ââMr. Scoresby,â said the witch, âI wish I could answer your question. All I can say is that all of us, humans, witches, bears, are engaged in a war already, although not all of us know it. Whether you find danger on Svalbard or whether you fly off unharmed, you are recruit, under arms, a soldier.â
Serafina Pekkala is a witch queen from a tribe in Inari, Finland. She once had a child by the Gyptian Farder Coram, who saved her life when she was attacked by another witchâs dĂŚmon. For witches to fall in love with men is common. There are men within the witch society who serve the witches, or who are taken as lovers or husbands. Witches are capable of appreciating men for their beauty, intelligence, and bravery; but due to the witchesâ long life-span, the men appear to grow old and die almost at once. Witches live for many hundreds of years. Serafina claims to be three hundred years old or more. Witches own nothing, and so have no means of barter save mutual aid. They have no notions of honor, and therefore insults mean nothing to them. Temperature extremes appear not to harm witches: although they feel the cold, wrapping up against it would prevent them from experiencing other things that the humans of the text may not feel. Witches see themselves as subject to fate, yet argue that they, and all people, must act as if they possess free will. They believe that when they die Yambe-Akka, the goddess of the dead, comes to collect them.
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