The Dancing Plague Of 1518

An artist’s depiction of the Dancing Plague of 1518.

In the city of Strasbourg, which was located within the Holy Roman Empire, something very bizarre took place. In July of 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea suddenly wandered into the streets and started dancing incessantly. She was soon joined by others, who were unable to control their movements. Today, this unusual event is known as the Dancing Plague of 1518, and it is believed that this “plague” went on for two months, affected over 400 people, and caused some fatalities through exhaustion. Back then, no one could make sense of it, and even today, what really caused it and a few of the exact details still remain somewhat of a mystery.

What Happened in Strasbourg

It all started with Frau Troffea on a sweltering day in July. She lived in Strasbourg, a bustling trade port on the Rhine River. However, one day, she began to dance in the street with no music or visible motive. Even though her husband tried to pull her away, she wouldn’t budge! Her feet started to get bloody, but she did not stop. Within three days, 30 or so other people were also dancing uncontrollably. By the end of that week, the group had upwards of a 100 people, as noted by some city council minutes and doctors' notes.

The dancers did not dance to a rhythm; some waved their arms, some stomped their feet, and others lurched around awkwardly. Most of them looked exhausted or horrified and not like they were having fun. The streets rang with the sound of shuffling footsteps and heavy breathing. Several people passed out after days of incessant motion, while some had strokes or slept and never woke up. Even though there is some controversy regarding the exact number of deaths, some sources say that at its peak, before all of this came to an end in September of that year, up to 15 people were passing away daily.

How the City Reacted

The people running Strasbourg did not know what to do at first. The magistrates, who made the decisions for the city, got together to talk about it. They brought in doctors and priests to provide their opinion. Some believed early on that it was the work of evil spirits. Others blamed Saint Vitus, a Christian saint who had been linked to dancing and seizures, and stated that it was God punishing them. This is what the council ruled, and they demanded prayers while shutting down dancing and music in the hopes of stopping the “plague” from spreading. However, that didn't help, as those that were affected weren't dancing to music anyway.

Doctors joined in with another explanation, saying it was caused by too much hot blood in the body. They told the dancers to keep going, hoping they would sweat it out. Before banning music and dancing, the city had initially even built a wooden dancing platform in the market square, hoping a more structured setup would wear them out safely. Guildhalls, where local workers met, opened their doors to clear the dancers from the streets. This plan did not work because more people joined, and the deaths increased.

After about a week of failure, the magistrates tried a different approach. They forced the dancers into carts and brought them to a shrine on a nearby hill, which was dedicated to Saint Vitus. There, priests said prayers, tossed holy water, and presented the dancers with red shoes that had been touched by the church. Some reports indicate that this cooled things down, but it's impossible to determine whether it was actually effective or if it was just the outbreak tapering off. The dancing stopped by late August to early September. The survivors, traumatized and exhausted, went back to their lives. City records don't tell us what happened to Frau Troffea or the others afterwards, so that piece is still missing.

Theories from the Time

As far back as 1518, explanations were made from what was known. Religion played a large part in their thinking. It was believed by many, as mentioned before, to be a curse from Saint Vitus, sent to punish the city for its sins. Strasbourg had endured floods, epidemics of diseases like smallpox, and famine from poor harvests, so the idea of divine discontent was easy to imagine. Priests told everyone to repent, and citizens crowded churches to pray for relief.

Doctors, on the other hand, stuck to their own medical principles of the body humors: blood, phlegm, and bile. They stated that the dancers' blood grew too hot and rushed to their heads, forcing them to dance. The summer heat, they argued, threw everything into chaos. The solution that had proposed was to let the dancing burn itself out, which failed. Writers like Johannes Knebel, a church official, wrote down these theories.

Modern Explanations

Scientists and historians today, with more knowledge, have their own theories. One of the bigger ones is ergot poisoning. Ergot's a fungus that grows on rye, which was the main grain used for bread in Strasbourg. When it is ingested, it releases chemicals that act similar to LSD, wreaking havoc on the brain and body. It's even strong enough to cause muscle spasms and seizures, which match what happened with the dancers. The summer of 1518 had been wet, which likely provided the perfect conditions for ergot to infest crops. They would not have detected it in the bread, and a whole neighborhood might have ingested the same contaminated batch. This might be the reason as to why so many people started dancing all at once.

Another theory leans on mass hysteria, where group panic takes over. Strasbourg was under pressure; smallpox had hit hard, famine left people hungry, and the church kept warning about judgment day. If Frau Troffea’s dancing came from a personal breakdown, others might’ve followed her lead out of fear or confusion. Once it caught on, the belief that they couldn’t stop could’ve kept them going. The doctors and priests pushing more dancing might’ve made it worse, turning a small incident into a citywide mess. Some experts think it was a mix, where ergot could’ve sparked the first cases, and hysteria spread it further. There’s no solid evidence, though. No one kept bread samples, and the old accounts don’t mention seeing anything off with the bread.