ABSTRACT
The nightmen, on whose lives the Kalundborg case casts such a rich light, were the pariahs of eighteenth-century society. They performed certain essential functions such as emptying night soil, sweeping chimneys, disposing of animals that had died of natural causes and assisting the executioner in carrying out punishments in accordance with verdicts pronounced by society. The case of the nightmen’s conspiracy allows us an intimate and detailed insight into the effects of dishonour on the lives of the nightmen in Kalundborg and into its effects on the society that constructed the nightmen’s alienation. The perception of the nightmen as defiled and dishonest creatures was interwoven with the magico-religious worldview of the time. People were afraid of Satan and all his works, but at the same time they believed that the Devil could be induced to help them if their deeds were sufficiently egoistic and opposed to the divine will.
