Monaghan Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore

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perhaps his lover, perhaps both. It was to her

that Merlin passed on his magical powers and his

knowledge, once the seductive VIVIANE had

trapped him in her magical forest. In tales that

describe her as Merlin’s wife, Gwendydd mar-

ried the generous king RHYDDERCH HAEL after

Merlin went mad.

Gwenfrewi (Winefride) Welsh heroine. The

quasi-historical 7th-century Gwenfrewi was

assaulted by a local prince, whose attempt on her

virtue she managed to escape. He came after her

and, drawing his sword, decapitated her as pun-

ishment for her self-control. Rolling down a hill,

her HEAD came to rest in a little valley, where a

healing WELL immediately burst forth. Bueno, a

minor SAINT and Gwenfrewi’s uncle, put her

head back on her shoulders, where it instantly

knit together, leaving only a small thin scar

across the throat as evidence of the crime.

Gwern Welsh hero. The child of the Welsh

princess BRANWEN and her Irish husband, king

MATHOLWCH, did not live long. His uncle

EFNISIEN mutilated Matholwch’s horses without

reason, which gave the king cause to hold

Branwen a prisoner in Ireland, during which time

she bore Gwern, who was named king of the land

in his infancy. Efnisien killed Gwern by burning

him alive when he was only three years old, caus-

ing the great battle in which most of the Welsh

heroes and all the warriors of Ireland were killed.

Gwidion See GWYDION.

Gwion (Gwion Bach) Welsh hero. The name

of the great Welsh bard TALIESIN in his first

incarnation was Gwion, whose adventures began

when he was a little boy hired by the great HAG

goddess CERIDWEN to tend to household tasks.

An important one was to stir the CAULDRON in

which Ceridwen brewed herbs for a year and a

day, intending to make her ugly son AFAGDDU

wise, in order to make up for his appearance.

Warned not to taste the brew, Gwion tried to

follow orders, but the stuff bubbled out and

seared his skin. The boy popped his finger into

his mouth and, therefore, absorbed all the WIS-

DOM intended for the goddess’s son. In a series of

transformations, Ceridwen pursued him until he

turned himself into a grain of wheat that, trans-

formed into a hen, she gobbled up. It impreg-

nated her so that she gave birth to a reborn

Gwion, who became the great poet Taliesin.

gwrach y rhibyn Welsh folkloric figure. Like

the WASHER AT THE FORD, this BANSHEE-like

FAIRY woman warned of imminent death, usually

by standing at a crossroads or near a bend in a

stream. She was huge and hideous, with coarse

RED hair, a massive nose, and eyes that shone red.

gwragedd annwn Welsh folkloric figure.

While most FAIRY women were dangerous to

humans, luring men to FAIRYLAND to enjoy and

discard, the Welsh LAKE maidens or Gwragedd

Annwn were a different breed, for they enjoyed

settling down with human men and made excel-

lent wives. However, there was a firm taboo

against ever lifting a hand to such a lake maiden.

Even a blow struck in jest caused them to leave

husband and children behind, taking all their

fairy wealth—which could be substantial—and

plunging into the nearest lake.

Gwri Welsh hero. This name was given to the

kidnapped hero PRYDERI by his foster father,

after the boy had miraculously appeared from

out of the night sky one BELTANE.

Gwyar (Anna) Welsh goddess. The story of

this ancient Welsh goddess, wife of the god of

heaven, is fragmentary. All that is left is the

meaning of her name (“gore”); her relationship

to king ARTHUR, said to have been her brother

(at other times the name given for Arthur’s sister

is MORGAUSE or MORGAN); and the information

that she had two sons, one good, the other bad.

234 Gwenfrewi

Gwyddno (Gwyddno Garanhir) Welsh hero.

A minor figure in the story of KULHWCH AND

OLWEN, he was said to have a basket that was

magically filled with food at all times—a basket

that Kulhwch had to steal in order to gain his

beloved Olwen.

Gwydion (Gwidion, Gwydion ab Dôn)

Welsh hero. The son of the great Welsh mother

goddess DÔN, Gwydion figures importantly in

the great compilation of myths called the

MABINOGION. Although he is central to the

action, he plays a secondary role to the more

active parties: his brother GILFAETHWY, his uncle

MATH, his sister ARIANRHOD. When Gilfaethwy

conceived a lustful fixation upon the maiden

GOEWIN, ceremonial footholder to king Math,

Gwydion helped him find an opportunity to

rape her. In punishment, Math turned the broth-

ers into DEER, PIGS, and WOLVES consecutively.

