The Corpses of Criminals and Harmful Magic in Early Modern Stockholm

Abstract

The use of body parts and other artifacts taken from the gallows for magical purposes was a recurring phenomenon in the early modern period, even up until the late 19th century. While often disregarded as superstition, this phenomenon is in this text specifically analyzed as a form of magic – what it was used for, where it got its power and who used it. The sources originate from the town court records of Stockholm in the latter half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century. However, it is highly likely that this practice was widespread throughout Sweden.

Previous research states that parts of the bodies taken from the gallows were used for their potent and beneficial purposes – they were used to cure diseases or were put in beer kegs to make the beer stronger. According to the author, this does not offer a satisfactory explanation. While it is admittedly often difficult to fully ascertain exactly which function the corpses served – the town court records are sometimes vague in this regard – it is reasonable to assume that the uses were intended to harm others in some way. The discovery of and rumors about the use of body parts seem to have deeply upset the people in the vicinity of the user and to have been associated with infamy and taboo. In the only concrete sentence in which this crime is named, it is considered destruction, or harmful magic.

Previous research argues that the potency of the body parts was derived from a kind of lingering life force, still active in the dead body, which could have a healing effect on its user. In this study, the uses of body parts have instead been analyzed as metaphors, where using the hands of executed thieves is done to steal happiness and success from others.

While previous research often locates the uses of the criminal’s body for medicinal purposes to the 18th century and onwards, this study does not necessarily contradict these findings. It does, however, argue that the uses of the criminal’s body in the 18th century and onwards might have differed from its uses during the 16th and 17th centuries.