The
Witch's Charm Recording
the rapidly disappearing folklore and traditions of Sanday in the 1880s, folklorist
Walter Traill Dennison documented the ritual carried out by would-be sorcerers
to gain their magical powers.
His account detailed
a sophisticated ritual, through which the witch would pledge herself to the powers
of Darkness.
The witch had to first wait for a full moon. Then she would go to a solitary beach
at midnight where she had to turn three times against
the sun (anticlockwise) before lying prostrate on the ebb - the area between the
limits of high and low tide.
She then had to stretch out
her arms and legs, and place stones beside them. Further stones were also placed
at her head, on her chest and over her heart.
Once
enclosed by the circle of seven stones, the witch spoke aloud:
O' Mester King o' a' that's ill,
Come fill me wi' the Warlock Skill,
An' I shall serve wi' all me will.
Trow tak me gin I sinno!
Trow tak me gin I winno!
Trow tak me whin I cinno!
Come tak me noo, an tak me a',
Tak lights an' liver, pluck an' ga,
Tak me, tak me, noo I say,
Fae de how o' da heed, tae da tip o' da tae.
Tak a' dats oot an' in o' me.
Tak hare an hide an a' tae thee.
Tak hert, an harns, flesh, bleud an banes,
Tak a' atween the seeven stanes,
I' de name o' da muckle black Wallowa!
"The
person must lie quiet for a little time after repeating the Incantation. Then
opening his eyes he should turn on his left side, arise, and fling the stones
used in the operation into the sea. Each stone must be flung singly; and with
the throwing of each a certain malediction was said."
Like
the Orcadian scholar Hugh Marwick, I suspect elements of the rite - the ebb, the
anticlockwise turns and the positioning of the stones - represent an actual Orcadian
tradition.
Certain lines, however, seem awkward and do not fit with the rest of the
charm. Marwick was of the opinion that some these may have been later additions,
specifically added to impart an air of "evil" to the incantation.
Marwick
felt that the key to the charm lay in the lines: "Tak
me noo, an tak me a',
Tak lights an' liver, pluck an' ga',
Tak a' dats
oot an' in o' me,
Tak hide an' hair an a' tae thee,
I' de nam o' de muckle
black Wallowa!" The oath sections calling upon the
trows also seem at odds to the idea that the
Incantation called upon the power of Satan - the Mester King - so much so that
Marwick suggested the first two lines were dramatic additions to an older charm,
adding an association with the Devil that was never there in the original traditions. One
question remains, however, and that is the identity of the "de muckle black
Wallowa". Although the word "Wallowa" or
"Wallaway" is found in mainland Scottish dialect referring to the Devil,
is seems more likely, given the other elements of the verse, that it is a corruption
of a Norse term, "scotticised" into a word recognised by the recorder. In
this case we need look no further than the Old Norse "volva" - a prophetess
or witch - a word whose Orcadian pronunciation could easily be mistaken for the
Scots "Wallowa".
So now we can clearly connect
the charm with older pagan, natural elements found throughout Orkney folklore
- a charm that has nothing to do with Satan but instead calls on power of the "great dark witch". |