Zigzagging down a steep moss-covered slope peppered with loose stones that could easily throw them off balance and fling them onto the jagged rocks below, the group makes its way to a large cave where witches once were thought to meet and dance with the devil. "Just imagine trying to do this in the dark, when the rain has made these stones slippery. No wonder witches needed broomsticks," says one of the women in the group that has gathered in the small town of Vardoe, just over 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) from the North Pole, for northern Norway's first ever witch conference. Nearly 400 years after the worst of the Norwegian witch trials ripped through the area, approximately 100 people have made their way to this small town at the very northern tip of the country to walk in the witches' footsteps and see what it must have been like to be accused of witchcraft at a time when such accusations meant an almost certain fiery death.

Standing at the mouth of "heksehula", or the witch cave, with icy waves crashing over the rocks below, the approximately 30 people who have braved the steep and treacherous climb down gather around a fire to hear stories of the women suspected of meeting here with Lucifer in the mid-17th century.

View: Full Article | Source: Yahoo! News