Rune Blix Hagen, Department of History, University of Tromsø

Edinburgh visit 22 to 27 January 2002
Northern Scholars Scheme
Department of Scottish History,

http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/scothistory/

1 Title of public lecture:

Early Modern representations of the far North

Wednesday 23rd January 2002 at 4.15
Conference Room, David Hume Tower, University of Edinburgh

Abstract: A book entitled Voyage des pais septentrionaux was published in Paris in 1671. Based upon an expedition that the Frenchman Pierre Martin De La Martinière had undertaken to the far north the previous year, his travel narrative became one of the most famous of its kind. I will look at what he experienced on the northern Norwegian coast and in the Arctic. The lecture will uncovers all of the strange sights and sounds that he claimed to have met upon his way. His attempts to portray foreign lifestyles and his encounters with the Other illustrate how the north was typically depicted in the early modern era. And because La Martinière was interested in the wind magic of the northern peoples, my lecture also focuses on the role of weather magic in the numerous witch-trials of northern Norway. His travel narrative is one of the first of many marking the rise of the fashion for the North at the end of the seventeenth century. From an historical point of view, these particular descriptions prove to be valuable as sources for the history of travel.

Pierre Martin de La Martinière was born in Rouen 4/2-1634 and died in Paris late 1690. In French dictionaries he is described as a "médecin et voyageur".

If not specifically stated, all my citations are rendered from the English 1706 edition:

[La Martinière, Pierre Martin de,] Voyage to the north. [Subtitle] A new voyage to the north: containing, a full account of Norway; the Laplands, both Danish, Swedish and Muscovite; of Borandia, Siberia, Samojedia, Zembla and Iseland: with the description of the religion and customs of these several nations. To which is added, a particular relation of the court of the Czar; of the religion ande culture of the Muscovites; and a short history of Muscovy as it was taken by a French gentleman who resided there many years / Written by Monsieur ***,[i.e. P. M. de la Martiniere] employed by the Company of Merchants trading to the north from Copenhagen. Now done into English. London : printed for Thomas Hodgson over against Gray's-Inn-Gate in Holborn, and Anthony Barker at the Unicorn next Serjeant's-Inn-Gate, Fleetstreet., 1706. [14], 258 p : [1] folded leaf of plates : ill., front ; 20 cm. (Second edition in English) [This edition is owned by University Library of Tromsø, TMU and Ult.Thule Scand.]

References are made to the following works in the lecture:

Adam av Bremen 1993: Beretningen om Hamburg stift, erkebiskopenes bedrifter og øyrikene
i Norden. From Latin. Introduction, notes and index by Bjørn Tosterud Danielsen
and Anne Katrine Frihagen. Postscript by Helge Ingstad, Oslo.

Bodin, Jean 1580: De la Démonomanie des sorciers. Paris.

Bodin, Jean [1576] 1955: Six Books of the Commonwealth. Abridged and translated by M.J.
Tooley, Oxford.

Bodin, Jean 1975: Colloquium of the seven about secrets of the sublime. Translation
with introduction, annotations, and critical readings, by Marion Leathers Daniels Kuntz,
Princeton, New Jersey.

Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comt de 1781: "The Natural History of Man" Volume 3 in
Natural History: General and Particular . Translated by William Smellie. London.
See also http://ellserver3.njcu.edu/courses/moran/subjects3.htm (28.11.01)

Burke, Peter 2000: "Directions for the History of Travel" in Rätten. En festskrift til Bengt
Ankarloo. Edited by L.M.Andersson, A.Jansdotter, B.E.B.Persson and C.Tornbjer.
Lund.

Chard, Chloe 1999: Pleasure and guilt on the Grand Tour. Travel writing and imaginative
Geography 1600-1830. Manchester and New York.

Clark, Stuart 1997: Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe.
Oxford.

Consett, Mattew 1789. A Tour through Sweden, Swedish-Lapland, Finland and Denmark.
Stockholm.

Corbin, Alain 1994: The lure of the sea: the discovery of the seaside in the western world
1750-1840. Berkeley.

Dass, Petter 1954: The Trumpet of Nordland, Translated by Theodore Jorgenson.
Minneapolis.

Dictionnaire des lettres francaises: le dic-septième siècle 1954. Paris

Dolan, Brian 2000 Exploring European frontiers: British travellers in the age
of Enlightenment. New York.

