October 28, 2025 • 12 mins
A city built on stone and certainty watched its streets turn into a stage. In the hot summer of 1518, a woman in Strasbourg began to dance, mechanical, relentless, and impossible to stop, and within weeks hundreds followed, their feet torn and faces locked in pain. We trace how a single, baffling act became a public crisis, and why officials, doctors, and priests each tried to tame it with wildly different tools.
If strange history, medical mysteries, and cultural psychology fascinate you, press play and wander the stranger paths of the past with us. If this story moved you, subscribe, share with a curious friend, and leave a review to help others find the show.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
Welcome back to Trail of Tuesdays.
It's Halloween.
That one night when ghoststories, odd legends, and
unsettling history seem to comea little closer to our world.
And today's tale, it feels parthorror movie, part absurdist
(00:36):
comedy.
And yet, it really happened.
It was the summer of 1518 inStrasbourg.
When one morning a woman steppedinto the street and began to
dance.
The problem is that she didn'tstop.
(00:57):
Not after an hour, not after aday, not even after a week.
And before long, others joined,dancing until their feet bled
and their bodies gave out fromexhaustion.
This is the story of the dancingplague of 1518.
(01:37):
She was a working-class residentof Strasbourg, the wife of a
craftsman, living an ordinarylife in a crowded medieval city.
Until one morning, she steppedonto the cobblestones outside
her home and began to move to arhythm no one else could hear.
(02:00):
There was nothing graceful orjoyful about the dance.
It looked almost mechanical,like someone caught in a motion
and she could no longer stop.
She danced through the day, andbefore long, a crowd of
neighbors had gathered.
(02:22):
By nightfall, she was still atit, and by morning still moving.
Her husband begged her to stop,to rest, but she couldn't.
Chronicles Wood later describedher movements as wild,
ceaseless, and pale withexhaustion.
(02:43):
After nearly a week, theauthorities intervened.
They carried her some thirtymiles to the shrine of Saint
Vitis, hoping that the saintwould lift whatever curse had
taken hold.
But it was too late.
The sight of a strange,relentless dancing had already
(03:07):
spread, and within a week morethan thirty people had joined.
When prayers and pilgrimages toSt.
Vitis failed to calm thedancers, the city turned from
the church to science.
The doctors didn't suspectwitchcraft or demons.
(03:31):
Instead, they diagnosed acondition they called hot blood.
In the world of 16th-centurymedicine, it was all about
balance.
People believed the body wasruled by four fluids or humors:
blood, phlegm, yellow bile, andblack bile.
(03:55):
To have hot blood meant yourinner fire had run wild.
Your body was literallyoverheating and your pulse was
racing.
And the cure those doctorsprescribed was simple.
Let the dancers move until theheat burned itself out.
(04:16):
So, the council ordered that anyholes would be turned into dance
floors.
They hired musicians to keep therhythm going, believing it would
help the afflicted burn away thesickness.
But the cure only made thingsworse.
The music drew even more people,and onlookers began to believe
(04:42):
they were witnessing divinepunishment from Saint Vetus.
In fear or devotion, somestarted moving too.
Within a month, estimatessuggest that the number of
dancers may have approached 400.
(05:04):
And as the dancing went on forweeks with no sign of stopping,
eyewitnesses began to writeabout what they saw.
People with torn clothes,bleeding feet, and faces frozen
in grimace and pain.
Soon the spectacle turneddangerous when dancers began to
(05:28):
collapse where they stood, theirbodies given out one by one.
Some were carried away, others,it was said, died from
exhaustion.
Strokes were heart failure.
Though the historians note theexact death toll was never
formally recorded, and that partperhaps has grown a little with
(05:54):
retelling.
Finally, after science actuallymade things worse, in this case,
the city turned back to fate.
Those still afflicted weregathered and taken once more to
a shrine of St.
Vitis in a nearby town.
There, priests prayed over themfor days, sprinkling holy water
(06:18):
and pleading with the saint torelease them.
Slowly, the friends stopped.
And at last, the streets ofStrasbourg fell silent again.
(06:55):
How could hundreds of people inthe heart of a European city
suddenly lose control of theirown bodies and dance for days on
end?
There are two main theories.
The first points to ergodpoisoning.
Ergod is a fungus that grows ondamp rye.
(07:18):
When consumed in bread, it cancause muscle spasm, convulsions,
and even hallucinations.
Symptoms that, on the surface,seem to echo what the dancers of
Strasbourg experienced.
