Traditional folk beliefs on epilepsy in Norway and ...

Epilepsy & Behavior 71 (2017) 104–107

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Epilepsy & Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/yebeh

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Traditional folk beliefs on epilepsy in Norway and Sweden Mia Tuft a,⁎, Karl O. Nakken b, Kyrre Kverndokk c a b c

Neuropsychology Centre, Oslo, Norway National Center for Epilepsy, Division of Neuroscience, Oslo University Hospital, Norway Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 13 February 2017 Revised 13 March 2017 Accepted 17 March 2017 Available online xxxx Keywords: Epilepsy Folk beliefs History

a b s t r a c t In Norway and Sweden, epilepsy has for many centuries been considered a strange and mysterious disease. The explanations of its causes have been many and imaginative. One being that epilepsy was caused by the hidden people inhabiting the woods and the mountains. To avoid the disease, these hidden people should not be annoyed. One commonly used treatment principle was to try to place the disease back to the ground, or passing the diseased through a hole or an opening in the nature. Fresh blood from criminals was also considered to have strong antiepileptic properties. In the Scandinavian countries, some of these folk beliefs have been very tenacious. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Epilepsy is a disease that traditionally has been wrapped in magic beliefs. Throughout the world, these beliefs have taken many forms. The purpose of this article is to explore the traditional beliefs and folk medical practices regarding epilepsy in Norway and Sweden. These two countries have to be considered as one continuous area of tradition, as neighboring countries located on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Academic medicine did not have any significance for everyday life in these countries before the second part of the 19th century. In 1750, Norway had for instance about ten trained physicians, and 50 years later there was less than one hundred [1]. Vernacular medical knowledge was mostly based on folk beliefs, and the folk medical practices of so-called wise men and women was a necessity at least until the end of the 19th century. Conceptions, terming of seizures and vernacular treatment of epilepsy in the traditional Scandinavian agrarian society of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century are crucial for understanding how people lived their lives with epilepsy at that time. The empirical basis of this article is Norwegian and Swedish folklore, collected during late 19th and early 20th century [2–8]. It is for the most part based on a number of key publications on folk medicine and folk beliefs in Norway and Sweden in combination with literature search within a corpus of more than 100 printed

⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Tuft).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2017.03.032 1525-5050/© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

collections of Norwegian folklore, published by Norwegian Folklore Society (Norsk Folkeminnelag).

2. Understanding of diseases in the ancient agrarian society Traditional folk medicine was not a medical system, but rather a quite diverse set of beliefs and practices. It is therefore not always an obvious relation between causes and consequences. Yet, there are some common underlying principles. In the agrarian society it was considered that magic powers such as revenants and supernatural beings inhabited the ground, the woods, the lakes and the rivers. Illness was generally considered to be something quite concrete, as a physical entity or even a projectile sent out by supernatural powers or by people performing black magic [1,9]. Even some animals were believed to cause illness, such as snakes, frogs and birds. These animals were regarded to be closely related to supernatural beings [10]. The Scandinavian society of the 18th and 19th century was pervaded by the all-embracing awareness of how the almighty God had the power to protect and punish. Hence, diseases were also understood as divine punishments or simply determined by God's providence. Piety could protect from the harm of God, while a combination of precautious behavior and various kinds of magical practices were used to protect against the supernatural powers, revenants or black magic. Such precisions were executed to protect against illnesses in general, and epilepsy was no exception.

M. Tuft et al. / Epilepsy & Behavior 71 (2017) 104–107

The Lutheran church considered folk beliefs as superstition — as survivals from paganism and medieval Christianity. Yet, traditional folk beliefs were in fact intertwined with vernacular Christianity and were vital until the beginning of the 20th century [11,12]. 3. Folk beliefs about what was causing epilepsy 3.1. The hidden people There is a rich tradition in both Sweden and Norway on how to respect the hidden people (“hulder”, from huld = hidden) — the supernatural beings inhabiting the woods and the mountains [13]. They should not be annoyed; otherwise they could cause diseases among humans as well as on the livestock. In Nordland, in the northern part of Norway, it was told that a woman once observed a “hulder” going close to her baby in the cradle. After that incident, the child got epilepsy. In Elverum, located east in Norway, it was told that a boy got epilepsy after having shouted at a “hulder”. Soon after, a big black dog frightened him. Since then he had lifelong epilepsy [14]. It was a common belief that the life of hidden people was mirroring human life. They had farms, cattle and even churches hidden under ground. One way to respect them was avoiding pouring hot water on the ground [13]. In Slätthög in Sweden, it was a conception that the newborn child's bathwater should not be thrown straight out on the ground. Then the hidden people later would take revenge by giving the child epilepsy [10]. It was also crucial to avoid raising farm houses or summer mountain farms on top of a hidden farm. Yet, there are numerous legends on how people accidently did just that [13]. One such legend from Valdres, a mountain valley in Norway, tells how a man and his wife put up a cowshed on top of a hidden farm, and as a punishment the hidden people put epilepsy and mental diseases on their children [14]. 3.2. Special precautions during pregnancy Pregnant women were generally considered especially vulnerable to diseases caused by supernatural powers [2]. They were themselves responsible for protecting their unborn child. Thus, there was a complicated set of protective advices and behavioral restrictions during pregnancy. From different areas in Sweden, stories were told about pregnant women who had stepped over fences that had fallen down, and as a result, they gave birth to children with epilepsy. This imaginary was drawing upon the magical principle of similarity [13]. Like the fallen fence, the child got the falling sickness. The same principle was the basis for several related beliefs. In Norway, as well as in Sweden, it was well known that a pregnant woman should avoid seeing someone cutting down a woven piece of cloth. If she saw someone falling, she should be the first helping the person up again, and she should be very careful not to fall herself or to drop objects on the floor [3,10,14]. Moreover, it was generally believed that the unborn child could get epilepsy if the pregnant woman had watched living creatures die, animals as well as humans. Hence, she should not watch animals being slaughtered or even see blood on the ground after executions. Watching someone carrying an ax or to look at an ax that was fastened into a chopping block was also considered hazardous [4,10,13]. Pregnant women should also stay away from cemeteries; it was believed that if an old coffin collapsed under her feet, her child would get epilepsy [5,10,14]. Fright was considered a cause of epilepsy, not only in Scandinavia but also in other parts of Europe. If the woman had a frightening experience during pregnancy, the child had an increased risk of developing seizures [14].

