The genesis of the Torsåker Witch Trials began when a man named Johannes Wattrangius commissioned Laurentius Hornæus to track down all the suspected witches in the small Swedish parish Torsåker and arrest them.
Hornaeus was an assistant parish minister of Ytterlännäs parish, while Wattrangius was the parish minister of Torsåker parish. Nornaeus was a very determined man. He took his job incredibly seriously, and when tasked with this responsibility of tracking down the witches, he made it his life's mission. According to the website "History by Hans Högman, both men saw themselves as "the chosen ones to fight the Devil '', which made them both obsessed with uncovering the witches. They were violent men who enjoyed incorporating torture
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All of these trials had set off hysteria and paranoia throughout the entire country, causing a ripple effect of chaos. This ongoing hysteria in Sweden was dubbed "The Great Noise". When this hysteria reached Torsåker it influenced Wattrangius and many more to take action. "The Great Noise" (Det stora oväsendet in Swedish) was this wave of witch frenzy that took over Sweden from 1668 to 1676. The hysteria started when Lars Elvius, the church pastor of Älvdalen, interrogated a young shepherd girl, claiming that she was abducted and brought to the Witches Sabbath by Märet Jonsdotter, a townswoman. This then led to a trial being held, where more women were accused of witchcraft. Rumours and news spread like wildfire, reaching all of Sweden. When it reached Torsåker, like many other parishes and regions, the people became terrified and sought to eliminate the witches. Torsåker had an interesting approach to identifying a witch. The water method was a popular method in Sweden at the time, in which the accused would be tied up by the ankles and feet and thrown into a lake. If they sank and drowned, they were declared innocent, but if they floated, they were a witch. Torsåker used children as witnesses commonly, usually the children of the accused. The children enjoyed making up stories and competing with one another to see who could invent a better story. Most described stories in which they were taken to "Blåkulla" (the place of the Devil in Nordic tales) by the witches and described in immense detail what they saw and what they did. By this point, the entire town was paranoid and on edge. With Hornæus and Wattrangius both deranged and out of control, the accusations rose, as did the fear and chaos brewing in the parishes. This delirium that the two men were under due to "The Great Noise" ultimately became a major cause to the commencement of the Witch