loreandleftovers

[loreandleftovers]

File #001: The Dancing Plague in 1518

Location: Strasbourg, Holy Roman Empire

Status: Unsolved

In the summer of 1518, the streets of Strasbourg were cursed with something… bizarre.

It started with one woman. She stepped into the street and began to dance. No music. No celebration. Just her, moving nonstop like she was possessed. Then others joined, And then dozens, And then hundreds.They danced for days.

Then weeks.

Some to their deaths.

Time line of the madness-

July 1518 – Frau Troffea begins dancing uncontrollably in the street. No known reason. She doesn’t stop for 4 to 6 days.

Within a week – Over 30 people are dancing. Reports say they cannot stop.

End of July – The number grows to 100+ dancers. The town is panicking.

August 1518 – At the height, possibly 400 people are affected. Some collapse. Some die from exhaustion, stroke, or heart attacks.

By early September – The outbreak vanishes. Like it was never there.

Witnesses

• Recovered Transcript, Strasbourg 1518

“They danced without pause, their limbs twisted in agony. Eyes rolled back. Some screamed for mercy, others laughed like they were in joy… until they fell, foaming at the mouth, their bodies refusing to stop.”

• Clergy note recovered from Strasbourg cathedral, July 1518

“Many were carried away and laid upon straw like beasts, still twitching in their feet. They cried out they wished to stop, but their legs refused them.”

• Merchant’s letter, archived in Basel, August 1518

“In our city, a woman began to dance and could not be restrained. The illness spread as if in the air. Some believed they were bewitched, others said the devil walked among us.”

—•Chronicle of the events, recorded by Paracelsus (physician and occultist)

“They moved as puppets do, not to music but to something else. Something… they alone could hear.”

- Anonymous account, recovered from abbey records

What truly haunts us more—the things we can’t explain, or the ones we pretend to?