ABSTRACT
Most studies have focused on Germany, where child witches began to appear as witnesses during the 1580s and 1590s, and where, in the later seventeenth century, there were prominent trials of children and adolescent boys who were thought to be witches. This chapter focuses on the great Swedish witch trials where most witnesses were children 5-15 years old. The frame story of the witches' sabbat was provided by the learned elite, but it was enriched and completed with details elicited from suspects and witnesses. The chapter deals with the source material and the institution which produced it, to find out how the judicial procedure influenced the sources and the children's stories. The local people were aggressive towards the alleged witches from the beginning, and the situation escalated rapidly. The atmosphere probably explains why the courts of first instance adopted unusual methods.
