Liz Coutts

A good read. The book follows the true story of a fishing tragedy in the north of Norway in the early 17th century and the aftermath when many women were condemned to death for witchcraft. Many of the characters in the book are real historical people. This includes King Christian and King James VI Scotland 1st England, who wrote a treatise on witchcraft. The women were real though not given their true names. John Cunningham, the Lensman, was an actual person. Reference was also made to actual events in Orkney and one of the condemned witches. The actual prosecutor, Robert Coltard is named. Two of the main characters were fictional..Ursula, a shipping magnate’s daughter from Bergen and Absolam Cornet, the commissioner who came from Orkney. I was very disappointed by the inaccuracies of their portrayal. The Orkneyman’s first language in that time period would have been Old Norn or Norse, as would be the case for Ursa and the women of Vardo. The commissioner would have had no problem communicating with any of the women as they spoke the same language. His second language would have been Scots ( which gradually replaced Old Norn over the course of the 17th century. It’s likely he would have understood English but would not be a fluent speaker of English. The name chosen by Karin for the Orkney commissioner does not come from Orkney. The surname “ Cornet” is French/ Belgian. The first name is also unlikely to have been in use in Orkney. Biblical names were not common. Instead there were many Viking names in use, also common names like Robert, James, John, William. Karin has not done her research properly. I suggest she visits Orkney and sees for herself the magnificent St Magnus Cathedral where the witch trials were held. She could also check upon names used in Orkney during that time. I myself renamed the commissioner “ Haakon Yorston” For me these were glaring mistakes in an otherwise well written book.