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• 1 2017-02-04T07:55:09-08:00 Day of Wrath -- Setting, Details, and Design 70 plain 2017-05-02T10:26:21-07:00 The setting, details, and design of Day of Wrath were generally well executed and aided greatly in creating an accurate impression of the time. It was apparent throughout the film that care was taken to make sure that these factors were all historically accurate, and that they contributed to creating the desired mood for the film. The general disposition of the film was dark, which was important as the film is depicting what it was like to be living in the era of witch hunts in Scandinavia. 

  Geographic Locations

  Throughout the film, locations and scenes accurately represented seventeenth century Denmark. Scenes in the film correctly portray what the landscape would have been like. In the film Anne and Martin go to a little creek to meet in secret. On the way there you can see that they go through a few large fields and around the creek there is a wooded area. Towards the end of the film Absalon is called to a house to perform a ritual. He must go through or around a bog. On Absalon's way back to his home he is walking through the bog during a storm which has very high winds.
  
  The fields of grass, wooded areas, and freshwater streams are all typical elements of the Danish environment.(1) About ten percent of Denmark's area is covered in woodlands. The first trees to come to Denmark had been the birch, the hazel and the aspen.(2) In the film you can hear Absalon's son and Anne talking about going to the birch trees. During this time in Denmark you could find two different types of bogs, lowland bogs and the high bogs.(3) The scene in which Absalon was returning home from his visit with the archbishop illustrates typical weather patterns in Denmark. A significant storm with heavy winds hindered his journey back home. Since Denmark is a peninsula, it commonly receives heavy winds coming off of the surrounding bodies of water; so this scene was a depiction of a realistic situation.
  
  Day of Wrath was filmed in Denmark during World War II while Denmark was occupied by Germany. This was a time when public entertainment was limited by the Germans. The film was shown for six months at a Copenhagen Cinema because it was an alternative to showing German films during this period.(4)

  Architecture

  Until the mid-sixteenth century, nobility and commoners lived in similar housing structures—ones that were largely wooden and built fairly crudely. Before the seventeenth century began, however, around seventy brick manor houses had been built. (5) The architecture present in the film was also representative of seventeenth century Denmark. (6) At the onset of the film, Herlof's Marte, a lower class woman, is shown in her home.  Characteristics that stood out were the stone and dirt flooring, the wooden structure, and its modest size. In contrast, the home of Absalon and Anne was much larger with intricate wooden carvings, vaulted ceilings, and stone pillars. The contrast between the two structures accurately represented the uneven distribution of wealth between the social classes. Almost all of the wealth during this time was within the monarch and nobility, which included the clergy, and little was left for the developing middle class and lower class citizens.(7)

  Costumes

  The costuming in the film is largely representative of the fashions of the time. Absalon, a wealthy member of the clergy, is shown wearing a large white collar, or ruff, with a black cassock. Additionally, the members of his family also wear similarly dark clothing, but ruffs were only worn by upper class men. Absalon’s son, Martin, is never shown wearing a ruff; however, he does wear a collar that bears resemblance to a fashion called a small falling band.(8)
  
  In men’s 17th century fashion, there were two types of breeches that were popular. Cloak bag breeches were puffy and stopped above the knee. These were popular until the 1630s. The film takes place in 1623, but most men are shown wearing pants that more similarly resemble the other style, Spanish breeches. These come below the knees and are slimmer.(9)
  
  Men also wore doublets around this time. Martin’s doublet is close fitting—accurate for an upper-class man, but a working man’s would be looser, fall to the thigh, and be cinched with a belt.(10) The lower-class men, when shown, do wear this sort of fashion. Lower-class clothing was less formal and made of wool.(11)
  
  One particular accessory that stood out was the type of hat that both men and women wore. These hats were black, and had stiff flaps that covered the ears. (12) These hats were worn throughout the film. When Anne first appears, she is wearing one. The hat covers her hair. This modest hairstyle was more accurate than the style Anne wears later in the film. As Ruth M. Green and Jack Cassin-Scott note in Costume and Fashion in Colour 1550-1760, ​popular seventeenth century hair “lay flat across the top of the head, standing out at the sides.” Green and Cassin-Scott describe how a bun would rest on top of a woman’s head, and the rest would be “frizzed or curled to frame the face.”(13) This description is more grand than the hairstyle Anne wears; however, as a clergy member’s wife, it could be possible that Anne would be expected to appear more modest. Later in the film, Anne frees her hair from the cap, and it appears loosely curled, a style that is much more reminiscent of 1940s than the 17th century. This is perhaps to make her seem more attractive to modern viewers or to represent her growing boldness in her relationship with Martin.