When he gained his human form back, Gwydion

proposed that, as the deflowered Goewin could

no longer be footholder to Math, Arianrhod take

her place.

But Arianrhod failed to pass a magical test of

virginity, giving birth to a wriggling lump of flesh

that leapt into the sea to become DYLAN Son-of-

Wave and another unformed child whom

Gwydion nursed in a chest until he was old

enough to claim arms and a name from his

mother. Arianrhod, still angered by Gwydion’s

connivances, refused, but Gwydion found a way

to trick her into naming the boy LLEU LLAW

GYFFES. Next, with Math’s help, Gwydion formed

a woman, BLODEUWEDD, from flowers to be the

boy’s bride. That, too, ended poorly, with the girl

attempting to murder her husband, who turned

into an EAGLE. Gwydion, always ready with

MAGIC, brought Lleu back to human form and

sent Blodeuwedd away in the form of an OWL.

Other tales show Gwydion changing fungus

into horses and creating seagoing ships from

thin air. Under the name of Gwion, he was

imprisoned in the OTHERWORLD, where he

became a BARD as a result of the inspiration he

received. He may have brought back more than

poetry from the Otherworld of ANNWN, for one

text refers to him as a thief who stole magical

swine and brought them to the surface world.

This magician, poet, and trickster is believed to

be a diminished version of an earlier Welsh god,

one whose domain included both the stars,

where he lived in the Milky Way (Caer

Gwydion), and the underworld of Annwn.

Source: Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-Faith in

Celtic Countries. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe

Humanities Press, 1911, p. 378.

gwyllion Welsh folkloric figure. In Wales

strange female spirits were said to haunt lonely

roads. With her apron thrown over her shoulder,

trudging wearily along carrying a wooden milk-

pail, this ancient HAG wore ash-colored rags and

an oblong four-cornered hat. There is no record

of her attacking those she met on the roads, but

her appearance was fearsome enough to frighten

lonely travelers. Like other members of the

FAIRY races, she feared metal, especially IRON,

and vanished instantly if confronted with a knife

or other piece of cutlery.

Gwynn ap Nudd (Gwyn ap Nudd, Herne,

Herne the Hunter, Gabriel) Welsh hero. The

Welsh king of FAIRYLAND, “White One, son of

the Dark,” was said to reside under GLASTON-

BURY TOR, the small pyramidal hill that is south-

western England’s most significant feature.

Gwynn reigned over the folk called the TYLWYTH

TEG, beautiful tiny people who wore blue and

danced all night in the fashion of Irish FAIRIES.

His special feast was spring’s beginning,

BELTANE, when he led the WILD HUNT to raid the

land of the living. His name means Gwynn, son

of Nudd; his father was king of a Hades-like

Otherworld called ANNWN. He could material-

ize at will, surrounded by his beautiful host play-

ing FAIRY MUSIC. His queen was the daughter of

LLUDD, CREIDDYLAD, on whom Shakespeare

based the character of Cordelia in King Lear.

Gwynn ap Nudd 235

Alternative names used of Gwyn ap Nudd

are Herne the Hunter, the frightening figure

who skulks around Windsor Forest in England;

and Gabriel, known best for his vicious fairy

hounds.

Sources: Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-Faith in

Celtic Countries. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe

Humanities Press, 1911, pp. 152 ff; Lonigan,

Paul R. The Druids: Priests of the Ancient Celts.

Contributions to the Study of Religion, No. 45.

estport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996, p.

169; Spence, Lewis. The Minor Traditions of

British Mythology. New York: Benjamin Blom,

Inc., 1972, p. 109.

Gwythyr fab Greidawl Welsh folkloric fig-

ure. This warrior was one of two contenders for

the hand of the maiden of springtime, CREIDDY-

LAD, in Welsh folk ceremonies that marked the

BELTANE season. Representing the summer,

Gwythyr always won, defeating the winter king,

GWYNN AP NUDD.

Gyre-Carling See HABETROT.

236 Gwythyr fab Greidawl

Habetrot (Habitrot, Gyre-Carling, Gy-

Carlin) British folkloric figure. A spinner god-

dess diminished after Christianization to a FAIRY

spirit, Habetrot was a healing spirit. Those who

could induce her to weave them a garment never

suffered from illness. She appeared in some areas

of Britain as a FAIRY QUEEN (Gyre-Carling or

Gy-Carlin) who stole any flax left unspun at the

end of a year.

