Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Hey. Hello, hi there, and welcome back to histories, the podcast where I explore the wildest, strangest, and most bizarre moments that have actually happened across history. I'm Angelo, your friendly neighborhood storyteller, and today we're going to dive into a tale that's got more twists and turns than a salsa lesson on fast forward. Its a story about madness, mystery and dancing. Yes, you heard me right, dancing. And no, Im not talking about some flash mob gone wrong or a medieval disco party. Im talking about a genuine real life event where people literally danced themselves to death. So grab your headphones, settle in and get ready to learn about the dancing plague of 1518.
[00:00:50] Alright, picture its the summer of 1518 in Strasbourg, a bustling city in what is now modern day France. The sun is blazing, the cobbled streets are teeming with people, and life is just as youd imagine it, filled with daily chores. Merchants yelling about the price of fish and maybe the odd goat wandering down the street. So far, pretty normal, right? Well, not for long, because on a hot day in July, a woman named Frau Troffea decided to break the routine. She stepped outside of her half timbered house, and right there on the narrow street, she started to dance. But this wasn't your run of the mill groovy jig. No, no, no. You see, Frau was dancing, but she was dancing like her life depended on it. And the weirdest part? She had no music, no partner, and no apparent reason. Just dancing.
[00:01:44] At first, the locals just gawked and stared. I mean, who wouldn't? You see a woman spinning, flailing her arms around in broad daylight? Surely it's a sight to beholden. But when the hours turned into days and Frau kept dancing without stopping, not even for food or water, that's when things started to get pretty weird. By the third day, her feet were raw and bloody, her clothes were drenched in sweat, but she still danced. Now here's where things get even stranger. Cause people started to join her. It wasn't like they were forming like a conga line or anything. No, it was like some unseen force was compelling them, almost hypnotized, hypnotizing them. And within a week, dozens of people were caught in the grip of this strange dancing fever.
[00:02:34] Men, women, old folks, young folks, they were all in on it, dancing like marionettes with invisible strings pulling them every direction. By the end of the month, over 400 people were swaying, hopping, twisting in some manic dance a thon that no one knew how to stop. Can you imagine that? 400 people dancing for days on end. Some collapsing from sheer exhaustion, reportedly dying of strokes or heart attacks. So what the hell is going on here? What could possibly make an entire town boogie to their doom? Well, that's what I'm here to figure out. Because back in 1518, the good folks of Strasbourg had no idea what was causing this bizarre outbreak. Theories started flying around like confetti at New Year's Eve. Some thought that it was some divine punishment, while others were convinced that this was some kind of demonic possession. And of course, the town council had a brilliant pan befitting of the times. What did they do? They hired musicians. Yes, that's right. They actually thought that the best cure for uncontrollable dancing was more dancing.
[00:03:40] But let's rewind a little bit. Imagine this. Stages were built. Musicians played pipes, drums, fiddles day and night to keep the dancers moving. Under the belief that the afflicted needed to dance themselves free of this strange malady, carpenters and tanners converted guild halls into makeshift dance floors. And healthy dancers were brought in just to keep the energy up. But instead of ending the madness, this just seemed to fuel it further. The more they danced, the more the plague spread.
[00:04:10] It's like trying to put out fire by throwing wood at it. As the mania spread, some of the onlookers began to see it as a curse from St. Vitus, a popular saint from the time who, as legend had it, could strike people down with a quote unquote dancing plague as punishment. People were terrified that the wrath of St. Vitus had descended upon them. And in an effort to appease the saint, the council decided to send the dancers to the shrine of St. Vitus up in the mountains. There the afflicted were given holy water, wore red shoes with painted crosses, and performed a strange ritual in the hopes of breaking the curse of. And you know what? It worked. Slowly, the dancers began to stop. The town was able to breathe again. But still the question lingered, what had caused this madness in the first place? Now, before we go full on Scooby Doo on this mystery, lets look at some theories that modern historians have cooked up. The first and probably the most colorful, is the idea that dancers were victims of ergo poisoning. Ergo is like a kind of mold that grows on damp rye bread and it produces chemicals similar to lsd. So essentially, you've got a whole town tripping on medieval acid. Sounds plausible, right? But here's the catch. Ergo poisoning tends to cause convulsions and hallucinations, not sustain dancing for days on end. Plus, it restricts blood flow to the extremities. So those poor souls wouldn't have been able to keep dancing even if they wanted to. Another theory championed by the historian John Waller is that this was a case of mass hysteria, specifically psychogenic illness. Now, I was never there, but 1518 seems like a rough time to live in Strasbourg. See, the town was dealing with famine, disease, and general misery. I mean, people were stressed to their absolute limits. So Waller argues that this stress, combined with a strong belief in the supernatural, triggered by a kind of communal psychosis, um, everyone was just so convinced that they were cursed that they literally danced until they dropped. Think about it. When. When you're terrified and you see a whole bunch of people dancing as if they're possessed, and you believe in curses, your brain might just trick you into joining the dance. It's like when one person yawns and then suddenly everyone's yawning, but you know it's a lot more deadly. And there's other theories, too. Some suggest it was a cult. Others think it was some form of protest, or even just some weird mass reaction to starvation and poor living conditions. But the truth is, we still dont know for sure.
[00:06:46] What we do know is that for a month in 1518, an entire town was gripped by an inexplicable compulsion to dance.
[00:06:54] So what do you think? Was it all just in their heads? Was it bad bread or divine punishment? Or something else entirely? The dancing plague of 1518 remains one of historys strangest mysteries. A bizarre moment when the whole town lost its mind to the rhythm. No DJ required.
[00:07:10] Whatever it was, the dancing plague serves as a memory that even in our most rational times nowadays, there are still things we simply cant explain. Its a story of mass hysteria, human psychology, and maybe just a little bit of the supernatural thrown in just for good measure. So next time you find yourself tapping your feet uncontrollably, just be glad youre not in the 16th century, Strasbourg. Because trust me, theres worse ways to go than death by dancing.
[00:07:36] Or maybe there aren't. But anyway, that's all for today. Dear listener, I hope you enjoyed this little dive into one of history's weirdest phenomenon. And until next time, I'm Angelo. This is histories keep grooving, but not too much, because you never know what might happen. Anyway, bye.
