full jurisdiction and in the city courts. The Court of Appeal employed direct interrogation where otherwise the proceedings were always written. After a month’s work with six death sentences the politician Johan Gyllenstierna sums up his experiences with surprise and doubt: ”This work must be approached with great caution, for the longer I look at it the more necessary I find it to have more light from outside.” The Court of Appeal complained to the king about the heavy burden of work and was relieved to be freed from its unpleasant assignment. It was at this point, summer 1676, that the two final commissions were appointed. To start with the Stockholm Commission conducted its investigations along the lines of its predecessors. Several death sentences were passed, of which a couple were put into effect. One woman w’as burnt alive — the only instance during the great trials. And then, all of a sudden, the child witnesses began to confess that their stories were pure make-believe and that the accused witches were innocent. The court thereupon sifted all the evidence with the same results, and the most recently condemned women were set free. This change has traditionally been associated with Doctor Urban Hiärne, a member of the commission. A careful study of unpublished sources, however, shows that this picture must be modified. During the three weeks prior to the disclosures other members of the court were active, not least the younger priests. Hiärne was not even present at this stage. His contribution came later when, by brilliantly summarising the experiences gained, he succeeded in convincing those who were still in doubt. And so the witch trials came to an end. In their place, official proceedings were launched against a handful of the most active witnesses. Four were sentenced to death for making false accusations. The verdicts were based on ius talionis. A prayer of thanksgiving was printed and distributed throughout the country: God had finally subdued the ragings of Satan. 4.1. Blåkulla is the scene of events in all the major cases. The legal expressions and the learned terminology may be regarded as condensed or mechanical interpretations of the often colourful stories from there. Compact and transvection of children are the most common charges. Maleficium, which predominated at the earlier trials, is edged into the background or giv'en new implications. Blåkulla is a reflection of the surrounding reality. Most of the features really are mirror images, dichotomously transformed: one eats with the back of the neck, holds things with the left hand, copulates back to back and gives birth from the anus, ”but it doesn’t hurt”. The meaning of these everyday, but back-to-front, activities is scarcely evil. On the contrary. Blåkulla is depicted at this stage as pleasant: a light, decorated dining-hall, a bridal feast with lots of food, milk, porridge and sweet bread. It is the religious customs which, when transformed, acquire sinister implications. The 334
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