  Details

  An interesting, well thought out detail was included in the opening scene of the film. In this scene, there was a calligraphy scroll that had the lyrics to the theme song of the film. This melancholic song was played during pivotal points throughout the film to evoke an emotional response from the audience. The words that show throughout the opening song are adapted from an ancient 13th-century poem written by Thomas of Celano. While there are similarities, the words in the film do not closely follow the original poem. (14)
  This theme song was an important detail to the film, but there was also a more obscure detail present on the scroll. This detail was a picture of Hans Pothorst, who was a Danish explorer from the time. His image was commonly found hanging from the arches of Danish churches due to his popularity within the country. (15) The presence of his picture on the scroll is an example of how meticulous the filmmakers were. They strove to make every aspect of the film historically accurate and were quite successful in doing so.
  
  Another accurate detail is the presence of a Danish Bible.  There is a scene in the film that shows Anne reading from Absalon’s Bible. Christian III’s Danish translation of the Bible was published in 1550, so it is accurate that the characters would have been able to read out from the Bible in their own language. (16)
  
  In the film, there is a disturbing scene in which it is clear that Herlof’s Marte has been tortured. It was not uncommon for people accused of witchcraft to be tortured. Torture played a part in getting these women to confess. Common torture devices were the rack or strappado. On the rack, a woman’s hands would be tied behind her back. Her bindings would then be attached to a pulley system, and she would be lifted, the weight of her body supported by her arms and shoulders. More pain could be inflicted by adding weights to her feet. (17) This resembles the torture device shown during Herlof’s Marte’s interrogation. Her hands are tied, and a man is shown attaching/removing a hook from her bindings that would have lifted her up. 
  
  
  1. Ewan Butler, Horizon Concise History of Scandinavia (New York: American Heritage Pub. Co, 1973), 40.
  2. Axel Sømme, Geography of Norden (J.W. Eides Boktrykkeri A.S - Bergen 1968),119.
  3. Sømme, Geography of Norden,122.
  4. Rosenbaum, Jonathan. "Figuring out Day of Wrath." Jonathan Rosenbaum. December 3, 2016. Accessed February 7, 2017. https://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2016/12/figuring-out-day-of-wrath/.
  5. Byron J. Nordstrom, Scandinavia Since 1500 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), 47.
  6. Bent Rying, Danish in the South and the North, Vol 1 (Copenhagen: Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1981), 7.
  7. Rying, Danish in the South and North. Vol 2, 70 and 90.
  8. Phillis Cunnington, Costumes of the 17th and 18th Century (Boston: Plays, Inc., 1970), 25.
  9. Cunnington, Costumes, 16, 18, 29.
  10. Cunnington, Costumes, 14.
  11. Rying, Danish in the South and North, Vol 2, 102-103.
  12. Rying, Danish in the South and North, Vol 2, 102-103.
  13. Ruth M. Green and Jack Cassin-Scott, Costume and Fashion in Colour 1550-1760 (Poole: Blandford Press, 1975), 42.
  14. CyberHymnal, last modified August 2007, http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/d/a/daywrath.htm.
  15. Rying, Danish in the South and North, Vol 2, 87.
  16. Norden, Scandinavia Since 1500, 40.
  17. Lyndal Roper, Witch Craze (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 44.
  
  Written and edited by Ali Froslie, Rachel Olson, Jacob Aberle and Tim Carlson.
• 1 2017-02-02T14:47:16-08:00 Day of Wrath -- Chronology/Events 48 plain 2017-04-30T07:23:37-07:00

  Day of Wrath relates the experience of Anne Pedersdotter who was put to death as a witch in the late sixteenth century. From a historical standpoint the film does not represent the figure of Anne Pedersdotter accurately, as will be described below. In contrast the film does provide an accurate representation of the play, Anne Pedersdotter.  Information regarding witch trials historically and as depicted in the film will also be addressed below.

  Who is Anne Pedersdotter?

  Anne Pedersdotter exists in three forms: as a character in the film Day of Wrath, as the title character in the play Anne Pedersdotter, and as an actual historic person. Anne Pedersdotter as depicted in the film and play is a young woman who is married to a much older man, Absalon Pederson Beyer. Absalon’s son, Martin, returns home to visit his father and new step-mother and Anne and Martin begin a lustful relationship where Anne is portrayed to be a very sexual woman pursuing her new stepson. It can be inferred that she resents her husband for taking away her childhood, having been forced into marriage at a young age. When Absalon dies, Anne's mother-in-law accuses her of witchcraft, while Martin promises Anne that he will never leave her. Anne is publicly denounced as a witch, at which point Martin abandons her and she is left to accept her fate.(1)
  
  Scholars have pointed out that the film and the actual trial of Anne Pedersdotter were very different. The setting represents one difference. Anne Pedersdotter was a Norwegian, but the language of the movie was Danish. However, during the seventeenth century Norwegians did speak a mixture of Danish and Norwegian. Anne's final trial and execution took place in 1590, as opposed to the film, which was set in 1623. Finally, the death and trial of Pedersdotter is very different in the film than the actual events that took place in 1590. Anne Pedersdotter was married to Absalon Pederson Bayer, a Lutheran minister and humanist scholar who was a teacher at the University of Bergen. Anne was charged with witchcraft in 1575, for killing a Bishop (her husband's uncle) in order for her husband to become Bishop. Her husband was able to have those charges dropped, but died later that year. In 1590, the case was reopened and new charges were also brought up against Pedersdotter. The charges included: putting a man into a coma, inflicting sickness on a man, and the death of a young boy.(2) The trial did not end in favor of Anne's life, even though she denied the accusations. She died by being burned at the stake in 1590.(3)

  What Happened During a Witch Trial?

