[a. Sw. Lappland: see LAPP and LAND.] The region that forms the most northerly portion of the Scandinavian peninsula, now divided politically between Norway, Sweden and Russia.
Formerly, the fabled home of witches and magicians, who had power to send winds and tempests. Freq. attrib., as Lapland witch, giant, etc.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Faustus, I. i. Like … Lapland Gyants, trotting by our sides.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. I. ii. 63. And nothing so familiar … as for Witches and Sorcerers, in Lapland, Lituania, and all ouer Scandia, to sell winds to Marriners, and cause tempests.
1636. Shirley, Duke’s Mistr., II. i. (1638), C 4 b. I … dare Encounter with an armie out of Lapland.
1640. Habington, Q. of Arragon, I. i. Your Lordship then Shall walke as safe, as if a Lapland witch … preserv’d you shot-free.
1668. Dryden, Even. Love, II. (1671), 26. Not a Ship shall pass out from any Port, but shall ask thee for a wind; thou shalt have all the trade of Lapland within a month.
1679. Oldham, Sat. Jesuits, III. (1685), 55. How travelling Saints, well mounted on a Switch, Ride Journeys thro’ the Air, like Lapland Witch.
1695. Congreve, Love for love, III. 42. Marry thee! Oons I’ll Marry a Lapland Witch as soon, and live upon selling of contrary Winds, and Wrack’d Vessels.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., II. ii. Lapland clay, Mixt with the venom of black taids and snakes.
1802. Wordsw., ‘Dear Child of Nature.’ An old age, serene and bright And lovely as a Lapland night.
† b. A native of this region; a Lapland witch.
1634. T. Heywood, Lanc. Witches, V. K. Then to work, to work my pretty Laplands: Pinch, here, scratch. Ibid. (1635), Hierarch., VIII. 506. The Finnes and Laplands are acquainted well With such like Sp’rits, and Windes to Merchants sell.