Hagen, Rune 1999: "The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Finnmark", Acta Borealia. No.1:43-62.
Extract in The Shaman of Alta: http://ansatte.uit.no/rha003/shaman.html.

Huitfeldt, Carl 1932: Norge i andres øine. Oslo.

James VI 2000: Daemonologie in form of a dialogue. (Originally published Edinburgh 1597).
Printed in Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland. James VI's Demonology and the North
Berwick Witches, edited by Lawrence Normand & Gareth Roberts. Exeter.

Jessen, Erich Johan 1763: Det Kongerige Norge fremstillet efter dets naturlige og borgerlige
Tilstand. Kjøbenhabn.

La Martinière, Pierre Martin de 1682: Voyage des pays Septentrionaux. Paris.

La Martinière, Pierre Martin de 1706: A new Voyage to the North. London.

Larsson, Lars Olof 2001:"Eine andere Antike und die wilde Natur. Das Bild des Nordens in
Der bildende Kunst der frühen Neuzeit", in Annelore Engel-Braunschmidt, Gerhard
Fouquet, Wiebke von Hinden und Inken Schmidt (Hrsg.) Ultima Thule. Bilder des
Nordens von Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Frankfurt am Main

Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel 1981: "The Aiguillette:Castration by Magic" in The Mind and
Method of the Historian. Translated to English by Siãn Reynolds and Ben Reynolds.
Chicago.

Lestringant, Frank 1997: Cannibals. The Discovery and Representation of the Cannibal
from Columbus to Jules Verne. Cambridge.

Lilienskiold, Hans H. 1998: Trolldom og ugudelighet i 1600-tallets Finnmark, Edited
and revised by Rune Hagen and Per Einar Sparboe, Ravnetrykk nr.18. Tromsø.

Loux, Francoise 1988: Pierre-Martin de La Martinière un mèdecin au XVIIe siècle. Paris.

Moyne, Ernest J.1981: Raising the Wind. The Legend of Lapland and Finland Wizards in
Literature. Edited by Wayne R. Kime. Toronto.

Nansen, Fridtjof 1911: In Northern Mists. Arctic exploration in early times. Volume Two.
Translated by Arthur G. Charter. London.

Nordenskiöld, A.E. 1880: Vegas färd kring Asien och Europa: jemte en historisk återblick
på föregående resor längs gamla verldens nordkust , Vol.1. Stockholm.

Olaus Magnus 1996: A Description of the Northern Peoples 1555, Volume 1,
Edited by P.G.Foote. The Hakluyt Society, London.

Regnard, Jean-Francois 1992: Voyage en Laponie. Paris.

Tanner, V.1929: Antropogeografiska studier inom Petsamo-området. I Skolt-Lapparna
(Fennia 49, No.4). Helsingfors.

Thorndike, Lynn 1958: A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Vol.VIII. New York.

Spies, Marijke 1997: Arctic Routes to Fabled Lands. Translated to English by Myra
Heerspink Scholz. Amsterdam.

Spies, Marijke 1998: "Humanist Conceptions of the Far North in the Works of Mercator and
Ortelius", Abraham Ortelius and the First Atlas, Edited by Marcel van den
Broecke, Peter van der Krogt and Peter Meurer. Houten.

Stagl, Justin 1995: A History of Curiosity. The Theory of Travel 1550-1800. Chur.

See also:
Rune Hagen, Early Modern Representations of the Far North
The 1670 Voyage of Pierre Martin De La Martinière,
In: ARV - Nordic Yearbook of Folklore 2002, Vol.58, pp.19-42

TOC:
Introduction, 19
European Views of Nature and People of the Far North, 19-22
Towards the Unknown, 23-24
Diabolical Magic Satiates all Northerners, 24-25
Dubious Embellishment of the Truth, 25-26
The Art of Storytelling in the North, 26-28
Tobacco in Exchange for Wind, 28-29
The Northerners’ Meteorological Knowledge, 30-32
Weather Magic and Witch Trials in Finnmark, 32-34
Crisscrossing Arctic Waters, 34-37
The Story of the Storyteller, 37-38
References and notes, 39-42

