Torture was considered a legal means of extracting confessions, punishing offenders, and carrying out executions during the Middle Ages. Some approaches were far more brutal than others. Depending on the crime, gender, and social rank of the victim, several forms of torture were used. Torturers would utilize a variety of tactics, equipment, and instruments to prolong life while inflicting excruciating suffering.
This form of torture uses neither tools nor devices but is something one must consume. So, if you hear the words “Swedish Drink” or if someone offers you one, just run for your life!
Its Origin
The Schwedentrunk (Swedish for “tortured drink”) is a torture and execution procedure. During the Thirty Years’ War, Germans who were killed by Swedish troops coined the moniker. They threw the chained servant to the ground, wedged a wooden wedge into his mouth, and poured a bucket of nasty manure water into his stomach, calling it a Swedish Drink.”
Swedish mercenaries were hardly generously compensated, if at all, during the Thirty Years’ War. However, they were told that they were free to take the valuables of any civilian or peasant they came across. The problem is that most valuable things in a town or village were hidden.
To extort these treasures from individuals, the Swedish would concoct the most revolting, foul-smelling concoction they could think of, using dirt, dung, urine, and whatever else they could find. Once this concoction was made, it was poured down the throats of anyone the mercenaries or troops thought was resisting them. The combination was frequently served to boil hot to add to the agony.
The drink was given the German name ‘Schwedentrunk’ since the victims were German. The ingredients used to make this drink would often change but one thing is for sure, everything used is something disgusting such as human excrement, animal feces, sludge, urine, and generally anything else that you definitely don’t want to consume.
Not only victims are forced to drink this disgusting concoction, but the mercenaries would also start doing things like treading on the victims’ bulging tummies after they were significantly bloated. They’d be probed with rods, punched, and, according to some stories, have wooden boards shoved on their stomachs on either side. Of course, the agony was awful, and it is stated that the anguish will only become worse.
In addition to distaste, disease, and the risk of bacterial infection, the Schwedentrunk caused excruciating gastrointestinal agony. Due to the incompressibility of liquids, the victim’s stomach and bowels must expand to excruciating dimensions in order to handle the large amounts of fluid. The tormentors then used wooden boards to compress the victim’s enlarged tummy or trampled her underfoot.
Punishments in the past were sometimes exaggerated to make the other side appear vicious and less than human, which has always been a popular propaganda tactic. Nonetheless, it’s extremely likely that the Swedish Drink existed, and that people died as a result of it.
Sources: The Infographics Show, The Knowledge Nut, Paper Blog, Everything Explained Today,