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Cold winter: Cailleach

CAILLEACH

Category: Gaelic mythology

The Cailleach is a very famous winter figure part of the Gaelic beliefs. “Cailleach” is a Gaelic word meaning “hag” or “old woman”, and it is the most common term to designate this entity – but in the details, she exists split between the two main Gaelic nations. In Scotland she is “Beira, the Queen of Winter”, while in Ireland she is the “Hag of Beara” (An Chailleach Bheara) ; both were originally one same divine figure, but who evolved in two different ways.

I) The Irish Cailleach

In Ireland, the Cailleach is called by some the Hag of Beara because it was said she lived in the Beara Peninsula (County Cork) ; some also call her the “Old Woman of Dingle” because it was said she was born in the city of the same name (County Kerry), at “Teach Mor”, the “Great House”, said to be the house at the further western point of Ireland, on the Dingle promontory. A third of her Irish name is “The White Nun of Beara”, due to a literal reading of “cailleach”, which means “hooded one” or “veiled one” – this gave birth to a legend according to which the Hag wore a veil for a hundred years that had been given to her by Saint Cummine. Appearing in many pieces of Irish literature, the Hag is said to be an ancient entity – though not as old as Ireland itself, but still much older than most living beings – who actually regularly ages and then de-ages before aging again. It seems she always start as a youthful maiden, who “drinks mead and wine with kings”, before becoming a “wretched, shriveled old hag” – usually this aging process is tied to the May Day, implying that it might be a yearly process, as the Hag is young when winter is young, then ages until she becomes a sorrowful, lonely, rag-wearing hag by May Day (aka the end of the “dark season”/winter and the beginning of the “bright season”). But against this “yearly aging” is opposed another tradition that presents the Hag’s successive youths as being actually successive lifetimes – she ages like a regular human, but never dies and keeps regenerating herself. According to this tradition, the Hag is depicted as either the mother or the foster mother of the ancestors of today’s most prominent clans of Ireland: the usual numbers claim that she had fifty foster-children that she raised in Beara/Beare, that she lived seven human lives successfully, saw all of her husbands and lovers die of old age, and that she considers all the “tribes and races” of Ireland her “grandsons and great-grandsons”.

A notable landmark associated with her is a rock by the seashore, at Beara: this rock, called the “Hag of Beara” or the “Hag’s Chair”, is said to mark the location where the Hag waits for the return of Manannan mac Lir, the Irish god of the sea, who is for some her husband, for others her father. But people are conflicted as to what the rock actually is: for some it is the chair the Hag sits in while waiting for Manannan, but for others it is rather the fossilized remains of her body – she waited for so long that she turned to rock. Numerous other locations in Ireland are associated with her, from the “Hag’s Head” (a bizarrely shaped rock on the Cliffs of Moher) to the “Calliagh Beara’s House”, the top of Slieve Gullion. In fact, a legend claims that there she tricked the mythical Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill: as he was climbing the Slieve Gullion, he found a beautiful young lady crying by the shore of a lake, she claimed her golden ring had fallen into the lake – Fionn, being a true Irish gentleman, jumped into the lake, retrieved the ring and brought it back to the maiden… who had turn into an hideous laughing old hag – she was the Calliagh Berra, a wicked witch, and as Fionn came out of the lake, he saw that he too, from a beautiful young man, had turned into a withered old man. No one in his clan recognized him when he returned – only his faithful hounds recognized his smell, and as the clan realized who he was, they hunted down the witch and forced her to restore his youth. But ever since, Fionn kept his hair white, and it is said that anyone who bathes into the lake will have the same aging curse the hero suffered from.

Various texts give her various names: for some her true name is Digdi/Didge, for others she is Milucra, a third calls her Birog… And one story, “The Hunt of Slieve Cuilin” declares that she has a sister, who is none other than Aine, the Irish goddess of summer and the sun. Finally her association with witchcraft is reinforced by the fact that sorceresses are called “cailleach phiseogach”, while “wise women/fortune-tellers” are “cailleach feasa”.

2) The Scottish Cailleach

While the Irish Cailleach is a more diffuse, unclear and mysterious figure scattered throughout poetic and literary works, the Scottish version of the Hag is much more defined thanks to folklorist work.

