  We show that confined Majorana fermions can exist in nanowires with proximity
induced s-wave superconducting pairing if the direction of an external magnetic
field rotates along the wire. The system is equivalent to nanowires with
Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling, with strength proportional to the derivative
of the field angle. For realistic parameters, we demonstrate that a set of
permanent magnets can bring a nearby nanowire into the topologically
non-trivial phase with localized Majorana modes at its ends. Without the
requirement of spin-orbit coupling this opens up for a new route for
demonstration and design of Majorana fermion systems.