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Pregnant women should always dress properly. In Sweden, a story was told about a woman who walked to the barn without wearing an apron, and her child later got epilepsy [10]. However, the same happened to a woman who wore two aprons; she met a person with epilepsy on her way, and the unborn child was contaminated [3]. 3.3. Birds could cause epilepsy The sight of a number of different birds could, according to Norwegian folk beliefs, cause epilepsy. In Evanger in western Norway, it was believed that “seeing the woodcock dance on its beak” could cause the disease. The same could happen to those who shot a Siberian jay. In the neighboring parish, Eksingedal, it was said that those who saw the raven brood her eggs, would develop epilepsy. Likewise, in Romsdal, northwest in Norway, it was told that those who destroyed the eggs of the ring ouzels or caused the bird any harm would be struck by the disease [14]. Even eiderdown could cause epilepsy, since it had fallen from the eider duck. To avoid epilepsy, one should not use eiderdown in the bedding [15]. 4. Many seizure terms As in English, the term “falling sickness” (Norwegian: fall, fallesyke, brottfall, brottfallssott, nedfallssott) was the dominating term in both Norwegian tradition and Swedish tradition. Another term directly referring to the seizures was “cramp” (Norwegian: krampe) [10,14]. The term “the bad disease” (Norwegian: den slemme syke) [16] was commonly used in Denmark [14]. A term referring to the magic view of the traditional agrarian society was “fang”, best translated as “to be captured — or seized”. The term was in use south in Norway and in parts of Denmark, and refers to the belief that the disease was literary caused by the power of a supernatural being, and the convulsions reflected the person's struggle to get free [14,17]. This has an interesting parallel in the 20th century English author Margiad Evans' selfexperience of almost being seized by an external force [18]. The term “gifted” (Norwegian: begaving) was in use in the western part of Norway [19]. The term has Dutch origin [12] and referred to the disease as a gift from God [19]. In fact, one of the most well-known clairvoyants in 19th century Norway, Knut Rasmussen Nordgarden (1792–1876), better known as “Wise-Knut”, had epilepsy. The rich oral tradition about him relates his gifts and prophesies to the disease [20,21]. The connection between clairvoyants and epilepsy may have a parallel in a variety of shamanic practices, documented in different cultural contexts around the world [22]. In Norway, epileptic seizures have also been termed after the patients' animal-like ictal sounds, such as “cowfall”, “pigfall” and “goatfall”. These terms are at the same time referring to animals the mother of the child had seen being slaughtered during the pregnancy [10,14]. Along the southern shore of Norway, it was even told that if a pregnant woman by accident got to observe a fish being killed, the child could get “fishfall”, i.e. seizures resembling a fish in death throes [6]. 5. Treatment and protective remedies 5.1. Forcing the hidden people to take back the disease Reading from the Scripture was considered a protection from the hidden people. A legend from Romsdal, Norway, tells about a girl with epilepsy who often was troubled by a male “hulder” who wanted to take her as a wife. Then she brought a vicar to the place she used to encounter him. When they arrived, she had a seizure and was unable to move. The vicar made her read The Lord's Prayer, and when she came to “And lead us not into temptation”, the story tells, she became healthy and seizure free [10]. However, the legend does not reflect a clerical