Abstract:
A book entitled Voyage des pais septentrionaux was published in Paris in 1671. Based upon an expedition that the Frenchman Pierre Martin De La Martinière had undertaken to the far north the previous year, his travel narrative became one of the most famous of its kind, and unequaled in its drama and suspense. This article looks at what he experienced on the northern Norwegian coast and in the Arctic. A study uncovers, too, all of the strange sights and sounds that he claimed to have met upon his way. According to the 1671 report, he visited a region devoted to all kinds of wildness and bestiality. His attempts to portray foreign lifestyles and his encounters with the extreme Other illustrate how the north was typically depicted in the early modern era. And because La Martinière was interested in the wind magic of the northern peoples, this article also focuses on the role of weather magic in the numerous witch-trials of Arctic Norway. His travel narrative is one of the first of many marking the rise of the fashion for the North at the end of the seventeenth century. From an historical point of view, these particular descriptions prove to be valuable as sources for the history of travel.

Key words:
Travel writing, 17th century, Northern peoples, Arctic, Northern Scandinavia, Finnmark, Weather magic, Witch-trials, Wind knots, Sami, Cultural encounters

På pub i Edinburgh - November 2002

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Rune Blix Hagen, University of Tromsø

2. Title of departmental seminar

John Cunningham - a Regional Governor and Witch hunter at the edge of civilisation

Thursday 24^th January 2002 at 5.15
Department of Scottish History, http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/scothistory/
17 Buccleuch Place, University of Edinburgh

Abstract: The Scotsman John (Hans) Cunningham (c.1575-1651) was appointed District governor (lensmann) of Vardøhus Len in the very north of Norway early in the springtime of 1619. He remained in this position for 32 years, until the summer of 1651. Neither before nor after this period has anyone retained this position for such a long time in Finnmark. There are, in fact, very few people in the history of Denmark-Norway who have held this kind of office for so many years. Remaining in this position for 32 years is in itself an evidence for his success in carrying out the Crown's territorial, political and economical policy in the north of Norway. His solid position was never even seriously challenged. In this Cunningham stands out among the District governors in Norway, both predecessors and successors. Being the King's (Christian IV) most faithful servant, he was allowed to govern the county and, with few restrictions from Copenhagen, exercised authority almost like a feudal lord. As district governor of Finnmark he even chose the appropriate name Hans Køning (cf. king). On the other hand, the relation between the state centre and the northern province provided a dynamic interplay. He used all available channels to make his demands and his proposals known. These were thought so appropriate that the Crown sought to fit his proposals into existing law and policy. Cunningham came to serve the Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV when the king's brother-in-law, the demon-obsessed Scottish king, James VI, recommended the man to him. During Cunningham's time in Northern-Norway there were more than 50 brutal witch-trials in Finnmark. Various sources and contemporary accounts lead us to believe that some of the blame for the brutal Finnmark witch persecutions falls on Cunningham himself. It was reported in a memoir from the 1660s that he was sent to Finnmark, among other things, to wage war upon witchcraft in the northern regions. Perhaps Cunningham's Scottish background can explain his success as a local governor and witch hunter?

Biographical data

Personal data

Name: John Cunningham, Hans Køning (in Denmark)

Birth: c.1575 at the manor Barns, The East Neuk of Fife, Scotland

Baptism: Kirk of Crail, Fife, Scotland (presumed)

Death: Late 1651 at Gerdrup, Zealand, Denmark

Burial: 9^th December 1651 at the Church in Eggeslevmagle, Zealand, Denmark

Places of settled residence: 1603-1619 Helsingør (Elsinore), Denmark

1619-1651 Vardø, Norway

1651 Gerdrup, Zealand,

Family data

Father: Illegitimate son of John Cunningham, Laird of West Barns (John/Hans was naturalised by his father in 1596)

Mother: Not known

Place in the family: Second son - his brother Alexander was the first born son. He had at least
two sisters.

Spouses: 1) Her name is unknown - she might have died in childbirth
Date of marriage: 9/3-1607 in Helsingør, Denmark. King Christian IV of Denmark honoured the wedding by his presence

2) Ellen Clausdatter Hundermark (died 1633) - a widow and noble lady from Denmark
Date of marriage: 4/9-1625 at Bodøgaard, Nordland, Norway

Mistress: A woman from Bergen who died in 1674. He had two children with this woman.

