The
development of the Orkney 'witch"
"Sure these are but
imaginary wiles,
And Lapland sorcerers inhabit here.”
William
Shakespeare - The Comedy of Errors
Traditionally
the first "witches" in the islands were said to have been "Finns".
It was said that these characters, probably the
indigenous inhabitants of northern Norway, had travelled to the islands with
the earliest Norwegian settlers, to whom they may have served as slaves. The
Finns were powerful sorcerers with renowned healing abilities, as well as power
over the weather and sea. In most cases, they were regarded as benign - precursors
of the later island wise-women. The Finns were so ingrained
into the folklore of Orkney that up until the early years of the 20th century,
the appellation "Finn" was often attached to anyone known to , or suspected
of, practising "granderie" - e.g. the Sanday witch, Baabie Finn. Over
time, however, the lore surrounding the Finns developed - or merged with an existing
tradition - into the dreaded Finfolk and selkie-folk
of sea-lore. This change probably coincided with the "demonisation"
of these wise-women's arts. On top of this was overlaid
the lore of the Norse witch-like wise women found throughout the Icelandic sagas. Saga
magic influences In the Icelandic sagas, the various practitioners
of magic were highly respected individuals, valued by their communities. Although
it was not unknown for a man to wield magical powers, the magical arts were generally
the domain of the female. Of the various distinct types
of magic described in the sagas, only the type known as spá survived in
a recognisable form - although it is likely that by the time of the folktales,
the distinctions between the separate classes had all but vanished. Spá
is found referred to as spá-craft or spae-craft, the practitioners of the
art being spá-kona or spae-wife. It was intrinsically an art of prophecy
or foretelling. Another term for practitioners of spá
is völva. The völva had the ability to enter a trance and send her spirit
to obtain information. Like the Orcadian spae-wife, the völva was often the
centre of the community who dispensed advice on matters relating to the community's
welfare, marriage and childbirth. The völva appears
within Norse myth when Odin, using his magic, consults a dead völva for knowledge. The
birth of the 'true witch'
Generally, the practices that
the church came to refer to as "witchcraft" and "the Black Arts"
were an accepted part of life in the islands up until the early 1600s. At this
time, overzealous inquisitors sought to connect age-old traditions with the "Devil's
Work" and the age of the witch trial began. It was
widely believed that wise-women obtained or learned their powers from the trows
or the "folk of the hill" but before long the harmless old traditions
and superstitions of the wise-woman became regarded as the "Devil's Work"
and the true "witch" was born. Numerous Orcadian
women and men were executed in Kirkwall after being found guilty of witchcraft.
On closer examination of the trial accounts however, in most cases the accused
were charged with either healing a person, transferring an illness to a person
or for "taking the profit" of cattle (in much the same way as the trows). From
this we can see the underlying traces of innocent old ritual and superstition
that were distorted by the lawmen but managed to survive the hunts and flourish
well into the 19th and early 20th centuries. Of course,
to say that all these women were benign, pleasant folk would be untrue and there
is no doubt that Orkney must have had it's share of wise-women who used their
"powers" for more unpleasant purposes. We cannot
tell how many of these stereotypical cackling crones had a basis in historical
personages or simply the result of the inquisitors who sought desperately to find
evidence the Devil's Work we can not tell. I suspect the
latter. |