AN ISLES fiddler and singer-songwriter is to launch a short film about a Shetland woman who was executed for witchcraft in the 17th century. Claire White will unveil Da Fateful Tale o Marion Pardone on Thursday – Halloween night. It tells the story of Hillswick woman Marion Pardone, who was accused of a number of acts of sorcery and demonology.
She was accused of drowning four fishermen by the Hillswick shore while disguised as a porpoise. Marion was eventually convicted, strangled and then burned on a hill overlooking Shetland’s former capital of Scalloway. White was inspired to write the song – first released on her 2018 album Lasses Trust In Providence – after reading Marion’s trial papers in the Shetland archives, with the allegations against her used as the track’s verses.
The chorus is also taken from the trial papers, with the line “which you cannot deny” used repeatedly against Marion during the trial. White said this was not to endorse the testimony of community members who spoke against Marion, but to share the evidence given in her trial as fully as possible. While writing the song White climbed to Marion’s execution site on Scalloway’s west hill of Berry, and decided there the story should be remembered in images as well as words.
Shooting took place in Scalloway, Hillswick, Lunna and Quarff in August, and the result is the four-and-a-half minute film Da Fateful Tale o Marion Pardone . It will premiere at a free short launch event in Shetland M.