. For a price, of course. All she had to do was forsake God and serve him instead. Apparently to Karen, this sounded like a very literal hell of a deal, and she agreed. Excited to test out these shiny new superpowers,

• 31:53Aaron Mahnke?

  Karen told the courts that she went outside, approached one of her mother's sheep, and then, invoking the devil's name, gleefully made it explode. But it didn't end there. A fourth child was also tried, a girl named Marin. And don't worry, Marin wasn't guzzling any cursed milk. No, Marin had learned witchcraft by drinking demonic beer. Beer that, like Ingeborg's milk, had some suspicious black gunk at the bottom. Now, Marin was no idiot. When the black dog showed up at her place and offered her a deal... She said no. After all, Marin argued, dogs don't speak, so it all seemed a little sus to her, as the kids say. Still, the devil swooped her up and carried her off to a boiling lake full of boiling people. And then to prove, well, I'm not actually sure

• 32:37Aaron Mahnke?

  what to prove, the devil dipped a raw ham into the lake and brought it out cooked. Oh, and I may have spoken a bit too soon about Marin avoiding the evil milk, because apparently her testimony also included a story in which she milked a cow in the devil's name, squeezing out so much milk and blood that the poor cow died. Now, luckily, this story does have a happy ending. Somehow, all four of the children were acquitted and freed. But one still has to ask, what the heck was going on here? We now know from historical context that Norway was experiencing a lot of crop failure at the time, so it makes sense that the authorities would have been desperate to lay the blame on someone, specifically on women and children who were easy and vulnerable

• 33:21Aaron Mahnke?

  scapegoats. So this explains why trials were happening in the first place. But the evil milk thing? Well, that's a whole other level, right? But a clue might lie with that black residue in the bottom of the girls' bowls. Because according to some scholars, that description sounds a whole lot like the black, grain-like appearance of ergot, a fungus that has a nasty habit of contaminating wheat, flour, and milk, and can cause vivid hallucinations in those who ingest it. In other words, it's possible these kids did actually drink cursed milk, just not in the way that they thought.

• 34:08Aaron Mahnke?

  This episode of Lore was produced by me, Aaron Manke, with writing by Jenna Rose Nethercott, research by Jamie Vargas, and music by Chad Lawson. Don't like hearing the ads? I am with you, my friends. But I've got a solution for you. There is a paid version of Lore on Apple Podcasts and Patreon that is 100% ad-free. Plus, subscribers there also get weekly bonus mini-episodes that we call Lore Bites. It's a bargain for all of that ad-free storytelling and a great way to support. Support the show and the team who make it. Learn more about your ad free options over at lorepodcast.com/support. Lore is of course more than just a podcast. There's the World of Lore three book series available in bookstores and online, and two seasons of the TV adaptation on Amazon Prime.

• 34:50Aaron Mahnke?

  Information about all of that and more is available over at lorepodcast.com. And you can also follow the show on Blue Sky, YouTube, Threads, and Instagram. Just search for Lore Podcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for listening.

• 35:23Speaker 03

  This is Colin Cowherd from the Colin Cowherd Podcast. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota Ford ability. All starts with a great deal on an off-road ready Tacoma or a half ton Tundra. Two of Toyota's most capable and longest lasting trucks. Built on a reputation for quality and reliability, Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which could mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. For a great deal today to a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com. Toyota, let's go places.

• 35:54Speaker 04

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