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"How do you know she's a witch?": Witches, cunning folk, and competition in Denmark
Western Folklore, Summer 2000 by Tangherlini, Timothy R
La difference traditionelle entre magie noire et magie blanche est A n'en pas douter une distinction savante, une invention due aux elites culturelles. Au village, tous les paysans sont confrontes quotidiennement A des phenomenes magiques ambivalents, qui peuvent aussi bien detruire que proteger l'individu, selon I'aptitude de ce dernier A les detourner ou encore At se les concilier. Mais si chacun recherche ainsi perpetuellement un equilibre magique par des tabous et par des rites protecteurs, il est un personnage qui est cense posseder plus de force, plus de capacites en de domaine que commun peuple: le devin-guetisseur, qui porte divers noms selon les regions, et qui est en realite un sorcier villageois. Ses fonctions son multiples, car il cumule celles du medecin, du pretre, du savant: il dispose en effet d'un "svour" efficace aux yeux de ses concitoyens (Muchembled 1979: 49).
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This ambivalence obtained for the Danish rural populace as well as evidenced by witness accounts used not only to prosecute but also to defend individuals accused of witchcraft (Tornso 1986: 104). Accordingly, one can easily imagine a situation in which accusations of witchcraft would be challenged by other stories proposing that the accused was acting more as a cunning person than as a troldkvinde, thereby lessening the impact of the damning accusations of malicious intent.
Interestingly, this ambivalence concerning the identification of a person as either a witch or a cunning person did not disappear with the witch trials but rather persisted as a functional aspect of folk belief well into the twentieth century and is evident in the stories about witches and cunning folk collected by Evald Tang Kristensen. For example, a certain Laerer J. Jacobsen from Mejlby, speaking about the "Cunning Smith in Lonborg" says: "The cunning folk were both feared and admired. They could measure, bless, and show again, cure illness and, through reading, prevent injuries or make them better. In addition, they could stop blood, calm runaway horses and a lot more... The cunning folk did both good and bad" (Kristensen 1934, vol. 6: 141).
This ambivalence over the identification of a person as a witch or as a cunning person lay at the heart of several cases in which cunning folk were brought to court on the charge of witchcraft. Kirsten "Pinn" Poulsdatter, a cunning person on Leso, for example, was brought to court in 1634 accused of witchcraft johansen 1991: 90-1, and 273; Viborg landsting). During her trial, Kirsten said that she did not consider taking the "maelkelykke" (milk luck) from a man and subsequently returning it to him as witchcraft. Rather, she saw it as part of the abilities of a cunning person. Similarly, a witness against her mentioned that she had told him that if he gave her some grain while he was sowing his fields, he would get a thousand-fold return. Although his harvest was quite good that year, he blamed a subsequent poor harvest on her having crossed his fields. In the eyes of the witness-and in her own eyes as well-one and the same person was quite capable of doing both good and bad johansen 1991: 91; Viborg Landsting B24.524: 309r-312r).21 Kirsten was eventually convicted not of witchcraft but rather on the lesser charges of using "indbildnede konster"-the magic of a cunning person-and her conviction led to a sentence of banishment.
