Guilt lingers over murder of ‘witches’ at Norway’s ‘Gates of Hell’

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/04/guilt-lingers-over-muder-of-witches-at-norways-gates-of-hell/



Four centuries ago in the remote Norwegian Arctic, a region known as the “Gates of Hell” for its harsh climes, dozens of women were prosecuted for witchcraft and killed.

Centuries afterwards, a sense of collective guilt lingers, and the women wrongfully convicted for non-existant crimes are remembered at a memorial in the small town of Vardoe, perched on the edge of the Varanger peninsula in Norway’s extreme northeast.

One woman commemorated at the memorial — a 125-metre-long (410-foot) elevated structure built on stilts — was burned at the stake for allegedly having cast a fatal spell on a child and two goats.

Another was executed after being accused of triggering a storm that caused 10 vessels to sink and 40 sailors to drown.