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practice. It rather illustrates that clergymen were considered to possess magic power and how the word of God was considered to protect people from supernatural beings. 5.2. Sending the disease away Placing the disease back to the ground, or sending it away, was one of the most common treatments in traditional folk medicine. One source from western Norway tells how a puppet was made by stuffing up the shirt worn by the diseased child. This puppet was then placed outdoors, presumably so that the hidden people could take the puppet and the disease with them [14]. This treatment was drawing on the traditional understanding of the disease as something concrete and physical which could hit the body, and likewise be transferred out of it again. The idea that the puppet represented the child was additionally drawing on the magical principle that a part was representing the whole, termed “the pars pro toto principle” [15]. The same ideas were the basic for several other treatments or protective practices, such as to cut and burn parts of the nails and hair of a child in order to prevent the child from getting epilepsy. One widely known treatment was to tear or cut the clothes of a seizing person and burn them [7,8]. According to Scandinavian traditions, the diseased then had to eat some of the ashes, and in some cases the ashes were rubbed on the diseased skin [10]. 5.3. “Passing trough” “Passing through” is an old and widely spread folk medical practice. It is described in the ancient Indian text collection Rigveda, and varieties of the practice seem to have existed at various places around the globe. The method was simply to drag or pull a sick person through a natural formed opening. It could be a hole in the ground, an opening underneath a stone or a natural grown hole in the trunk of a tree. Such trees were rare, and it was the rareness that turned them into magic objects. This practice was commonly used also in Scandinavia as a treatment for chronic diseases, like epilepsy (Fig. 1). However, the method was used as an ultimum refugium, i.e. if all other treatments had failed [8,23]. It is likely that this was a method for returning the illness back to the hidden people. Other explanations suggest that it was a method for transferring the illness to the ground, stone or tree, or a method for ritually scraping or peeling of the illness. One alternative suggestion was that it was a symbolic rebirth and purification of the child [23]. 5.4. Body fluids as magic remedies Salt, communion wine, and body fluids were remedies used in more or less all kinds of folk medicine. In the treatment of epilepsy, body fluids were most frequently used. In Sörmland, Sweden, it was claimed that one could avoid epilepsy by drinking one's own urine. The drinking had to be carried out with the left hand [10]. According to European folk beliefs, children born with a caul were considered to possess magic skills. Moreover, the caul itself was used as a remedy for treating epilepsy [10,24,25]. The most commonly used body fluid was undoubtedly human blood. Blood-letting was considered treatment for a wide range of diseases, including epilepsy, in both early modern academic and folk medicine (Fig. 2) [10,14,26]. For many centuries blood was considered to have antiepileptic properties. Blood was used not only in Scandinavia, but all over Europe, and it had to be warm and fresh. The person with epilepsy could drink his or her own blood, but more often blood from other people. The mother of a child with epilepsy should give it three drops of her own blood. Records from Blekinge in southern Sweden, tell that the blood was to be dripped through the mother's wedding ring and into the child's mouth. If the child's epilepsy was caused by a frightening experience during her

Fig. 1. A child is “passing through“.

pregnancy, blood from the person who had frightened her was supposed to be most efficacious [10]. Blood from animals such as bears, pigeons, worms and some types of fish was also used to treat epilepsy. If the child's epilepsy was considered to be caused by the mother witnessing an animal being slaughtered during pregnancy, the blood from that particular animal was the best option [14]. According to Norwegian tradition and Swedish tradition, the seizure reducing effect was best if the blood was taken from the place of execution. The last three people sentenced to death in Norway were executed in 1876, while the latest execution in Sweden was performed in 1910. Executions were public events and people turned up in great numbers to watch, some of them also to collect or drink blood [27]. Blood from executed criminals, especially murderers, was considered to be of particular value in treating epilepsy. In Sweden, a woman who witnessed the beheading of a man called Diger-Jonke observed how two women with epilepsy were lead to the headless body to drink from the blood. The executioner could get paid for this valuable blood [10]. 5.5. Remedies from dead bodies The distinction between folk medicine and academic medicine was rather blur in the 17th and 18th centuries, as was the distinction between medical books and the so-called black books — handwritten manuscripts containing magic formulas and recipes. The healing quality of human body remains is described both in early modern black books


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treatments were drinking blood from a criminal and eating the ashes of burned clothes of the seizing person. With our current stage of knowledge, one might easily be overbearing and condescending towards such folk beliefs. Nevertheless, these conceptions have been very persistent in the Scandinavian countries and may partly be the reason why many consider epilepsy a mysterious disease even today. Conflicts The authors have no conflict of interest to reveal. References

Fig. 2. Blood-letting in Sweden.

and in medical books. An epilepsy treatment mentioned in Scandinavian medical books of the 16th and 17th centuries was to eat the remains of a skull of an executed man, crushed into powder. Such treatment was allegedly used by both King Fredrik I (1471–1533) and Christian III (1503–1559), regents of the dual monarchy Denmark– Norway. In the 17th century, remedies from human skulls and grease from dead bodies were sold in pharmacies as antiepileptic therapy in Denmark and Norway [14]. 6. Conclusion Throughout the ages, man has struggled to find explanations of diseases. It is perhaps not surprising that epilepsy, with its many odd and scaring appearances, has been subject to an extensive struggle to understand, treat and prevent the disease. According to Scandinavian folk beliefs, epilepsy was caused by hidden people or magical powers. Popular

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