On the Scottish border the tale is told of a lazy

girl who, instructed by her mother to finish spin-

ning seven hanks of yarn, hurt her fingers. Wan-

dering in search of a stream in which to soothe her

hands, the girl encountered an old spinning

woman who gave her seven lovely soft hanks spun

by ghostly women with twisted mouths. The silky

thread attracted a handsome lord who married the

girl for her spinning skills. The girl brought her

husband to Habetrot, who showed him the

deformed spinners and predicted that his new lady

would soon look that way. Shocked, the lord for-

bade his wife to spin—permitting her to live the

idle happy life she preferred.

Source: Douglas, George. Scottish Fairy and Folk

Tales. West Yorkshire: EP Publishing, 1977, pp.

109–110.

Habondia (Abundia, Abunditia) Germanic

or Celtic goddess. The name of this obscure

goddess became the word abundance, suggesting

an earth or harvest divinity. Habondia was found

in Celtic lands but may be Germanic; she was

noted by medieval WITCH-hunters as the partic-

ular divinity of their prey.

Hafgan (Havgan) Welsh mythological fig-

ure. In Welsh mythology Hafgan (“summer

song”) was one of two rival kings of the OTHER-

WORLD who battled constantly. His opponent

was the better-known king ARAWN of ANNWN.

Hafgan was magically endowed with the ability

to recover from any blow once he had received a

second; thus his opponents had but one chance

to lay him low. In the collection of Welsh myths

called the MABINOGION, Arawn asked the human

prince PWYLL to be his substitute for a year and

to battle Hafgan for him. Magically switching

their appearances, Arawn went forth to rule

Pwyll’s land for a year, while Pwyll descended to

Annwn to take Arawn’s throne for the same time;

at the end of the year, Pwyll defeated Hafgan in

single combat.

hag Irish and Scottish folkloric figure. Old,

blind or one-eyed, humpbacked, with rheumy

eyes and hairy chin, the hag of Irish and

Scottish legend was not beautiful at first look.

But kiss her, and she became a gorgeous

237

maiden in full bloom of youth. This unlikely

reversal is found in many stories of the great

goddess of SOVEREIGNTY, of war goddesses like

the MÓRRÍGAN and MACHA, and the pre-Celtic

creator goddess, the CAILLEACH. In Arthurian

legend the hag appears as the LOATHY LADY,

who spurs on the quest for the GRAIL, and as

RAGNELL, who leads her husband to understand

what women really want.

Sources: Clark, Rosalind. The Great Queens: Irish

Goddesses from the Morrígan to Cathleen Ní

Houlihan. Irish Literary Studies 34. Gerrards

Cross: Colin Smythe, 1991; Condren, Mary.

The Serpent and the Goddess: W

omen, Religion and

Power in Ancient Ireland. San Francisco: Harper

& Row, 1989; Moane, Geraldine. “A Womb

Not a Tomb: Goddess Symbols and Ancient

Ireland.” Canadian Women’s Studies: Les cahiers

de la femme. Vol. 17, 1997, pp. 7–10; Ross,

Anne, “The Divine Hag of the Pagan Celts.” In

Venetia Newall, ed. The Witch Figures. London:

Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973, pp. 139–164.

Hag’s Glen (Coom Callee) Irish sacred site.

In the southwestern province of MUNSTER, tradi-

tionally associated with the powerful figure of

the HAG named the CAILLEACH, the scenic valley

of Coom Callee (Hag’s Glen) forms part of

MacGuillycuddy’s Reeks, Ireland’s highest

mountains. Local legend has it that a hag in that

glen cared for a small child and that a rock was

imprinted with their footprints. In the mid-19th

century an old woman living alone in the Glen

was given the name of the Cailleach, furthering

the identification of the valley with the mytho-

logical hag.

hair Symbolic object. Hair was an important

ritual and spiritual symbol to the ancient Celts.

Warriors wore their hair long and their mus-

taches untrimmed when they went into battle,

sometimes treating them with lime to create a

fearfully wild appearance. Women’s hair was

long as well, often braided or otherwise dressed;

hair was considered a mark of their sexual power.