Called “Beira” or “The Queen of Winter”, she is here depicted as a one-eyed giantess with white hair, a dark blue skin, and teeth the color of rust: it is said she brought to existence many of the mountains and hills of Scotland, either by accident (she carried stones in a creel or wicker basket, and they fell out), or willingly (so that she could use them as stepping stones ; and it is said she carries with her a hammer to shape the hills and valleys). Said to be the mother of all the Scottish gods and goddesses, she is an embodiment of winter who has her own herd of deer and owns a staff that is able to freeze the ground it touches. She causes winter by going to the western coast of Scotland and washing there her great plaid in the Gulf of Corryvreckan (which is literally the Gulf of the Cauldron of the Plaid): it takes her three days to wash her plaid, and during these three days the roar of an incoming storm can be heard. After the three days, her plaid is freshly white: she covers the land with it – it is the snow. Another very important day is “La Fheill Brighde”, the 1st of February, Saint Brigid’s Day, halfway between the winter solstice and spring equinox: on this day, Beira gathers her firewood for the rest of winter, so if she plans on having a long winter (because she is the one who controls it), she will make the 1st of February a bright and sunny day so that she can gather a lot of firewood, to keep herself warm ; but if the weather is bad on Saint Brigid’s day, it either means that she knows the winter will soon be over, or that she overslept and due to the lack of firewood will shorten winter.

Her presence on Saint Brigid’s day is extremely important, as Saint Brigid is the Christianized version of an older Gaelic deity, Brighde, with who the Cailleach/Beira was associated: whereas Beira ruled the world during the “dark season”, between Samhain on the 1st of November (first day of winter) to Beltaine (1st of May, first day of summer), Brighde/Brigid ruled it during the “bright season” of summer. For some, the two entities are separate goddesses, and the Winter Queen “pass on” her power to her summer counterpart between Saint Brigid’s Day and Beltane (1st of May) ; some versions rather claim that at the end of winter, the Cailleach turns to stone, as the petrification of the divine hag is the only way to let summer come. But a different tradition rather claims that Beira and Brighde are two faces of one same goddess, who changes name and appearance depending on the season: according to this tradition, on the winter solstice (also known as “the longest night”), the reign of Beira as the Queen of Winter stops. She goes to a magical Well of Youth and drink its water – from then on, as the days grow longer, Beira will grow younger, until she finally becomes again the maiden Brigid and the Queen of Summer. But as the summer months go by, Brigid will age again – and when she is an old hag again, it is time for Beira the Queen of Winter to return.

The Ben Nevis mountain was said to be the throne of Beira, while the two mountains of the Isle of Skye were named the “mountains of the Cailleach” because strong rains and brutal storms regularly descended from them onto the lands below. She is also associated with Ben Cruachan, to the point she is sometimes called “Cailleach nan Cruachan”, “The Hag of Ben Cruachan”. She also apparently created by accident the Loch Awe: tired after a long day of herding deer, the Cailleach fell asleep on the Ben Cruachan, and a well she usually took care of overflowed during her nap and flowed the valley nearby, creating the loch.

A final point: some Scottish legends multiply the Cailleach into the “Cailleachan”, the Old Women/the Hags – also called the Storm Hags. These destructive spirits of nature were said to be responsible for the violent windstorms of spring.

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There is also a tradition, shared by both Scotland and Ireland, according to which the first farmer finishing the harvest of the grain has to make a corn dolly. This corn dolly is supposed to represent the Cailleach, and is sometimes called the “Carlin/Carline” (a word from the Lowland Scots, meaning “old woman” or “witch”, and which itself is derived from the Gaelic Cailleach). Made out of the last sheaf of the crop, this “Old Woman doll” is then tossed into the field of another farmer who hasn’t finished his harvest of grain: when the farmer is done, he promptly has to toss it into the field of another one who hasn’t finished – and so forth until the last to finish his harvest gets stuck with the doll. This poor farmer will be forced to take the “Old Woman” into his home and to take care of the doll for the entire year – which is literally housing, feeding and treating as a guest the witch/hag during the entirety of winter. (Given the hag herself is supposed to embody winter… not a great thing). It was a true competition among harvesters, all wanting to avoid the punishment of having to invite the witch of winter into their house.

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