The Witches of Vardø

Vardø, an island off the Arctic coast of northeastern Norway, winter 1662. Witchcraft trials are under way, and twenty women will be put to death: eighteen burned at the stake, two tortured until they die. The novel is fiction built on that historical record.

Two women carry the story. Anna Rhodius, a physician's daughter and a talented healer, was once the King of Denmark's mistress. Now exiled to Vardø, she writes him letter after letter, hoping to win back her place at court while the trials go on around her.

Ingeborg Sigvaldsdatter is a teenager, and her mother, Zigri, stands accused of witchcraft once news of her affair with a merchant surfaces. Ingeborg and her friend Maren, whose mother is already condemned, set out north on a dangerous trek to reach her.

The two accounts, one told in letters and one following the girls on the road, come together at Zigri's trial. This is historical fiction with a grim subject. It shows how readily an accusation hardened into a verdict against women who had no protector, and it points to the men whose authority allowed that. The Steilneset memorial on Vardø, raised for the victims, was one of the author's starting points.