DRUIDS wore a special tonsure or haircut that

distinguished them from others in the tribe.

Folklore records many superstitions that

emphasize the continuing importance of hair as

a symbol. People were careful never to throw

cut or combed hair into fire, for fear that they

would come down with fever; this is typical of

magical part-equals-whole thinking.

RED hair

was considered especially significant, for it

showed that FAIRY blood ran in the person’s

veins. MERMAIDS lured sailors by combing their

hair, and according to the principle of SYMPA-

THETIC MAGIC it was dangerous for girls to

COMB their hair when their brothers were at sea.

Animal hair also had power, especially that of

HORSES, which could come alive if put in water.

Should a person, especially a child, be bitten by

a DOG, the wound had to be bound with hair

from the animal to ensure healing.

Hairy Jack British folkloric spirit. A BLACK

DOG from the Lincolnshire region, he haunted

wild places in the region and turned himself into

a little lame man in order to pass unnoticed

among the neighbors.

Hallowe’en (Hallowmas) See SAMHAIN.

Hallstatt Archaeological site. At this impor-

tant site, near Saltzburg in Austria, a great treas-

ure of ancient Celtic artifacts was found. Dated

from approximately 700–600 B.C.E. (after the

URNFIELD period but before the LA TÈNE), the

artifacts included weapons and tools of bronze

and IRON, as well as some ritual objects. Buried

with their presumed owners, the design of the

objects suggests a cultural change from earlier

times, when less decorated objects had been the

norm. A parallel change from cremation, only a

few generations earlier, to earth entombment

suggests a change in the worldview of these very

ancient Celts, for how people treat their dead

tells a great deal about what life (if any) was pre-

sumed to lie ahead.

238 Hag’s Glen

These Hallstatt-era bodies were laid out on

four-wheeled wagons and encased in a tomb of

OAK that was then covered with earth. Bronze

vessels, iron spears, and traces of meat and poul-

try were found buried with them, presumably

indicating the beginnings of Celtic belief that

the OTHERWORLD of death required sufficient

grave goods (weapons, tools, ornaments) for the

soul’s happiness.

The fact that a great SALT-mining region is

located near Hallstatt gives rise to the theory that

the early Celtic wealth was derived from mining

and trading in salt, an extremely valuable com-

modity in the days before refrigeration. Salt was

used to preserve meats, and as the Celts were a

CATTLE-raising people, such a preservative had

great value in keeping people fed through the

long winters. Buried saline deposits were mined

and the salt pulverized for transportation and use.

hammer Celtic symbol. The “god with the

hammer” was a common image of divinity

among the continental Celts; variously called

TARANIS, DIS PATER, SILVANUS, and SUCELLUS, he

was depicted as strong, mature, and bearded. As

a symbol of the force and energy of such gods,

the hammer is sometimes interpreted as repre-

senting storm and thunder, although there is no

definite indication of such a meteorological

meaning. Indeed, other interpretations connect

this god to the earth’s

FERTILITY rather than to

the sky; the fact that the god often carries a cup,

common symbol of earthly energy, supports this

interpretation. Finally, some commentators see

the hammer as representative of the blighting

force of winter, although that remains a minor-

ity view. The club or

MALLET carried by the

DAGDA may be an Irish form of the hammer.

Handsel Monday (Di-luian an t-sainnseil)

Scottish festival. The first Monday after HOG-

MANY (New Year’s Day) was a day for DIVINATION

or forecasting futures through games of chance

and trial; on the Isle of Skye this day was the first

in a sequence of 12 days whose weather predicted

that of the following 12 months. The holiday’s

name is anglicized from the Scottish sainnseal, the

gift offered to every visitor on this day.

hare Symbolic animal. The hare, in Ireland,

was believed to be a WITCH in disguise, perhaps

because the animal was mythically connected to

that witch-like being, the

CAILLEACH. When a

hare was injured, a witch in the neighborhood

would sport an identical injury. The same belief

is found on the Isle of Man, where a wounded

hare would always get away unless shot with a

silver bullet; the transformed witch would there-

after be found, either alive or dead, with an iden-

tical wound.

In Scotland it was believed that witches took

the form of hares in order to steal MILK—a com-

mon target of magical theft. Disguising herself

as a hare, the witch would sneak into a barn and

suckle the milk from a COW’s udder. If caught,

the hare would instantly turn back into human

form. Hares seen in unusual places, including in

regions where they were not typically found,

were similarly believed to be disguised witches.

