hoard was hidden by a local worried about imminent Viking raids, or indeed
was buried by a raider intending to come back for it.^8
Zombies and witches
Some crimes might be committed after death–if the dead person turned into a
zombie! Two eighthcentury skeletons found in Ireland may have been
suspected of being able to return to haunt and terrify the living. Because of this,
special measures were taken during their burials. Possibly strangers or people
regarded as outsiders by their communities, they were laid in their graves with
large stones wedged into their mouths. It is also possible that they could have
been rapists, murderers, murder victims or had fallen ill with a strange
sickness. Although side by side, they were not buried at the same time, so this
is a belief which must have had a certain amount of staying power over time.
One man was in older middle age, the other perhaps half as old. The large stone
wedged into the mouth of one of the men had been forced in until it had almost
dislocated the jaw. The mouth was seen as the conduit for the soul to exit the
body, or for evil spirits to enter and bring the body back to life. Presumably, a
large stone in the mouth would stop the danger of this happening!^9
Witches were also a problem. Saint Augustine had declared that magic was
effective because the sorcerer was helped by demons; this grew into a belief
that a pact had been made with the devil. In the seventh century, German laws
declared witchcraft a crime. By the eighth century, the church had decided that
this was just superstitious nonsense. A document called theCanon Episcopi
claimed that women who believed they could fly through the sky were simply
deluded, and a ninth century French archbishop tried to persuade his flock that
witches could not sail ships through the sky, change the weather or steal crops,
but nevertheless prosecution and execution of witches continued. King
Athelstan in the tenth century supported the death penalty for anyone who
caused the death of another by casting a spell, and alleged witches in Scotland
who were said to have made a wax effigy of King Duffus in 968 were burned
at the stake.
King Duffus started to reign in 961, but died just four and a half years later.
He suffered from an illness that his contemporaries did not recognise, and
began to waste away. The king’s doctors had no answers, but heard of a
rumour that meetings were being held in the night at Forres that were intended
to end the king’s life. Troops were quickly gathered and sent to the town and
they captured a young girl. Probably after torture, this girl confessed that she,
her mother and a coven of devilworshippers were working on a spell to end
the king’s life. She gave away the location of the next meeting, which the
DARK AGE CRIMES