Death on Iona: The Mysterious Death of Norah Fornario and the Search for Netta

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Iona is a small island off the West coast of Scotland with a long religious and mystical history. In the late 1920s it was the scene of the mysterious death of Netta Fornario. Her motives and the manner of her passing have been the subject of much debate over the years.

Netta Fornario | The Forteana Forums The Strange Death Of Netta Fornario | The Forteana Forums

Netta was an heiress, having lost close family members at a young age. She had inherited a substantial sum, the equivalent of over a million pounds in today’s money. As such she was able to buy a house in Mortlake Road, Kew, London, and presumably didn’t have to bother overly much about having a paid job. But in the late summer of 1929, at the age of 31, she suddenly decided to decamp to Iona, apparently taking enough luggage with her to furnish a small house, which suggested she planned to be gone for quite some time. Iona has long been associated with spirituality. St Columba set up a religious retreat there many centuries ago. Folklore and legends abound on Iona, and it is easy to see why Netta would have been drawn to the place. The house where I reside now is full of psychic phenomena, a number of people have experienced all sorts of things in the house, good and bad but we wouldn't banish it

But What Of Her Letters?

A Gothic tale of magic, madness, murder and mystery set on Iona. Mixing fiction with real events - the unexplained and controversial death of Netta Fornario, a remarkable young lady closely linked to the inner circle of the Occult Society of the Golden Dawn. The scratches on her body, if they existed (they seem to have been a later addition, and some argue that only her feet were scratched up), are a bit more difficult to explain. It could be that she fell into some brambles, but the posthumous examination didn't contain any reports of thorns being found in her skin. Iona did not harbor large predators, such as foxes, that might have tried to scavenge the body, and no bite marks were found either. The next few weeks were spent by Netta seemingly aimlessly wandering around the island, usually returning by nightfall.

Netta Fornario on the Scottish Island The mysterious case of Netta Fornario on the Scottish Island

Iona is a small island, roughly 3.5 miles long and one mile wide which lies off the west of Mull. In 563AD St Columba (grandson of the Irish King Niall) and 12 followers built their first Celtic Church on the island and monastic community. Iona became famous as St Columba started converting Scottish and English pagans into Christians. Iona also became the resting place of Kings and according to a survey in 1549 it boasted 48 Scottish Kings, 8 Norwegian and 4 Irish. Amongst the Scottish kings buried on Iona are King Kenneth I, Donald II, Malcolm I, Duncan I, Macbeth and Donald III.

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The play is full of memorable lines (‘If I’m ill I want to be healed, not cured’; ‘Love is possession, but it’s also surrender’) and peppered with marvellously-written spiritualist nonsense. Rebecca Sloyan, as Netta, could perhaps have made more of this script, and could have got away with being a bit more mad, but it’s probably better to understate this as she did, and leave us guessing, than to overdo it, or try to play for laughs. This small island off the edge of Scotland has quite a spiritual history. It was revered as a sacred place for ancient celts, druids, and even early Christians. Many religious ceremonies have taken place there and still do to this day. In 1888, Mina met Mathers while at the British Museum where she was studying Egyptian art. She was instantly captivated by him and perceived him to be a true soulmate, her other half. Mathers had no steady income, and her family and Horniman disapproved of him, but Mina defied them and married Mathers on June 16, 1890, in the library of the Horniman Museum. To accommodate Mathers’s Scottish interests, Mina changed her first name to Moina. According to Francis King’s book Ritual Magic in England, Fornario told her landlady that “certain people” were affecting her telepathically. The disappearance of Netta

A Mystical Island and the Mysterious Death of the Occultist

Ruth’s troubles unfold. Her husband is dead, and is not missed as much as might be expected. Her son Duncan is, throughout the first half, just off-stage. His unhappy fate is revealed later. By the end, the full story of the mysterious death of the title has been told, but not explained. Four sea idylls” written by M. Fornario, in “Memories of the Deep” by Gertrude Bracey, London: Boosey & Co When family members were uninterested in claiming the body, islanders pooled their funds and had Netta buried in a small graveyard near St. Oran's Chapel. She remains there to this day. A MEDICAL MYSTERY? Netta often called herself Marie Fornario and she is in fact buried under that name - Marie being French for Mary.A letter she sent to Mrs Varney last week stated :- “Do not be surprised if you do not hear from me for a long time. I have a terrible healing case.” IN CONCLUSION: On going over a lot of this my gut feeling is that maybe Netta built up demons in her own mind. She had spent several weeks confined almost exclusively to her own company, spending her days in long, solitary walks, with only her own thoughts to occupy her. Now this of course can be a good thing. It would certainly be a boon to many creative people, and indeed Netta spent a lot of her time crouched over her typewriter, but very little remains of all her hard work. Perhaps she had got herself into an awkward situation in London, or brushed up against another member of the Temple, and had decided to leave for a while to let the dust settle. A few weeks away would have been a chance to put everything into perspective, but that doesn’t seem to have happened with Netta, everything got blown out of all proportion in her mind instead. As I’ve said before, Netta was the kind of person who would have seen signs and portents in everything, she may well have come to believe that somebody was out to get her. Netta was not a member of the original Golden Dawn, joining its remnants long after its collapse following the Battle of Blythe Road. She was among those who worked futilely to restore the cabal to its former glory. [2]