The myth dates back to the 1800s and is wrong -- as per Assyrian Royal Court records dealing with nations -- the Assyrian Court records show dealings with Magog, Meshech, Tubal, and Togarmah (Ezekiel 38:3-6), the nations that stretched across ancient Asia Minor (modern Turkey) from west to east. From these records we also learn that the ancient nation of Gomer (Ezekiel 38:6), an enemy of the Assyrians invaded Asia Minor by coming down from an area around the northeast shore of the Black Sea. Archeologists know that the militant leader called Gog in Ezekiel 38/39 led a confederacy of these nations against invading Gomer.
Gog is a historical man who the Greeks called Gyges of Lydia. In Gyges of Lydia we have the leader the Assyrians called Gugu, King of Ludu, and Gugu of Magugu, who is referred to in the Bible as Gog of Magog. Magog simply means the land of Gog. In Akkadian ma means land, so in Akkadian Ma- gugu means the land of Gugu, which becomes our Ma-gog. (Just as the Assyrian eponym for the land of the leader called Zamua is rendered as Ma-zamua). Magog is an eponym for the ancient nation of Lydia that was in the westernmost part of Asia Minor. The Assyrians often referred to a new land by the name of the first leader they learned of from this land. The Assyrians dealt with Lydia through Meshech, who were subsequently defeated by Gomer, and thus the Assyrians finally came to deal with Lydia directly. In the prophecy of Ezekiel 38/39 Gog is being used as a historical type of the antichrist who is prophesied to come during the end times, and Magog is being used as a historical type of the land of the antichrist.
All of the "lands of the north" referred to by Ezekiel refer to the lands fo Anatolia (modern day Turkey) to the neo-Hittite kingdoms that arose after 1200 BC's collapse of the Aryanic Hittite Empire.
Or. Magog in Ezekiel may be a reference to people descended, or thought to be, from one of the sons of Japheth by that name.