When the Black Death swept through Norway, she came with it—Pesta, the plague hag with her broom and rake. In this short visual tale, drawn from folklore and haunted illustrations, death climbs the stairs.
Theodor Kittelsen (1857–1914) was a Norwegian artist and illustrator known for his haunting, folkloric style. His illustrations often blend eerie whimsy with deep melancholy, making him a powerful visual interpreter of myths, legends, and historical events—especially those tinged with darkness.
Kittelsen’s most iconic work related to the Black Death is his visual personification of “Pesta”—a ghostly old woman who carries a broom or a rake.
If she carries a rake, some may survive.
If she carries a broom, she sweeps away entire villages.
This chilling figure became a folkloric symbol of the plague in Norwegian memory and oral tradition, particularly in rural communities that were devastated by it.
In his book Svartedauen (1900), Kittelsen illustrated the plague as a near-mythical force that crosses forests, fjords, and farmlands, leaving desolation in her path. Key themes include, emptiness and silence after the plague has passed, death as an eerie visitor, quiet and inevitable and the landscape as haunted, as if nature itself remembers
His black-and-white ink drawings are stark, emotional, and eerily timeless, making them uniquely powerful in evoking the horror and sorrow of historical plagues.
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