Famous Orcadians - Folklore

Janet Forsyth | Archie Angel | Bessie Millie

The Orkney Isles has a rich and elaborate history in traditional folk tales and stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. Many of these tales are pure fantasy whilst others are actual events. Some of the more accurate characters are presented here.

Janet Forsyth - The Storm Witch
The story of Janet Forsyth dates from the 17th Century and whether the tale is fact or fiction is up for question. However, we begin in 1627 in Westray, when Janet was a young girl and in love with a local lad, Benjamin Garrioch. Benjamin and some friends set off one fine day on a fishing trip going against Janet's wishes. In fact she had had a dream the night before that there was to be a mishap at sea and begged Benjamin not to set to sea.

Shortly after the men had set sail a thick fog engulfed the island and the Westray Firth, and Benjamin and his friends never returned. The local islanders pinned the blame on Janet and branded her a witch, saying that through her magical powers she had made the fog descend. Janet was heart-broken that she had lost Benjamin and shut herself away from the community.

All subsequent storms were blamed on Janet, and the suspicion grew so much that if there was any misfortune at all in Westray, Janet was the culprit.

A few years later, there was a ship spotted off the coast of Westray struggling in the bad weather. Janet without any help from the rest of the islanders set sail to try and help the ship. She managed to board the vessel and guide it through the waters into Pierowall Bay.

The islanders considered her actions to be those of an enchantress and she was put on trial in Kirkwall two weeks later. The judge ruled that she was indeed in a witch and sentenced her to death.

Throughout the trial a crowd had gathered to watch the proceedings, and once the judge had passed his verdict Janet turned and saw Benjamin standing there in a naval uniform. She reportedly screamed, "Save me, Ben!" as she was taken from the court.

The next day when she was sent for, she was no-where to be seen and it appeared she had escaped.

She was never heard from again until a few years later a local who was in Manchester saw a shop with the name "Benjamin Garrioch", upon further investigation he found that the women serving behind the counter was Janet!

What had happened was that on the day the fog came down, Benjamin and his friends had met a man, who press-ganged them into joining the navy. The day that Janet had been on trial, their ship was sheltering in Kirkwall from bad weather and they had gone to see the witch trial. Benjamin upon realising it was actually Janet on trial, got the jailers drunk, freed her and they both fled to England.

Archie Angel
"And there, in the lantern pool
A child's face, a dwindling, in seaweed tassels,"

- taken from the George Mackay Brown poem "The Wreck of the Archangel" in the book "The Wreck of the Archangel - Poems", John Murray Publishers Ltd. (1989)

Archie Angel was reportedly the sole survivor of a Russian ship wrecked on Westray in the 1730s. There was no way to identify the child, however, part of the ship's sternpost did come ashore with one word on it - "Archangel". He was brought up by a local family and went on to marry, with the name Angel passing down through the generations until it eventually died out in the 19th Century.

Bessie Millie
As legend has it Bessie was a witch who lived in Stromness who for the sum of sixpence "sold favourable winds" to sailors. She is supposed to have been visited by Sir Walter Scott in 1814. She is described as having a "typical witch's profile" with the long nose and chin and was the basis for his character Norna of the Fitful Head in his novel "The Pirate", which is about Gow the Pirate. Bessie also claimed to have known John Gow, if this is true then that would make her around 100 years old when Walter Scott visited her.