Over centuries, European witch hunters prowled the continent, driven by superstition, paranoia, religious fervor, or plain politics. In this roundup of 10 bizarre stories, we dive into the most odd testimonies that surfaced during those trials.
10 Bizarre Stories Unveiled
10 Thiess, Good Werewolf Of The North
Thiess was an elderly man from 17th‑century Latvia who told a startled magistrate that he belonged to a local pack of werewolves. He insisted that these were not agents of evil; rather, they could not “tolerate the Devil” and served as the “hounds of God.”
According to his account, on certain days the spirits of these werewolves would travel to a “place beyond the sea” and descend into Hell in wolf form to battle the Devil, preventing him from stealing the harvest. When they succeeded, they beat the Devil with iron rods; however, any delay meant the gates of Hell would be barred, and the harvest would fail.
Thiess claimed his personal nemesis was a dead witch named Skeistan, who would confront him in Hell and once broke his nose with a broom. Under relentless questioning, Thiess shouted that werewolves served the Church and were closer to God than the local priests. His outburst earned him ten lashes. His testimony resurfaced in the 20th century because it mirrors the benandanti (“good walkers”) and other southern European groups.
9 The Good Walkers And The War At The End Of The World
The good walkers (benandanti) formed a widespread, apparently ancient dream cult uncovered by the Inquisition in Italy’s Friuli region. During the “Ember Days” when the seasons shifted, the benandanti entered death‑like trances and journeyed as spirits to a valley at the world’s edge, where they fought epic battles against evil witch‑spirits to safeguard the harvest.
One walker described the experience: “I had the impression there were many of us together as though in a haze, but we did not know one another, and it felt as if we moved through the air like smoke and that we crossed over water like smoke.”
The benandanti were identified at birth, often by being born with a caul. Their presence was widespread, and any walker who refused to enter the trance on Ember Days risked being beaten by fellow villagers. Unsurprisingly, they were shocked when the Inquisition suggested that their shamanic spirit battles were un‑Christian.
8 The Shape‑Shifting Sky Battles Of Hungarian Witchcraft
The taltos were Hungarian mystics, likely remnants of pre‑Christian Hungarian shamans. They boasted the ability to leave their bodies and travel to distant realms, even into Heaven. One taltos claimed she had lain as if dead for nine days while chatting with God.
The taltos were most famous for battling each other in the sky. While their bodies were in trance, their spirits assumed forms such as bulls, stallions, fireballs, fiery wheels, or metallic discs, then ascended into the heavens for thunderous duels. Many taltos displayed wounds they said were earned in these aerial fights, believing the injuries determined their community’s fortune.
One taltos told a court that an ancient tradition saw legions of taltos waging war “in the skies for the empire.” She added that around 700 taltos existed in 1725 and that “the light of their flag is shining all over the world.” The taltos faced a severe crackdown in the 18th century, with many tortured or executed.
7 The Ladies From Outside
In 1587, a bewildered inquisitor in Sicily quickly warned that “a new sect of witches has come into being.” The Sicilian witches perplexed the Inquisition because they claimed contact with spirits that did not fit the Church’s model of devilish encounters. Instead, they said they communicated in dreams with the “ladies from outside” (donni di fuora or donas de fuera), a race of beautiful beings possessing animal‑like feet.
These ladies were generally helpful and not overtly evil, though they were reportedly offended by any mention of God or the Virgin Mary. They were ruled by a queen—sometimes called “the Eastern lady”—and her teenage consort. Most interactions with them culminated in sexual encounters, which the testimonies described as highly enjoyable. The inquisitors recorded one woman’s first journey outside:
She described a kind of witches’ Sabbat—but without devils or any of the usual nasty details; everything that Laurea de Pavia described was beautiful and delightful … there was a great plain there on which stood a large platform with two chairs. On one of them sat a red young man and on the other a beautiful woman; they said she was the queen and the youth was the king … they told her that she must not worship God or Our Lady. The ensign made her swear on a book with big letters that she would instead worship the king as God and the queen as Our Lady, and promise them her body and soul. After she had worshiped them like this, they set out tables, ate and drank and danced, and then the men lay with the women and with her and made love to them often in a short time.
6 The Cloud Sailors And French Sky Witches
The tempestarii were a class of storm wizards in ninth‑century France. They claimed power through an alleged alliance with the people of Magonia, who supposedly sailed through the sky in ships that moved through the air like vessels through water.
The Magonians paid the tempestarii to act as their agents on Earth, and the tempestarii, in turn, extorted money from local farmers. If the farmers refused, the Magonians would summon a storm to ruin the crops.