Children: 1) Jakob Hansen Cunningham (1619-1686), natural, but illegitimate son
2) Kirsten Hansdatter (c.1620-1699), natural, but illegitimate daughter

Career

Occupations: 1603-1619 Naval captain in the navy of Denmark-Norway
- 1619-1651 District governor of Vardøhus and Finnmarken, Norway

Witchcraft trials in Finnmark 1619-1651

Ethnicity and gender	Death sentences	Total
Sami – Male	6	6
Sami – Female	3	3
Norwegian – Male	0	5
Norwegian – Female	33	38
Total	42	52

The Number of People Convicted of Witchcraft in Finnmark, 1593-1692

Gender and Ethnicity Individuals Convicted

Female – Sami	8
Male – Sami	19
Female – Norwegian	103
Male – Norwegian	8
Total	138

See also my article published in May 2003:
“At the Edge of Civilisation: John Cunningham, Lensmann of Finnmark, 1619-51”
In: A,Macillop and Steve Murdoch (ed.): Military Governors and Imperial Frontiers C. 1600-1800. A study of Scotland and Empires,
(History of Warfare, Volume 17)
Brill Leiden and Boston 2003, 29:51
(ISSN: 1385-7827 ISBN:90-04-12970-7)

TOC:
Introduction, 29-30
Geopolitical framework, 30-33
Cunningham’s activities before his appointment to Finnmark, 33-35
The local policy of the district Governor in Finnmark, 1619-1651, 35-36
Building up a local elite, 36-38
Policy towards the merchants, 38-39
Relations with the Norwegian people of Finnmark, 39-41
Integration and suppression of the Sami minority group, 41-44
Cunningham and Witchcraft, 44-49
(Witchcraft trials in Finnmark, 1619-1651, page 45)
Conclusion, 49-51

http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=210&pid=11273

Abstract: For his outstanding naval service in Danish-Norwegian coastal waters, the Scotsman John Cunningham (c.1575-1651) was granted a post as District Governor of Vardøhus and Finnmark in Arctic Norway. With its unprotected eastern borders, facing Russia and Sweden, Finnmark was the northern-most outpost of the dual monarchy. Here he reigned as District Governor for 32 years, from 1619 to 1651. There are in fact few individuals in all of Norway (and Denmark) who, as local officials, have represented the royal court for so many years. Cunningham’s efforts are all the more remarkable when we realize that his period as District Governor coincided with great hardships and reports of famine among the populace. Cunningham’s paternalism for his subordinates, and his true concern for them, resulted in great antagonism among the merchants. The merchants’ complaints to the king did not change anything, however. Leading to enormous challenges of rule in Finnmark, too, was the rapidly expanding integration into the Danish-Norwegian realm of the native Sami people. Within the conglomerate states in a process of formation and integration, the conflicting ethnic identities must have caused quite complicated issues. As a collective group, the Sami posed a threat to the territorial expansion of Denmark-Norway, its state-building and its endeavours to spread civilization in the outpost of Europe. It has been rumoured that the Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV (1577-1648) appointed John Cunningham to hunt down witches and prevent the spread of witchcraft in the region. The king was apparently pleased with how readily Cunningham fulfilled his mission.

Survey of Scottish Witchcraft

De europeiske hekseprosessene

Some articles on John Cunningham and related topics:

Hagen, Rune, "The witch-hunt in early modern Finnmark", Acta Borealia

No.1-1999:43-62

Hagen, Rune. "Cunningham, John (Hanis Cunnynghame, Hans Kønig)"

Norsk biografisk leksikon, 2, Kunnskapsforlaget,

Oslo 2000:254-255

Hagen, Rune, "At the edge of civilisation: John Cunningham, Lensmann

of Finnmark,1619-51.” In Military governors and

imperial frontiers c. 1600-1800, edited by Mackillop and Murdoch,

Leiden: Brill, 2003:29-51.(History of warfare ; vol. 17)

Hagen, Rune. "Cunningham, John" in New Dictionary of National

Biography, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004

Hagen, Rune Blix og Per Einar Sparboe (red.): Kongens reise til det ytterste

nord. Dagbøker fra Christian IVs tokt til Finnmark og Kola i 1599,

Tromsø 2004. Online: http://hdl.handle.net/10037/959

Hagen, Rune Blix. ”John Cunningham - Admiral, Lensherre og Heksejeger” in Gjallarhorn, Vestfold Slektshistorielag, 18.årg., Nr.37, Desember 2005:318- 323

Updated: October 2008