History is full of unexplained and bizarre mysteries. Some of which are lost with the passing of time, others that are discussed and speculated upon to this day. One such mystery you may not have heard about is the Dancing Plague of 1518. Undoubtedly one of history’s more peculiar and baffling events.
In July of 1518, in the city of Strasbourg (then part of the Holy Roman Empire), a young woman by the name of Frau Troffea began to dance on the streets. This, in itself was nothing too out of the ordinary. It could be passed off as just a woman having fun, or celebrating something. Things really got unusual when a week had passed…
…and the woman had yet to stop. In fact, more and more people began to join her ‘dance-a-thon’. Despite their bloodied feet and haggard conditions, they showed no signs of stopping. It was as if they were in a trance, compelled to keep dancing with no care for their rapidly worsening physical conditions. The town authorities, not knowing what to do, reasoned that perhaps they simply had to dance the illness away. They decided to create the perfect conditions for the dancers to dance more and tire themselves out. Professional dancers and musicians were hired, dance floors were built, all intended to let the dancers dance more and tire themselves out.
Only, it didn’t go as planned. More and more people succumbed to the dancing, and by August, nearly 400 people had joined the dance. As expected, it didn’t take long before the constant dancing began to have serious effects. Many collapsed out of exhaustion, while others died due to strokes or heart attacks. While the premise of a dancing plague may seem silly, the reality of it quickly became grim and dark.
Realizing that the dancers would not simply out-dance themselves, they were taken away to a mountaintop shrine in the hopes that a ritual would cure them. The ritual appeared to work, as shortly after this ritual the dancers returned to normal and appeared to be cured of the dancing mania that had taken hold of them. However, many had died before they could be cured, but specifics of the death tolls are unknown.
Now, one question still remained. What was the cause of this deadly dancing epidemic? The theories ranged from religious cults, the wrath of saint, to toxic molds. Some said there was something cult-like going on, and that the dancers were members of a religious cult. Historian John Waller suggested an explanation that involves St. Vitus, a Catholic saint who was believed to have the power to curse people with dancing plagues and social stress. At the time, famine and disease were also heavily afflicting Strasbourg, and the superstition around St. Vitus may have started a stress-induced hysteria that then affected hundreds of people in the city. Another theory is that the dancers may have accidentally ingested ergot, a toxic mold that can cause spasms and hallucinations.
Despite how unusual this incident was, it wasn’t the only one of its kind. Other dancing manias have occurred in history, like ones in Germany and the Netherlands, though none was as deadly and widespread as the one in Strasbourg.
Over 500 years later, the Dancing Plague of 1518 remains as one of history’s most bizarre mysteries. Whether it was caused by religious beliefs, mass hysteria, disease, we may never truly know what spurred all those dancers to dance themselves to death.
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