The tempestarii appear in several sources, most notably a polemic by Bishop Agobard of Lyon, who railed against people paying the tempestarii and then pleading poverty when tithes were due. Belief in a sky‑borne sea persisted long after the ninth century. In the 12th century, Gervase of Tilbury related how an anchor fell out of a cloud and lodged on a church. People below saw a man descend the rope, moving as if underwater, free the anchor, only to be seized and drown in the air, dying swiftly.
5 Kresniks Were Vampire‑Fighting Balkan Witches
Kresniks were spirit warriors from Istria, in modern Slovenia and Croatia. Like the benandanti, they were identified at birth by being born with a caul and were called to serve at ages seven, eighteen, or twenty‑one.
These shamanic warriors left their bodies while sleeping, first taking the form of a fly and then shifting into various animals to battle witches and vampires. When a realm faced particularly evil spirits, the kresniks would band together, crossing the sea in eggshells to battle demons in the air above St. Mark’s Square in Venice—an ominously sinister location for any tourist.
In certain Istrian areas, each kresnik was believed to have a werewolf‑like evil counterpart called a kudlak. One kresnik and one kudlak were born into each clan simultaneously, and their spirits frequently clashed in animal form to decide the family’s fate. Those suspected of being kudlaks were sometimes buried with their tendons severed so they could not return to walk the earth.
4 The Peasant Who Used Witchcraft To Catch A Witch
Chonrad Stoeckhlin was a peasant living in a remote Alpine village in the 16th century. In 1586 he accused an elderly local woman of witchcraft, claiming that nocturnal phantoms—spirits that roamed the night sky—had told him she was a witch.
Stoeckhlin explained that he could leave his body and travel to mysterious realms with these phantoms. Ironically, his own testimony landed him in jail for witchcraft as well.
According to Stoeckhlin, his journey into the spirit world began when a dead friend appeared, ordering him to repent his sins. After obeying, an angelic being bearing a red cross on its forehead taught him how to exit his body and introduced him to the phantoms, who then helped him identify hidden witches. Ultimately, Stoeckhlin was executed as a witch in 1587.
3 The Cunning Trance Werewolf
In the late 16th century, a werewolf panic swept through St. Claude in the Franche‑Comté of eastern France. At least one local was stoned to death by a mob after being suspected of attacking children in wolf form. Several other accused werewolves faced trial and were tortured into confessing.
Jacques Bocquet, a local healer or “cunning man,” claimed his spirit attended a witches’ sabbath while his body stayed at home. Another suspect reported entering extended trances on certain days, such as Maundy Thursday, describing them as exhausting experiences that took days to recover from.
A different suspect, Pierre Gandillon, described transforming into a werewolf. He said he would fall into a cataleptic state, lying completely rigid on his bed, after which the Devil would clothe his soul in wolfskin and send him to an evil sabbath.
2 Aunt Fairy
In Croatia, vilenicas were individuals capable of communicating with fairies (vila). A remarkable testimony survives from a vilenica questioned by the Republic of Dubrovnik in 1660.
The vilenica, a woman in her twenties, said she communicated with an entity known as Tetka Vila (“Aunt Fairy”), who appeared as a nun. The fairy instructed her to pick a specific pair of roots if she ever wanted to speak to Tetka Vila. Once she did, the fairy would appear and advise on healing and how to spot evil witches.
Although this testimony led to a witchcraft trial, vilenicas continued to practice elsewhere in the country. One priest lamented: “I do not know if there are any witches or warlocks. Certainly not in public. But there is a witchcraft of some sort. They tie knots through some evil spells cast to forward marriage or obstruct it. […] They do not apprehend that by collaborating with the Devil they bring evil.”
1 The Cow Resurrection Game Night
In 1390, the Inquisition in Milan interrogated Sibillia (sometimes spelled Sibilla) and Pierina, two affluent women who confessed to belonging to a cult that met regularly in the homes of wealthy Milanese merchants. The gatherings were led by a mysterious figure known as the Madonna Oriente (“Lady of the East”) or the Signora del Gioco (“Lady of the Game”).
The highlight of each meeting was a beef feast during which the bones and hides were saved. At the feast’s conclusion, the Lady would tap the bones with her stick, causing the cows to rise from death. These resurrected cows, however, were reportedly unhealthy and unfit for work.
This magical act echoes several figures in European mythology, most notably Thor. The emphasis on bones also recalls Siberian shamanism, which holds that the soul resides in the bones. Some scholars speculate that Sibillia and Pierina were part of an underground group linked to ancient European shamanism. The Inquisition ultimately deemed their testimony unreliable and released them, but they were rearrested a few years later and executed for witchcraft.