The Great Nightmen Conspiracy explores the little-known magico-religious history of eighteenth-century Denmark. Essential tasks carried out by the nightmen, such as dealing with carcasses and assisting with executions, generated contempt from the rest of society but also led to the nightmen becoming deeply feared because of the dark and magical forces associated with their occupation. The discovery of a dead peasant at the edge of the fjord on 4 December 1734 led to the arrest of the nightmen Mikkel and Hans in the nearby market town of Kalundborg in Zealand. In court, their interrogation focused not on the suspected murder but on thefts of livestock, immorality and other provocations committed by these socially ostracised nightmen. The court case became the largest of its time, implicating nightmen across half of Zealand and exposing divisions within society. This book uses a minutely researched set of incidents centring on the Danish "pariah caste" of nightmen to bring to light this unknown magico-religious side of Denmark. Through microhistorical methodology, The Great Nightmen Conspiracy presents a detailed insight into the lives of the nightmen in Kalundborg and the society that constructed their alienation. It is ideal for academics and postgraduate students of microhistory and urban history.

Taking the kingdom of Denmark as its frame of reference, this volume presents a range of close analyses that shed light on the construction and deconstruction of crime and criminals, on criminal cultures and on crime control from 1500 to 2000. Historically, there have been major changes in the legal definition of those acts that are legally defined as being criminal offences - and of those that are not. This volume explores the criteria and perceptions underlying definitions of crime in a powerful and absolutist Lutheran state and subsequently in a Denmark characterised by social welfare and sexual liberation. It places special focus on moral issues rooted in considerations of religion and sexuality.

The Great Nightmen Conspiracy explores the little-known magico-religious history of eighteenth-century Denmark. Essential tasks carried out by the nightmen, such as dealing with carcasses and assisting with executions, generated contempt from the rest of society but also led to the nightmen becoming deeply feared because of the dark and magical forces associated with their occupation. The discovery of a dead peasant at the edge of the fjord on 4 December 1734 led to the arrest of the nightmen Mikkel and Hans in the nearby market town of Kalundborg in Zealand. In court, their interrogation focused not on the suspected murder but on thefts of livestock, immorality and other provocations committed by these socially ostracised nightmen. The court case became the largest of its time, implicating nightmen across half of Zealand and exposing divisions within society. This book uses a minutely researched set of incidents centring on the Danish "pariah caste" of nightmen to bring to light this unknown magico-religious side of Denmark. Through microhistorical methodology, The Great Nightmen Conspiracy presents a detailed insight into the lives of the nightmen in Kalundborg and the society that constructed their alienation. It is ideal for academics and postgraduate students of microhistory and urban history.

Taking the kingdom of Denmark as its frame of reference, this volume presents a range of close analyses that shed light on the construction and deconstruction of crime and criminals, on criminal cultures and on crime control from 1500 to 2000. Historically, there have been major changes in the legal definition of those acts that are legally defined as being criminal offences - and of those that are not. This volume explores the criteria and perceptions underlying definitions of crime in a powerful and absolutist Lutheran state and subsequently in a Denmark characterised by social welfare and sexual liberation. It places special focus on moral issues rooted in considerations of religion and sexuality.

To kill someone purely in order to be sentenced to death and then to die at the hands of the executioner Such murders were alarmingly frequent in eighteenth-century Lutheran Europe. The book traces the complex motives behind these crimes an investigation that leads not only to the Pietist interest in saving the souls of those sentenced to death but also into some of the central elements of Lutheran soteriology and the idea of capital punishment as being divinely ordained. The murders prompted special legislation and challenged the religious basis of the death penalty, and the killings and the logic behind them played an important role in debates about capital punishment, following Beccaria. Although much less frequent than in Lutheran Europe, such crimes are still committed elsewhere in eighteenth-century Europe, and even in the present-day US. Thus they seem to go hand in hand with the death penalty, irrespective of time and space. At dr be nogen alene for at blive d dsd mt og henrettet af b delen . S danne mord var alarmerende hyppige i 1700-tallets lutherske Europa. Bogen eftersporer de komplekse motiver bag disse forbrydelser - en unders gelse der f rer ikke bare til det pietistiske engagement i at frelse de d dsd mtes sj le, men ogs til centrale dele af den lutherske frelseforst else og til forestillingen om, at d dsstraffene var direkte beordrede af Gud. Bogen har selvmordsmordene i K benhavn og den danske stats bek mpelse af selvmordsmordene som udgangspunkt, men indeholder ogs et europ isk udblik. Mordene f rte til s rlig lovgivning og udforderde de religi st motiverede d dsstraffe. Her blev Danmark foregangsland, da man i 1767 helt ekstraordin rt afskaffede d dsstraffen for disse mord. Om end meget sj ldnere end i det lutherske Europa ses selvmordsmord ogs i det vrige Europa i 1700-tallet s vel som i vore dages USA. De synes s ledes at ledsage d dsstraffen overalt, hvor den er i brug.