Episode 13 Bonus: Dancing Plague of 1518

Episode Title: The Dancing Plague of 1518 – Strasbourg’s Strange Summer of Madness

In the shadow of our last episode—Germany’s Hinterkaifeck murders—we pivot from the tragic and terrifying to the utterly bizarre. This time, The Midnight Mystery Archive travels to 16th-century Strasbourg, where a woman stepped into the streets and began to dance. She didn’t stop. And neither did the hundreds of others who followed her lead.

This wasn’t a festival, a ritual, or an act of joy. It was an outbreak. For weeks, townspeople moved uncontrollably to a rhythm no one could hear, collapsing from exhaustion and, in some cases, dancing themselves to death. Local authorities brought in musicians. Built stages. Prescribed more dancing.

In this episode, we unravel the strange case of the Dancing Plague of 1518—where history, superstition, and science collide. Was it a case of mass hysteria? Ergot poisoning? A curse from a forgotten saint? Or something even stranger? Join us as we follow the rhythm of one of history’s most inexplicable public health crises.