The fungus contains chemicalcompounds related to those later
(07:39):
synthesized into LSD, which iswhy some writers have connected
ergot poisoning to outbreaks ofdelirium, even speculating it
might have played a role in theSalem witch trials a century
later.
And in the hot, wet summer of1518, it's not hard to imagine
(08:06):
rice stores turning moldy.
Food was scarce, and the city'spoor would have eaten whatever
bread they could find.
It could explain it, at least atfirst glance.
Because historians today are alittle more cautious.
(08:27):
Ergot poisoning also causesconstricted blood flow,
numbness, and violentconvulsions.
These symptoms would have madeit hard for anyone afflicted to
move for long, let alone sustainthe steady rhythmic dancing
described by the eyewitnesses.
(08:49):
As historian John Waller notes,ergotism victims could hardly
stand still, let alone dance fordays.
So, while the poisoned breadtheory seemed plausible at
first, when viewed through thelens of modern medicine, it
(09:09):
doesn't quite fit the facts.
The second theory, it's lesschemical and more psychological,
and perhaps a little morechilling.
It's what modern scholars callmass psychogenic illness or
collective hysteria.
(09:31):
In essence, it's when sharedfear or belief manifests in the
body.
Anxiety spreads like contagion,and people begin to experience
the same symptoms, not throughinfection, but through emotion.
And in 1518, Strasbourg was theperfect stage for anxiety to
(09:55):
take hold.
The city was reeling fromfamine, failed harvests, and
rising grain prices.
Outbreaks of smallpox andsyphilis were present and people
lived under constant religiouspressure.
In such an atmosphere, the sightof one woman moving
(10:16):
uncontrollably through thestreets might have been enough
to awaken that collective fear.
A few watchers began to feel ittoo, a twitch, a tremor, a need
to move.
And once the city council builtstages and hired musicians, the
(10:36):
movement only escalated.
As John Waller notes, thedancing mania reflected the
desperate psychological state ofpeople crushed by famine,
disease, and the conviction thatGod was angry with them.
So, perhaps the dancers weren'tbewitched or poisoned, but
(11:02):
overwhelmed in their bodiesacting out the stress and terror
of their times.
In the end, whether it waspoison, fate, or fear that set
it in motion, the dancing plagueremains one of history's
strangest reminders of howfragile the human mind can be.
(11:34):
That was the Trail of Tuesday'sHalloween special, the dancing
plague of 1580.
Thanks for listening and forwandering down the stranger
parts of history with me.
If you'd like to support theshow and hear more stories like
this one, join us on Patreonwhere members get bonus
(11:55):
episodes, early access, and ourafter the trail reflections.
And as always, stay safe andstay tuned.
Welcome back to Trail of Tuesdays.
It's Halloween.
That one night when ghoststories, odd legends, and
unsettling history seem to comea little closer to our world.
And today's tale, it feels parthorror movie, part absurdist
(00:36):
comedy.
And yet, it really happened.
It was the summer of 1518 inStrasbourg.
When one morning a woman steppedinto the street and began to
dance.
The problem is that she didn'tstop.
(00:57):
Not after an hour, not after aday, not even after a week.
And before long, others joined,dancing until their feet bled
and their bodies gave out fromexhaustion.
This is the story of the dancingplague of 1518.
(01:37):
She was a working-class residentof Strasbourg, the wife of a
craftsman, living an ordinarylife in a crowded medieval city.
Until one morning, she steppedonto the cobblestones outside
her home and began to move to arhythm no one else could hear.
(02:00):
There was nothing graceful orjoyful about the dance.
It looked almost mechanical,like someone caught in a motion
and she could no longer stop.
She danced through the day, andbefore long, a crowd of
neighbors had gathered.
(02:22):
By nightfall, she was still atit, and by morning still moving.
Her husband begged her to stop,to rest, but she couldn't.
Chronicles Wood later describedher movements as wild,
ceaseless, and pale withexhaustion.
(02:43):
After nearly a week, theauthorities intervened.
They carried her some thirtymiles to the shrine of Saint
Vitis, hoping that the saintwould lift whatever curse had
taken hold.
But it was too late.
The sight of a strange,relentless dancing had already
(03:07):
spread, and within a week morethan thirty people had joined.
When prayers and pilgrimages toSt.
Vitis failed to calm thedancers, the city turned from
the church to science.
The doctors didn't suspectwitchcraft or demons.
(03:31):
Instead, they diagnosed acondition they called hot blood.
In the world of 16th-centurymedicine, it was all about
balance.
People believed the body wasruled by four fluids or humors:
blood, phlegm, yellow bile, andblack bile.
(03:55):
To have hot blood meant yourinner fire had run wild.