If pursued, such hares would run into houses,

revealing the witch’s habitation. If one found a

group of hares together, it was clearly a gather-

ing of a witches’ coven.

The fierce temperament of hares was some-

times assigned to the FAIRY Rabbit, a bold being

that tried to drown people at sea; if the potential

victims were carrying earth from their home, or

from legendary Tory Island, they could survive

even the onslaught of this malicious spirit.

Such folklore may be a late recollection of an

earlier religious meaning for the hare. Caesar

recorded that eating the flesh of the hare was

taboo to continental Celts, which suggests that

the animal was seen as sacred or ancestral; Dio

Cassius mentioned a DIVINATION using hares

that was employed by the Celtic warrior queen

BOUDICCA before she entered battle. Such frag-

ments of ancient lore suggest that the SHAPE-

SHIFTING character given to hares in folklore

may be a vestige of ancient religious imagery.

hare 239

Sources: Campbell, John Grigorson. Witchcraft and

Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of

Scotland. Detroit: Singing Tree Press, 1970, pp.

8, 33; O hEochaidh, Séan. Fairy Legends from

Donegal. Trans. Máire Mac Neill. Dublin:

Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann, 1977, p. 247;

Ó hÓgain, Dáithí. Irish Superstitions. London;

Gill & Macmillan, 1995, p. 57; O’Sullivan,

Patrick V

. Irish Superstitions and Legends of

Animals and Birds. Cork: Mercier, 1991, p. 76.

harp Symbolic object. The stringed instru-

ment that today symbolizes Ireland was associ-

ated in ancient times with the beneficent god

DAGDA, at whose call it would fly across the land,

killing anyone that stood in its way. The Dagda

harp had only THREE melodies: sleep, grief, and

laughter. A similar legendary harp can be found

in the Welsh tale of KULHWCH AND OLWEN.

See also CRAIPHTINE.

harvest dollies Celtic folkloric figures. Until

the relatively recent past, the harvest celebration

in Celtic lands was replete with mythological

and folkloric significance. On the Isle of Man we

find straw images called mheillea (“harvest”) or

baban ny mheillea (“doll of the harvest”), which

were decorated with ribbons to form dresses and

referred to as “maidens,” feminine figures prob-

ably derived from an ancient goddess of the

abundant harvest. Approximately four inches

tall, these figures were often crafted from the

final sheaf harvested. Such harvest dollies were

kept near the hearth until replaced by a similar

doll after the next year’s harvest. In Scotland a

similar “harvest maiden” was thought to protect

farms against fairy mischief if suspended some-

where within the house.

hawthorn See THORN.

Haxey Hood Games British folkloric festi-

val. In the small town of Haxey in Humberside,

a traditional midwinter game takes place on

Twelfth Night, the last day of the old Christmas

holidays. In medieval times, legend says, the

scarlet hood of a local noblewoman, Lady de

Mowbray, was blown off her head as she rode to

church, and a dozen men sprang forward to save

it for her. Delighted, she granted the village a

plot of land—the Hoodland—whose produce

provided a hood for a contest among 12 vil-

lagers, still held each year under the guidance of

the

RED-dressed gobbans (boggins, boggans). A

fool begins the ceremony in the wee hours of the

morning by giving an oration in the town

square. As he finishes with the words “House

against house, town against town, if you meet a

man knock him down, but don’t hurt him,” a fire

is lit at his feet; this is called “smoking the fool.”

When the fool’s part has finished, the games

proper begin. The King Gobban throws 12

hoods into the air, and everyone scrambles for

one. Anyone who manages to get away with a

hood to the safety of a village inn gets free

drinks. Some have argued that the origins of this

rite are far more ancient than the medieval

period and have seen in it the memory of a ritual

of HUMAN SACRIFICE.

hazel Celtic sacred tree. One of the most

revered trees among the Celts, the hazel (genus

Corylus) was thought to produce nuts of WISDOM

when it grew at the sources of great RIVERS; the

nuts made the flesh of fish (especially SALMON)

speckled, with one spot appearing for each nut

eaten. Thus the most speckled fish brought the

most wisdom to the eater. Stories of both the

Boyne and the Shannon rivers include descrip-

tions of the magical hazel groves that fed the fish

that swam at the river’s source. Uneaten nuts

turned into bubbles of inspiration, readily seen in

the Shannon’s source in Co. Cavan, which bub-

bles from underground SPRINGS feeding the pool.

