Dalriada Celtic Heritage Trust: Deities - Brighid

Celtic Mythology

THE OTHER FACE OF BRIDE

Moch maduinn Bhride, Thig an nimhir as an toll; Cha bhoin mise ris an nimhir, Cha bhoin an nimhir rium.

(Early on Bride's morn, the serpent will come from the hollow I will not molest the serpent, nor will the serpent molest me)

Thig an nathair as an toll, la donn Bride Ged robh tri traighean dh' an t-sneachd air leachd an lair.

(The serpent will come from the hollow on the brown day of Bride Though there should be three feet of snow on the flat surface of the ground)

St. Brighid is one of the most well loved and revered of all the Celtic saints. Traditional prayers and blessings frequently invoke the protection of this Lady of the Isles, Brighid nam Brat, Bride of the Mantle. She is the gentle shepherdess, the guardian of the cattle, protector of the new born infant, nurse maid to the sick and weary.

Yet the origins of Bride are far older than the coming of the new faith to our shores. For She is one of the most ancient deities of the Celts. In the legend of the Earth Shapers it is Bride that first hears the song of the Earth and urges the rest of the Tuatha De Danann to seek out a place of beauty there. And it is Bride that spreads her green mantle over the land, bringing with it "the sighs and laughter of spring".

Of all the Celtic deities that we meet with in the legends, and later folk tales, Bride is certainly one of the most intriguing. Her aspects are many and varied, so that even a lifetime of study could not fully explore the depths. The mystery of Bride will always be there.

In the legend of the coming of the Tuatha De Danann we are told that Bride has two very different sides to her face - one is young and comely, the other is old and wizened. The old hag and the young maiden are united in Bride - this is her Mystery.

It is comforting to think of the maiden like aspect of Bride at this dark time of year, the fiery arrow of Brigit, the light bringer, watching over us, preparing the land for Spring. This is certainly the aspect of Bride that the Celtic Church has adopted - the gentle, mild Lady of the hearth.

Comforting, yes, but that is only half the picture! For at this time of year winter still holds its grip on the land. In the Western Isles January and February are the fiercest months, times of frost and severe biting winds. The old folk had many names in the Gaelic to describe those cruel Easterly winds. For Bride still wears her 'other' face; she is the Cailleach bheure, the sharp old woman of winter. She it is who rules over the winds of the Faoilleach, the wolf month, (January/ February) and the Gearran, or month of the gelding (February/March). In Gaelic folklore the month of March is said to have "ceann nathrach 's earball peucaig", a snake's head and a peacock's tail. The snake that brings in the spring also carries venom, and I'll be looking at associations between Bride, the Cailleach and the serpent later.

The Cailleach is known by many different names in Scottish folklore, including Morc na Maighe (Lochaber), Mala Liath (Ross and Cromarty), and the Muilearteach (Campbell: Popular Tales of the West Highlands). Cailleach in modern Gaelic means an old wife, but interestingly, it originally meant a 'veiled one' (from caille, a veil). This gives us a small insight into Her aspects as a goddess who is mysterious, hidden from view, associated with the veil between the worlds.

Beur means shrill, sharp or cutting, and this is exactly how the spring winds are described in folklore, such as the 'gobag', or biter, and the sguabag, or sweeper. Beur also means a point or pinnacle. The Cailleach is usually depicted in tales as a one-eyed giantess who leaps from peak to peak, wielding her magical white rod and blasting the vegetation with frost. Sometimes she throws her magic rod away under a holly tree:

"Thilg i e fo'n chrasibh chruaidh chuilinn, air nach do chinn fas feur no fionnadh riamh".

("She threw it beneath the hard holly tree, where grass or hair has never grown"

- J.G. Campbell: Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Scottish Highlands).

This white rod, or slachdan, made of birch, bramble, willow or broom, is a Druidical rod which gives the Cailleach power over the weather and the elements. The maidenly Bride also carries a white rod, the 'barrag Bride', but whereas the Cailleach's rod can only bring storms and destruction, that of Bride has the power to breathe life and warmth into the land.

It is the Cailleach that ushers in winter at Samhain by washing her plaid in the Corryvreckan (Coire Bhreacan - the speckled corrie) - the whirlpool off Jura. In some tales she carries a creel of rocks on her back, and as she wades through the Sound of Mull the strap of the creel breaks, and one by one the rocks fall to form islands in the sea. In this aspect we see that she, too, is of the Earth Shapers, who in our ancient legends pushed back the realms of chaos and primeval night to forge order on the land.

We find many descriptions of the Cailleach in folk tales. She is depicted as being hideous and ugly, with a blue-black face and one eye set deep into the middle of her forehead:

"Bha da shleagha chaola chatha

air an taobh eile dh'an chaillich

Bha 'h-aodann dubh-ghorm air dreach a 'ghuail 'S a deud cnabadach cnamh-ruadh.

Bha aon suil ghlumach 'na ceann

Bu luaithe na rionnag gheamhraidh;

Craobh mhineach chas air a ceann

Mar choill inich de 'n t-seana chrithinn."

(There were two slender spears of battle upon the other side of the carlin

her face was blue-black, of the lustre of coal, And her bone tufted tooth was like rusted bone.

In her head was one deep pool-like eye Swifter than a star in winter

Upon her head gnarled brushwood

like the clawed old wood of the aspen root).

Campbell: The Yellow Muilearteach, in Popular Tales of the West Highlands volume 3.

This one-eyed hag would seem to resemble the old Fomorian gods of Ireland. These deities are usually depicted as deformed, hideous, cruel and destructive. And yet, according to Bres, they knew the best times for ploughing, sowing and reaping, and offerings of milk and corn were rendered to them. It seems probable then, that the Fomorians were infact ancient gods of the crops and fertility, the old earth gods of life and death as expressed in the land through the seasons. This duality of aspects in the light and dark of the yearly cycle gradually became split, with the Tuatha De Danann coming to represent light and order, and the Fomorian being relegated to the realms of the dark and winter.

