Honestly, I always thought the 'Dancing Plague of 1518' was just medieval hysteria

But a documentary I watched last night made a convincing case for ergot poisoning from spoiled rye grain. Has anyone else seen that theory, or is there a better explanation?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_kim3d ago

That ergot poisoning theory is pretty solid, honestly. The doc probably mentioned how the fungus messes with your brain, right? Makes people see things and twitch. Seen something similar once with bad mold in an old barn, whole different thing but people act weird when they breathe in the wrong stuff. Medieval grain storage was a gamble, so it tracks that a whole town could eat tainted bread and lose it. Still wild to think about hundreds of people just dancing until they dropped.

dylan6193d ago

My uncle's farm had a rye field that got hit with ergot back in the 90s. They had to burn the whole crop because even the animals were acting strange. It's scary how fast that stuff can spread.