Witches of the far North sinking a ship from Olaus Magnus’s Description of the Northern Peoples (1555).

Journeys to the far North in George MacDonald’s The Shadows (1867) and At the Back of the North Wind (1871).

Olaus Magnus wrote in the sixteenth century of witches in Northern Scandinavia who could fly and tie the wind in knots. Tales of the supernatural in the North sometimes inspired fear. The medieval idea of a lethal North ringed with monsters could imply that people living in Northern regions were also monstrous. This persisted into the eighteenth century, with some writers asserting that Icelanders practised magic in league with the Devil.

Some people investigated the supernatural without naming it diabolical. In the 1690s, Robert Kirk’s The Secret Commonwealth recounted beliefs about fairies in the Scottish Highlands, describing fairies as real, powerful spirits who much resemble humans.

Later writers explored the idea of the supernatural North in fantasy. George MacDonald’s At the Back of the North Wind (1871), for example, features an intimidating but ultimately benevolent spirit of the wind, and Phillip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials (1995-2000), beginning with Northern Lights, includes heroic depictions of Northern witchcraft inspired by perceptions of Sámi shamanism.

Arrow heads

Scotland, made around 4000 - 600 BCE

“Cut by art and tools beyond human” in the words of Robert Kirk, flint arrow heads found in Scotland confused people thousands of years after they were made. They were considered the work of fairies, and it was believed that fairies could cause sudden illness by firing them at people or animals. Alleged witches were accused of the same.

Protective charm

Scotland, made around 2900 - 2400 BC

This stone, probably a prehistoric mace head, was collected in 1875 from a cowshed near Stonehaven where it was being used as a protective charm. By the mid 18^th century, after contact with other peoples who knew how to make stone tools, Europeans had realised the human origins of these objects. Their use in folk practices as protective charms continued long after this, however.

George MacDonald (1824-1905) was from Huntly, Aberdeenshire, and graduated from King’s College, Aberdeen. His fantasy works often include journeys to the far North and visits to fairy worlds inspired by Scottish folklore, as seen in this collection of fairy stories that he wrote. MacDonald was influenced by 19th century scholarly interest in folk traditions and stories – including that of his uncle Mackintosh MacKay, a Gaelic scholar.

The Princess and the Goblin

George MacDonald, 1872

In The Princess and the Goblin George MacDonald drew on Scottish folk tales to create a vivid and terrifying fantasy story, where a young miner stumbles upon subterranean goblins who are seeking revenge on the human kingdom.  J.R.R. Tolkien acknowledged the influence of MacDonald’s goblins in letters to friends.  The under-mountain kingdom of the goblins in The Princess and the Goblin resembles that in The Hobbit.

The Portent

George MacDonald, 1864

MacDonald was inspired by tales of the Highlanders’ ‘second sight’ and his novel The Portent features characters with the gift. In The Secret Commonwealth written in the 1690s by Robert Kirk, a minister from Aberfoyle, Scotland, described the ‘second sight’ possessed by some Scots which allowed them to see fairies and omens of death.

Many myths about the North had been dispelled by the late 17^th century, but some English scientists of the time were curious about the purported psychic powers of the Highlanders – such as Royal Society fellow Robert Boyle (1627-1691), a chemist who investigated the matter. The Society for Psychical Research investigated the second sight in Scotland again in the 1890s, finding nothing conclusive.