{"id":12180,"date":"2022-07-05T06:44:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T06:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booksofall.com\/?post_type=product&p=12180"},"modified":"2022-07-05T06:50:21","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T06:50:21","slug":"the-orkney-finnmen-legends","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.booksofall.com\/pt\/the-orkney-finnmen-legends\/","title":{"rendered":"The Orkney Finnmen Legends"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Early Modern Science to Modern Myth<\/span><\/h2>\n

At the end of the 17th century there appeared the first noting of a mysterious kayak-paddling \u201cFinnman\u201d seen in Orkney waters<\/a>. Jonathan Westaway explores the subsequent explanations and how early modern science’s fascination with unfamiliar objects, and the \u201cout-of-place\u201d in general, helped conjure the idea of an Inuit presence in the region and, in turn, a new chapter of Scottish folklore.<\/p>\n

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Published in Edinburgh in 1693,\u00a0A Description of the Isles of Orkney<\/i>\u00a0by the Rev. James Wallace of Kirkwall<\/a>, Orkney, contains the first known mention in print of the term \u201cFinnmen\u201d, although what the text meant by the term Finnmen was unclear. Enigmatic and compelling, the text of the\u00a0Description<\/i>\u00a0seems to imply a connection between these Finnmen sightings and the idea of Inuit peoples being present in Orkney waters, hinting at an\u00a0unheimlich<\/i>\u00a0form of reverse colonization, a preternatural encounter with Arctic cultures and peoples. It is an account that appears to reverse the flow of empire\u2019s relentless western expansion, a piece of historical antimatter that has led to endless speculation by antiquarians, folklorists, and historians in later centuries. Various theories were proposed to explain how the Inuit could have possibly got to Orkney: some suggested that they might have travelled autonomously, island-hopping across the North Atlantic. Others drew attention to the well documented widespread practice of abducting Inuit for commercial and scientific purposes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Some were not convinced of such far-flung origins, and argued that \u201cFinnmen\u201d referred to \u201cFinns\u201d from Finland or Finnmark in Norway, others that it signified a lost autochthonous race. Whatever the explanation, the Finnmen legend has long since embedded itself into the folkways of the Northern Isles, underpinning regional identity and a sense of exceptionalism in Orkney.<\/p>\n

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The\u00a0Description<\/i>\u00a0reports that \u201cSometime about this Country are seen these men which are called Finnmen\u201d. The text mentions an eyewitness seeing one sailing and rowing a little boat at the south end of the island of Eday who fled when the inhabitants chased him in boats. Soon afterwards, another was seen from the island of Westray and \u201cfor a while after they got few or no fishes\u201d. The\u00a0Description<\/i> then speculates that \u201cthese Finnmen seem to be some of these people that dwell about the Fratum Davis\u201d,\u00a0a reference to the Davis Strait that lies between Greenland and Baffin Island, Arctic islands populated by Inuit peoples. The\u00a0Description<\/i>\u00a0cites a textual authority, Charles de Rochefort\u2019s 1658\u00a0Histoire naturelle et morale des \u00eeles Antilles de l’Amerique<\/i>, a book with a complex and obscure publishing history with very little to say about the Inuit.\u00a0The author of the\u00a0Description<\/i>\u00a0concludes his observations on the Finnmen by saying: \u201cOne of their boats sent from Orkney to Edinburgh is to be seen in the Physistians hall with the Oar and the Dart he makes use of for killing Fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In 1700, the Rev. James Wallace\u2019s son, Dr James Wallace F.R.S., published\u00a0An Account of the Islands of Orkney<\/i>, an extensive reworking of his father\u2019s published text that further embedded the notion that Finnmen could be equated with the Inuit. Dr Wallace speculated that \u201cthey must probably be driven by Storms from home\u201d but was not explicit about where that home was. He then described an Inuit kayak, noting \u201ctheir Boat being made of Fish Skins, are so contrived that he can never sink, but is like a Sea-gull swimming on the top of the Water. His shirt he has is so fastned to the Boat, that no Water can come into his Boat to do him damage.\u201d He concludes by noting that a full account of the Finnmen can be found in Rochefort\u2019s \u201cL’histoire naturelle & moralle des Antilles Chap.18.\u201d He further expanded on the account contained in the\u00a0Description<\/i>\u00a0by concluding that \u201cOne of their Boats which was catched in Orkney, was sent from thence to Edinburgh, and is to be seen in the Physicians Hall, with the Oar and Dart he makes use of for killing Fish\u201d,\u00a0subtly altering the words of the\u00a0Description<\/i>, seemingly implying the boat was \u201ccaught\u201d in Orkney waters in pursuit of the Finnmen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"