  The trial of Herlof’s Marte portrayed in the movie is fairly similar to the reports of what witch trials were like in Scandinavia during the sixteenth century. Accusations were usually made toward a local resident and then an interrogation by a jury would begin. These juries usually began with an interrogation, and if the interrogators could not get the accused to confess they would begin torturing the accused. The interrogators would begin suggesting the type of witchcraft they thought the accused performed. Finally, a court would determine their fate. The options included denunciation (rare), or punishment (often death).(4) In the film it was very clear that the interrogators of Herlof’s Marte used pain and torture to get her to “admit” to witchcraft through their suggestion. This was a common practice through witch trials across Scandinavia. 

  Who was Accused and Why?

  The social setting in the sixteenth and seventeenth century is significant to why some were accused of witchcraft and others were not. The witch may have been responding to social or economic pressures when she cursed at her neighbors/enemies, also sorcery and witchcraft accusations allowed people in the society to resolve conflicts between themselves and their neighbors. It was also for many an explanation of misfortune in their everyday life. According to the book Witch Hunts in Early Modern Europe by Brian Pavlac, the study of these people that were accused is challenging because documentation is limited. Information regarding age, social class, or the circumstances of the charges is usually missing. The name and gender of those accused is most of what was documented. Because of the lack of documentation, the history and what is known about witchcraft tends to be generalized. Not only were the accused documented with limited information, but so were those who testified against them. During this time period in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, people who were of a high rank were able to accuse witches more easily than members of the lower class. It would not be surprising to speculate that the higher class would not want their witch accusations and trials recorded for fear of other’s knowledge.(5) 
  
  Another important element of the historical context for witchcraft accusations was the rapid social and economic changes occurring at this time. Starting in the early fifteenth century, and ending in the eighteenth century, the population increased dramatically, but there were also a lot of epidemics that transformed the population. Mercantile and agricultural capitalism were introduced, family life was transformed, new morals and values were proclaimed to accommodate a changing world. This process of change had a huge impact on the society and witchcraft prosecutions.  The most important impact of all of these situations was increased and widespread anxiety. When there is high anxiety present throughout a society in a changing time, it is very common and easy to find blame in others, hence accusations of witchcraft.(6)
  
  The majority of the people that were accused were female, some of the reasons for that were because many women acted as healers at that time period, like Herlof’s Marte in the movie. Some of those treatments could be seen as magical for someone and therefore interpreted as sorcery. People at that time also believed that women were morally weaker, and more sexually inclined than men due to the image of women being more pervasive in medieval and early modern European culture. It is also true that witches were not defined by their sex, there were some men accused with the most common reason being listed as political sorcery. In the middle ages, men practiced sorcery as a way to increase their political sorcery, most commonly through rituals. It was thought that by practicing magic, one could advance politically, this term was coined political sorcery. It makes sense that men were the ones accused of political sorcery, because women were not involved in politics the way men were at that time. However, political sorcery is not the only accusation that has been listed for men, the next most common was treason. Treason was most popular at the height of the witch hunt era.(7)
  
  Though not every element of Day of Wrath is historically accurate, as outlined above, the film provides a window into social and moral attitudes common in early modern Scandinavia.
  
  
  (1) Day of Wrath, Film, directed by Carl Th. Dreyer (1948; Denmark: Palladium Productions, 1948), DVD.
  (2) Brian P. Levack, The Witch-Hunt In Early Modern Europe (London ; New York : Longman, 1987), 188-89.
  (3) Brian A. Pavlac, Witch Hunts in the Western World: Persecution and Punishment from the Inquisition through the Salem Trials (California: Greenwood Press, 2009), 175.
  (4) Louise Kallestrup, “Lay of Inquisitorial Witchcraft Prosecutions in Early Modern Italy and Denmark,” Scandinavian Journal of History 36, no. 3 (2011): 266-69, accessed February 2, 2017, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03468755.2011.580130?needAccess=true.
  (5) Brian P. Levack, The Witch-Hunt, 117-19.
  (6) Ibid., 119.
  (7) Ibid., 125-26.
   
  Written and edited by Anna Buan, Ulrik Sagbakken, Morgan Kelly and Katie Tuel.