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Paper short abstract

The paper investigates narratives concerning familiars and metamorphoses in seventeenth-century Norwegian witch trials. Attention is given to how these spirits were conceptualised and how they related to the intellectual notions of the time regarding the term ‘preternatural’.

Paper long abstract

In early modern Europe, the relationships between the natural, preternatural, and supernatural were the subject of frequent intellectual debates and changing notions. Since the term ‘preternatural’ came to refer to demonic activity and to that resulting from magical practices, the term became central to understanding the realities and boundaries of witchcraft. Preternatural phenomena were the results of occult powers which were used in secret. Yet, as Lorraine Daston observes, while the preternatural was seen as manipulating natural causes, it was limited to working marvels but never miracles.

The witch trials during this period were arenas where these human-nature entanglements were displayed in narratives, discussed, and eventually judged upon among the persons involved. In the trials, human-nature related questions concerned bodily transformations (metamorphoses), the witch-animal relationship (familiars), the manipulation of natural forces (to cause bad weather, crop failures, or plagues), and the situating of witchcraft practices in wild nature (the sabbath) to name but a few. While research has widely considered witches’ characteristic abilities to influence their surroundings, little attention has been given to the concept of ‘nature’ and the character of the natural world. This paper will investigate a selection of Norwegian witch trials from the seventeenth century with particular attention to narrations concerning familiars and metamorphoses. How are these spirits conceptualised in the courtrooms?