Hazel trees were said to shade CONNLA’S WELL

somewhere in Co. Tipperary; anyone eating their

nuts would become a brilliant BARD and scholar.

The connection of hazelnuts with wisdom is

also found in Celtic mythology that requires

240 harp

bards to carve their staffs from hazel wood and

in the taboo against burning the wood of the

hazel tree. Hazel twigs are still said to guide

water-witches to underground streams. In the

Americas the unrelated witch-hazel tree (genus

Hamamelis) is thought to have the same power.

Hazel, like THORN, is one of the traditional trees

believed to be inhabited by FAIRIES. In Ireland

Tara was once described as a hazel grove; in

Scotland the word Carlton (from the ancient

Celtic word Calltuinn) designates an area where

a sacred hazel grove once thrived.

Source: Hull, Eleanor. Folklore of the British Isles.

London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1928, pp.

128–129.

head Celtic symbol. Sculptural and literary

references to the head appear throughout the

ancient Celtic world, so much so that early

scholars used to speak of the “cult of the head,”

although that phrase is currently out of academic

fashion. Sculptured heads without torsos—thus

interpreted as severed from the body—have

been found in many sites, dating as far back as

the earliest proto-Celtic culture of the URNFIELD

period. At times, such disembodied heads are

inhuman, having three faces; occasionally a

sculpture combined the head with the phallus to

produce a double image of potency. Religious

sculptures of the head of a sacred animal have

also been found; thus the sacredness of the head

was not necessarily limited to the human. The

sacred head was used over the entire Celtic area

for many centuries, making it the single most

important and common Celtic religious symbol.

Myths as well as ritual objects emphasize the

importance of the head: The head of Welsh hero

BRÂN THE BLESSED (whose name has been con-

nected to pen, the Welsh syllable meaning

“head”) continued speaking for years after his

death, as did the Irish MAC DATHÓ and CONAIRE

Mór, although the Irish heads’ capacity for

posthumous speech did not last as long. After the

young musician and warrior DONN BÓ was killed

in battle, his head was brought to a feast where,

asked to sing, it produced such a piercing melody

that the music reduced everyone to tears. The

speaking (or singing) severed head, neither

entirely of this world nor fully in the OTHER-

WORLD, was believed to have oracular powers

and could be consulted to learn the future.

In folklore this ancient mythological vision

survived in stories of

GIANTS with the power to

replace their severed heads on their bodies and

go on as before; thus it was imperative for their

opponents to keep head and body far apart until

both were blue with cold and the danger of

recapitation was past. Similar magical powers

were granted to the decapitated head in tales

that it could, of its own volition, become a

weapon and attack the warrior who severed it

from its body.

Such stories recall ancient Celtic traditions.

Warriors traditionally cut off and displayed the

heads of defeated enemies, for the head was seen

as the place where personality or essence was

most condensed or pure, rather like the contem-

porary American image of the heart. The

Roman author Livy described the Celtic Boii

warriors placing the severed head of an enemy

chieftain in a TEMPLE, while lesser warriors’

heads were strung from the bridles of those who

defeated them, presenting a fearsome appear-

ance to enemies. Greek historian Diodorus

Siculus similarly described warriors beheading

those they killed in battle and strapping their

heads to horses’ bridles or nailing them upon

houses. Poseidonius speaks of being sickened by

the sight of so many heads on display around a

Celtic chieftain’s home, but he adds that famil-

iarity dulled his horror. Distinguished enemies’

heads were embalmed in cedar and kept in a spe-

cial box, to be proudly displayed when talk

turned to exploits of war.

These historical records are reflected in Irish

myth that tells of the hero CÚCHULAINN return-

ing from battle carrying nine heads in one hand,

10 in the other, and of his wife EMER’s acceptance

of the heads of his own 10 slayers upon the

hero’s death. The heads of defeated enemies

head 241

were called “the masts of MACHA,” a poetic

phrase that otherwise referred to acorns on

which PIGs feasted. Other Irish sources speak of

warriors taking out the brains of their defeated

victims and mixing them with lime to form a

“brain ball” that could be used as a weapon or

displayed as a trophy; it was the brain ball of

the hero Meisceadhra that was hurled at

Meisceadhra’s killer, king CONCOBAR MAC NESSA,

lodging in Concobar’s head and eventually caus-

ing his death.

