The History of Witch Hunts

Rumours spread: someone had made a pact with the Devil, wandered at night, caused milk to spoil and children to die. They took infants, people said. Boiled them. Ate them. They were no longer human.

The result was 60,000 executions across Europe. From today's perspective it seems incomprehensible - but the lecture's real question is different: what if it felt necessary back then? What if people believed without doubt that the fire was the only thing that could keep the monster from the door?

Maria Østerby Elleby - witch-history scholar, PhD in history, author and curator at Rudersdal Museums - examines Danish and European witchcraft cases from the 16th and 17th centuries and shows how the image of the witch as monster emerged and grew strong enough to justify what we today regard as monstrous ourselves.

The lecture is part of Golden Days 2026 with the theme "Monster" and takes place in "Toves Rum" in the adult library, ground floor. Metro: Enghave Plads (M3), 2 minutes from the venue. There is an elevator in the left passage of the colonnade.