His primary target was the Sámi people of the far north, but hundreds of other Norwegian women were also executed. In 1618, King Christian IV introduced laws against witchcraft modelled on those of James VI in Scotland. None survived, and so for months the island’s women managed the fishing, building, reindeer herding and butchery as well as their usual domestic work. The Mercies, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s first novel for adults, is set on the Norwegian island of Vardø, where in 1617 a Christmas Eve storm blew up while all the men were out fishing. Remote settlements, brutal weather and patriarchal violence offer a reflection in historical fiction of the fashion for feminist sci-fi dystopias.
The region in an era of insecure theocracy seems to speak to anglophone writers interested in stories of feminist resistance. T here has been a vogue in the past few years for novels about gender and sexuality set in early modern Scandinavia: Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites, Sally Magnusson’s The Sealwoman’s Daughter, Caroline Lea’s The Glass Woman.
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