The Vardø Witch Trials

No More Names | EP 6

October 30, 2026·32 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

It’s spring 1663, and we’re in what Professor Liv Helene Willumsen calls "the most cruel of the panics in Finnmark". An intricate web of denunciations threatens to engulf the women of Vardø and the neighbouring villages. In this episode, I go searching for what happened to a woman who vanishes from the court books, and I ask Liv Helene and Anya Bergman, author of The Witches of Vardø, what might have driven Anna Rhodius. Then Professor Jennifer McNabb explains what happens when a witch hunt goes too far.   Find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vardowitchtrials/ Sound design by Craig Edmondson. Featuring Professor Liv Helene Willumsen of UiT The Arctic University of Norway, novelist Anya Bergman, Professor Jennifer McNabb of the University of Northern Iowa and Isa Maline Isene of Vardø Museum. Anya Bergman’s novel The Witches of Vardø: https://anyabergman.com/the-witches-of-vardo/ The court records in this episode were transcribed by Professor Liv Helene Willumsen. Voices by Olivia, Anne Mali Sæther, Ingrid, Anne Elizabeth and Jon Erik. Written, hosted and produced by Lisa Williams.

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