Milk Hares and Troll Hares - Witches & their Minions in Medieval Swedish Churches
Witches, in the context of otherness and outsiders, have had stereotypes layered upon them for centuries that often overlap with those also considered to be ‘other’ – hypersexual, unattractive, magical, deceptive, thieving, and not to be trusted. Additionally, they’ve had some stereotypes that are seen as uniquely their own – being in league with the devil, having the ability to extract their soul from their body, flight, having otherworldly demons and familiars at their command, and the ability to create creatures that do their bidding. In Nordic countries there are numerous tales of these creatures, crafted by witches and tasked with stealing milk from the homes of ordinary townsfolk – what could be more “otherly”?
These creatures are sometimes named as troll hares and other times as milk hares, though they are also mentioned as appearing as cats, grey balls of wool, or spools.* They belong to a couple of different traditions, where witches create these creatures, witches transform into these creatures, or where the creature is the target of a frustrated hunter (and may or may not be connected to a witch). So, what are they?
Often, they are recorded as being created from various domestic materials – notably mentioned are weaving heddles, bits of wood, and besoms. These materials have a common theme of the feminine household surrounding them. As women were traditionally the keepers of the house, weaving and cleaning would have been within their realm of responsibility. It is the breaking of this domesticity that begins the role of the witch, the assistance of her creature, the beginning of damnation. Next, an event transpires to give the animal life, a pact with the devil that seals the fate of the witch. With this complete, the witch and her creation are entwined in their existence.
In my search for classical artistic depictions of this theme I was time and again brought back to the same artist – Albertus Pictor. The murals above are attributed to him or “his school” and are from the Söderby-Karl Chruch in Sweden, both depict milk hares in the process of assisting witches in gathering milk.
Born in the 15th century, Albertus would go on to become the most famous late medieval painter in Sweden, and arguably his most famous piece is his fresco of ‘Death Playing Chess with a Knight’ in the Täby Church in Uppland, located north of Stockholm. This work would lend inspiration to Ingmar Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal, starring Max von Cydow.
In at least five of the thirty five churches he decorated there is a scene or multiple scenes of witches and milk hares in the act of milk theft and butter production, often with the assistance of demons or devils. Several other churches show worn murals depicting similar demonic butter-churning scenes but no hares, either they weren’t included or the mural is too worn. I was able to find two churches with different, unknown, artists featuring the milk hare theme.
Above shows a mural from the South Wall of the Täby Church in Uppland, the same that has the Death Playing Chess mural. Note that the mural appears to clearly depict a cow with some sort of demon holding it. Below can faintly be made out a creature between the cow’s legs apparently sucking from its udders.
The next images, from Ösmo Church in Södermanland and built in the 12th century, are some of the best and most detailed examples showing the milk hare motif in full. The full set of images are located in the Western Vault of the church. The first image shows the hare with a devil, who holds the horns of a cow as it suckles milk. The next scene shows two hares, their bellies distended with milk, vomiting up their stolen goods into a bucket while the devil churns butter with a witch.
The third image shows again a hare regurgitating milk into a bucket while the witch and the devil set up the churned butter. The final image shows a witch and a devil with a horn. Some translations said this is an “anointing horn”. After some brief research it may be that this is an infernal version of a shofar used in Messianic Judaism for holy anointing oil. Similar to other themes associated with witchcraft that have distorted versions of holy themes – for example the Witches’ Sabbath. The witch that appears throughout the series is the same, but the devils/demons appear very different.
Above are two more examples by Albertus Pictor. The Härkeberga Church milk hare mural in Uppsala County and the milk hare mural from Österunda Church, also in Uppsala County. Both again feature a witch, devil, hare, and butter churn. You can see how some of the murals have degraded over time and why some may now be missing their milk hares, as they are in the bottom of these compositions and seem to fade before the rest.
Another Pictor mural from, this time from Övergran Church in Uppland County, of a witch and devil churning butter. Very faintly behind the devil can be seen what is likely a hare, it’s ears protruding above the horizon line.
An unattributed mural from Öja Church on the island of Gotland. The leftmost side of the image features a cow held by a demon with a floppy-eared hare suckling from it. Next to them is a witch and additional demons churning butter. This mural does not appear to be attributed to Albertus Pictor.
Additional murals showing a witch, devil, butter churn, and possible hare seen in the second picture in the lower right hand corner. These are both found in Österlovsta Church. Again, these murals are not by Albertus Pictor but instead are attributed to an artist named as Andreas Erikkson, who I was not able to find additional information on.
All of these paintings, spread out across a country, carry a central theme. They show women that exist outside of the normal paradigm of society that have crafted creatures from the symbols of domestic life to steal milk from the cattle of others and churn it into butter. It wasn’t until viewing these murals that the connection to butter was reveled, as the myths I had read were largely focused on the act of theft itself. I look forward to researching more into the significance of butter in medieval communities and how this might be further tied to witchcraft.
These witches symbolize the danger of the other and the risk of leaving the expected confines of normal life. Women outside of the safety of domesticity are outsiders not to be trusted. Women who “make” in the wrong way are evil. To enter back into the realm of domestication is to be safe and free from harm. This is where approved making can happen – food, home crafts, babies.
In an allegorical way, the milk hare is a symbol for every woman who steps outside of these expectations, it can be art, or career, or any pushback against their “expected” role. Surely these murals within the sanctified walls of churches were intended as warnings to the female congregation – behave as we expect, or else risk damnation.
*Nildin-Wall, Bodil, and Jan Wall. “The Witch as Hare or the Witch’s Hare: Popular Legends and Beliefs in Nordic Tradition.” Folklore, vol. 104, no. 1/2, 1993, pp. 67–76. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1260796.
** Dhuibhne, Éilís Ní. “’The Old Woman as Hare’: Structure and Meaning in an Irish Legend.” Folklore, vol. 104, no. 1/2, 1993, pp. 77–85. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1260797.