Your body was literallyoverheating and your pulse was
racing.
And the cure those doctorsprescribed was simple.
Let the dancers move until theheat burned itself out.
(04:16):
So, the council ordered that anyholes would be turned into dance
floors.
They hired musicians to keep therhythm going, believing it would
help the afflicted burn away thesickness.
But the cure only made thingsworse.
The music drew even more people,and onlookers began to believe
(04:42):
they were witnessing divinepunishment from Saint Vetus.
In fear or devotion, somestarted moving too.
Within a month, estimatessuggest that the number of
dancers may have approached 400.
(05:04):
And as the dancing went on forweeks with no sign of stopping,
eyewitnesses began to writeabout what they saw.
People with torn clothes,bleeding feet, and faces frozen
in grimace and pain.
Soon the spectacle turneddangerous when dancers began to
(05:28):
collapse where they stood, theirbodies given out one by one.
Some were carried away, others,it was said, died from
exhaustion.
Strokes were heart failure.
Though the historians note theexact death toll was never
formally recorded, and that partperhaps has grown a little with
(05:54):
retelling.
Finally, after science actuallymade things worse, in this case,
the city turned back to fate.
Those still afflicted weregathered and taken once more to
a shrine of St.
Vitis in a nearby town.
There, priests prayed over themfor days, sprinkling holy water
(06:18):
and pleading with the saint torelease them.
Slowly, the friends stopped.
And at last, the streets ofStrasbourg fell silent again.
(06:55):
How could hundreds of people inthe heart of a European city
suddenly lose control of theirown bodies and dance for days on
end?
There are two main theories.
The first points to ergodpoisoning.
Ergod is a fungus that grows ondamp rye.
(07:18):
When consumed in bread, it cancause muscle spasm, convulsions,
and even hallucinations.
Symptoms that, on the surface,seem to echo what the dancers of
Strasbourg experienced.
The fungus contains chemicalcompounds related to those later
(07:39):
synthesized into LSD, which iswhy some writers have connected
ergot poisoning to outbreaks ofdelirium, even speculating it
might have played a role in theSalem witch trials a century
later.
And in the hot, wet summer of1518, it's not hard to imagine
(08:06):
rice stores turning moldy.
Food was scarce, and the city'spoor would have eaten whatever
bread they could find.
It could explain it, at least atfirst glance.
Because historians today are alittle more cautious.
(08:27):
Ergot poisoning also causesconstricted blood flow,
numbness, and violentconvulsions.
These symptoms would have madeit hard for anyone afflicted to
move for long, let alone sustainthe steady rhythmic dancing
described by the eyewitnesses.
(08:49):
As historian John Waller notes,ergotism victims could hardly
stand still, let alone dance fordays.
So, while the poisoned breadtheory seemed plausible at
first, when viewed through thelens of modern medicine, it
(09:09):
doesn't quite fit the facts.
The second theory, it's lesschemical and more psychological,
and perhaps a little morechilling.
It's what modern scholars callmass psychogenic illness or
collective hysteria.
(09:31):
In essence, it's when sharedfear or belief manifests in the
body.
Anxiety spreads like contagion,and people begin to experience
the same symptoms, not throughinfection, but through emotion.
And in 1518, Strasbourg was theperfect stage for anxiety to
(09:55):
take hold.
The city was reeling fromfamine, failed harvests, and
rising grain prices.
Outbreaks of smallpox andsyphilis were present and people
lived under constant religiouspressure.
In such an atmosphere, the sightof one woman moving
(10:16):
uncontrollably through thestreets might have been enough
to awaken that collective fear.
A few watchers began to feel ittoo, a twitch, a tremor, a need
to move.
And once the city council builtstages and hired musicians, the
(10:36):
movement only escalated.
As John Waller notes, thedancing mania reflected the
desperate psychological state ofpeople crushed by famine,
disease, and the conviction thatGod was angry with them.
So, perhaps the dancers weren'tbewitched or poisoned, but
(11:02):
overwhelmed in their bodiesacting out the stress and terror
of their times.
In the end, whether it waspoison, fate, or fear that set
it in motion, the dancing plagueremains one of history's
strangest reminders of howfragile the human mind can be.
(11:34):
That was the Trail of Tuesday'sHalloween special, the dancing
plague of 1580.
Thanks for listening and forwandering down the stranger
parts of history with me.
If you'd like to support theshow and hear more stories like
this one, join us on Patreonwhere members get bonus
(11:55):
episodes, early access, and ourafter the trail reflections.
And as always, stay safe andstay tuned.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.