Also called selling the wind, knotted wind cord, weather spell, witch's wind rope
Wind knots are cords tied with three knots that were said to hold the wind: undoing the first brought a gentle breeze, the second a strong wind, and the third a storm. Wise women and wizards in Finland, Lapland, Shetland, Orkney and the Isle of Man were reputed to sell them to sailors.
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Take care: This is a charm, not a weather forecast; always check marine and weather forecasts before going on the water. Keep knotted cords away from small children.
Higden, a monk of Chester, wrote that women on the Isle of Man sold wind to sailors tied in three knots of thread, the knots releasing a gentle wind, a strong wind and a tempest in turn. It is one of the earliest written records of the custom.
The exiled Swedish archbishop described and illustrated wizards of the far north selling a three-knotted rope to ship captains. His woodcut shows a ship sinking in the background, its crew having untied the third knot.
An elderly Stromness woman sold sailors a fair wind for sixpence, often with a charm or a few words. Walter Scott met her in 1814 and drew on her for Norna of the Fitful Head in his novel The Pirate (1821).
Tying wind into knots is one of the best recorded sea charms of northern Europe. Ranulf Higden, a Chester monk who wrote his Polychronicon up to the 1340s, described Manx women selling knotted thread to sailors. In 1555 Olaus Magnus, the Swedish archbishop living in exile in Rome, published his history of the northern peoples with a woodcut of a wizard handing a three-knotted rope to a ship's captain, and later writers repeated the tale of Finnish and Sámi wind sellers.
The custom lasted into the nineteenth century around Scotland. James Frazer's The Golden Bough records Shetland seamen buying knotted handkerchiefs from old women said to rule the storms, and in Orkney Walter Scott met Bessie Millie of Stromness in 1814, who sold winds to sailors for sixpence. These stories feed today's idea of the 'sea witch'. The knot itself links to wider knot magic, where tying binds and loosening releases.
A pebble with a natural hole worn through it, hung by a cord over a bed, a door or a stable to keep away nightmares, witches and bad luck.
A commitment spell for a couple who both want it: each partner ties one half of a true lover's knot so the two cords lock together, and a short promise is spoken over it. It draws on the old love-knot token, sailors' knot rings and inscribed posy rings.
A spoken charm said over someone setting out, wishing them an easy road, wind at the back and safe return. The familiar English verse is 20th-century, built on the old Irish farewell 'go n-éirí an bóthar leat', 'may you succeed on the road'.
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