re: #119 A Mom Anon

Something to do with those evil women owning property and/or having jobs that gave them some financial control over their lives. I thought I read, about a million years ago, that many of the women on “trial” for witchcraft owned their own property, mostly after their husbands died, or supported themselves through jobs like midwife, housekeeping or small scale farming. Whether that’s accurate, I don’t know, it was a long time ago when I was in school.

This would have been after the 30 Years War, which left a lot of widows.

The background to the Hansel and Gretel story involves a woman who had a coveted recipe for gingerbread (which was the ultimate delicacy back then before chocolate was known in Europe) but did not want to share it with a fellow.

So he started circulating rumors about how she lured children out to her house with gingerbread and baked and ate them alive, hoping to be rewarded with the recipe for helping “uncover” a witch.

There are court records of a similar case in the Spessart region of Germany. The woman was even exonerated, but the legend grew and the Spessart was one of the regions where the Brothers Grimm collected their folk tales.