All day all night

I return to Finnmark in July. Now the snow has thawed, revealing rock and bog, pools of deep blue water, and clear skies.

It is the time of year when the sun does not set. At midnight I set out for a walk along the ragged coast of the Varanger Peninsula near the small village of Ekkerøy. Little has changed since the seventeenth century. I follow the same path as my characters until I have a view of traditional wooden racks used for drying fish. The very same as the racks used by the fishermen's wives of my novel. Beyond are cliffs, spattered white, the air thick with screeching gulls.

Melancholy and Witchcraft

(Lucas Cranach The Elder, Melancholy 1532)

The melancholic condition was associated with the dark forces of the human psyche, and melancholy was most often depicted as a woman as in Cranach's painting. Through the open window we can see The Furious Horde, wild and naked riders, cavalcades of demonic spirits and souls, especially those who died before their time and enjoy no peace: soldiers killed in battle, young children, victims of violent acts. The Furious Horde was believed to bring wide spread devastation to the countryside. The melancholic nature, as expressed by The Furious Horde, was seen to be manifested in a woman of immoral nature, sexually deviant, bent on destruction and disorder. The accused women of Finnmark were viewed as such. Although not overtly expressed, this attitude is discernible in the subtext of much of the court testimony recorded.