The Vardo Witch Trials At the end of last year, a new book was published and being advertised on bookstagram and social media that caught my interest as it was loosely based on the true story of the Vardo Witch Trials. The book was called The Mercies by Kiren Millwood Hargrave and takes the readers to the island of Vardo where readers will be able to experience the Vardo storm and the witch trials of 1621. This book is told through the POV’s of Maren, one of Vardo’s women, and Ursa who was the wife of the Commander that sent the police to the village. As someone who loved the Salem Witch Trials and reading about it, I was intrigued as I hadn’t heard about this particular trial and reading more about it – it was one of Norway’s worst-ever trials and one of history’s mass executions of females. The drama started on Christmas Eve in 1617 in a small town called Finnmark. That night there was a fateful storm – one of the worst in history and killed 40 of the townsmen of Vardo within...