In ancient hunter/gatherer societies the Fomorian deities also represented the horned animals of the hunt. The Cailleach has many wild animal associations surviving in folk tales of witches that transform themselves into gulls, herons, cats or hares. In the Highlands her aspects can also be seen in the well known female figure of the Glaistig. Carmichael describes the Glaistig as a being that is half woman, half goat, that haunts lochs and rivers. Most Scottish lochs would seem to be inhabited by female 'monsters' of one sort or another. The Glaistig can also be found looking after the herds of domesticated animals, and for her kindness offerings of milk would be left out. In Arran, Tiree and some of the other islands, she was known as the gruagach. The loireag is a water fairy to whom libations of milk were also offered. If this was omitted she would suck the herds dry and put a spell on them. Another female sidhe figure was the luideag, from Skye. In Ross and Cromarty the Mala Liath (Grey Eyebrows) was a foul shapeless hag who kept a herd of swine. In some stories she transforms into pig shape, reminiscent of the Brythonic Celtic goddess Cerridwen.

There are many tales of the Cailleach keeping herds of cattle, goats and deer. Like the Morrigan, the Cailleach had a cow that gave great quantities of milk. The Cailleach Bheinn a 'Bhric (of the speckled ben) of Lochaber kept herds of deer, and she sang to them as she milked them in Glen Nevis. Sometimes she would lay enchantments on the wild deer so that they would elude the hunters.

In the legend of Morc Na Maighe, Morc and Caoilte who can both run as swiftly as lightning and the venomous winter wind, have a race against one another. Morc is swifter than Caoilte, and would have outran him, but he gave a great leap and seized hold of her mane, though she did not realise he was there. At the setting of the sun, exhausted by the day's running, Morc lay down at the foot of an oak tree. Caoilte then jumped off, and mocking her for her weariness, continued on his journey.

It is clear that in this legend Morc is the Cailleach in her mare aspect. Caoilte greets her initially with: "Happy wilt thou be, thou shaggy hairy ugly thing, if thy four feet keep pace with what thy two eyes see". The race brings to mind that run by the goddess Macha before the men of Ulster.

At the beginning of this article I quoted two traditional rhymes for Latha Fheill Bride from the Carmina Gadelica, both of which make reference to the emergence of the serpent from out of a hollow. In many native cultures the serpent or dragon is symbolic of the earth spirit and the natural forces of growth, decay and renewal. At Bride the serpent wakens from its long winter sleep and begins to stir; things start to happen on the land. The old farmers could tell when the ground was ready for ploughing by driving sticks into it. The harshness of winter would soften in the weeks to come, and even the sea would grow warmer. Another saying describes how Mary put her fingers into the water on the feast day of Bride and took the venom out of it.

"Chuir Moire meoirean anns an uisge Latha Fheill Brighde 's thug i an neimh as."

From the Carmina Gadelica again, we find another reference to the serpent and St. Bride's day:

"Latha Fheill Bride, la mo luaidh,

tilg an nimhir sios an chuan,

feuch an dean e shugadh suas".

(The Feast Day of Bride, day of my choice Cast the serpent into the sea

So that it may swallow her up).

The serpent is one of the many aspects of the ancient earth goddess. The shedding of its skin symbolises the renewal of the land in spring. There are several different versions of the traditional rhymes for this festival, but there is running through them all the message that if you do not harm the serpent/queen/daughter of Ivor, then she in turn will not harm you. There is a recognition of both the benign and the fierce aspects of the tribal goddess. It is interesting to note the linguistic similarity between the two Gaelic words 'neamh', meaning the sky, Heaven, and 'neimh', meaning poison or venom. Both seem to come from the same root in old Irish - nem. Duality once again!

Yet, a strange ritual that survived in the Hebrides on Latha Fheill Bride that seems to have a link with serpent worship and ancient tribal totemism does not fit quite so comfortably with this duality. The ritual is basically as follows: a peat is placed in a stocking and is then pounded at the doorstep with tongs. This may represent the ritual killing of the totem serpent, but why it should be killed I cannot say. I would have thought that the totem would guard the tribe so long as the people honoured it, at least that is how I would interpret the meaning of the rhymes. The clan MacIvor are said to be immune to snake bites and it is the daughter of Ivor (nighean Iomhair) that is said to come from the hollow in some versions. On the other hand, this might simply be a corruption of nimhir, a serpent, since when said quickly they both sound similar.

It is supposed to be unlucky to meet a snake and then fail to kill it. The head must be removed to another place so that it cannot become whole again. Yet the snake is a creature that sheds its skin; it is symbolic of transformation. Perhaps the later Christian influence that sees the serpent as an evil creature has been too great.

I have been unable to find many references to an Irish Cailleach, although there are a few tales of female water monsters, such as the one that haunts Loch Derg. In the Cailleach Bheure we seem to have a remarkably intact mythological survival of a great ancient earth goddess in Scotland. Her Fomorian aspects are many, and yet she also shares many similarities with Bride. She is, in fact, the other face of Bride. She appears harsh and destructive in the surviving folk tales, and yet there may well be other aspects that we have lost, such as her wisdom and her warrior aspects in protecting those that honoured her. In the glaistig and other female faerie folk we have glimpses into some of her more benign aspects, such as her links with the animal world, her guardianship of the herds, her closeness to the sidhe mounds of the ancestors (she comes out of the sidhe mound on Bride's day) and so on. As I said at the beginning, She is indeed a mysterious goddess, well deserving of her title as the 'veiled one', and one who I find most fascinating!

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