There is evidence that the Celts connected

their reverence for the head with that for WATER,

since skulls and metal replicas of heads have been

found in sacred SPRINGS and WELLS. The reverence

offered the “heads” of RIVERS—their sources—

such as that which holds sacred the round pool at

the source of the Shannon River, may combine

these two symbolic meanings into one.

Sources: Chadwick, Nora. The Celts. New York:

Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 161 ff; Green,

Miranda. The Gods of Roman Britain. Aylesbury:

Shire Publications Ltd., 1983, p. 66; Green,

Miranda. Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious

Art

. London: Routledge, 1989, p. 211;

MacCulloch, J. A. The Religion of the Ancient

Celts. London: Constable, 1911, pp. 240 ff;

Ross, Anne. Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies in

Iconography and Tradition. London: Routledge &

Kegan Paul, 1967, pp. 61 ff, 104, 120.

healing Traditional healing took several

forms, including herbal remedies, spells, and

rituals. The efficacy of some ancient herbal

remedies has been upheld by contemporary bio-

chemistry, while other remedies are untested or

have been proven ineffective. Many of our com-

mon modern drugs derive from plant sources,

like aspirin (salicylic acid) from willow (plants of

the genus Salix), which is known in many lands

as an effective remedy against pain. In Scotland,

St. John’s Wort (Hypericum pulchrum) was known

as an herb useful for keeping away FAIRIES who

might steal people from their beds; this suggests

that what we now call depression was earlier

described as FAIRY KIDNAPPING.

Other forms of healing required magical rit-

uals, as when trailing pearlwort (Sagina procum-

bens) was attached to the skins of animals and

people to protect them against the evil EYE. Even

such rituals may have resulted in healing; mod-

ern medicine knows the so-called placebo effect,

whereby people given sugar pills show improve-

ments similar to those in patients given real

medicines. Scientists continue to explore the

connection of body, mind, and spirit.

In Ireland water from holy

WELLS was

sprinkled on or fed to sick animals and people;

in Scotland chanted spells assisted in the heal-

ing of minor injuries and ailments like sprains

and boils. Various regions also had specific

healing rituals; often these involved visiting

places held sacred by pre-Celtic people, such as

SPRINGS and STONE CIRCLES. Some of these

places may have induced healing by purely

physical means, as with thermal springs that

may have relieved the pains of arthritis, but

more commonly the location has no detectable

biological effect. The gathering of herbs

sometimes required specific rituals (cut with

material other than IRON, gathered at specific

times of day, rewarded with drinks of wine) of

apparently magical intent and import.

Many healing techniques were widely known

and used by ordinary people. In some cases, how-

ever, local herbalists or WITCHES might be called

upon; these were often older women who earned

a modest living from consulting with their neigh-

bors in times of need, but such power could back-

fire if such a person were suspected of using her

powers for ill and was accused of WITCHCRAFT.

Sources: Campbell, John Grigorson. Witchcraft and

Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of

Scotland. Detroit: Singing Tree Press, 1970, pp.

103 ff; Carmichael, Alexander. Ca

rmina Gadelica:

Hymns and Incantations. Hudson, N. Y.:

Lindisfarne Press, 1992, pp. 377 ff; Kavanagh,

Peter.

Irish Mythology: A Dictionary. Newbridge,

Co. Kildare: The Goldsmith Press, Ltd., 1988,

242 healing

pp. 42–53; MacCulloch, J. A. The Religion of the

Ancient Celts. London: Constable, 1911, p. 206.

healing stones Celtic ritual object. Boulders

and pebbles with holes in them were honored in

many Celtic lands as healing stones; the tradi-

tion, often associated with stone monuments of

the

MEGALITHIC CIVILIZATION, may reach back

into pre-Celtic times. In Brittany newborns were

passed through the hole in the healing stone at

Fouvent-le-Haut to protect them from the ail-

ments of infancy and from the spells of malevo-

lent WITCHES; in Amance money was tossed

through a HOLED STONE as a substitute for the

child to be protected. In Cornwall the round

rock at MEN-AN-TOL, near Madron, was thought

to prevent and cure rheumatic ailments if one

crawled naked through the stone or was pushed

through by others while repeating a spell a mag-

ical number of times (usually THREE or nine).

In England similar rites have been recorded.

The Long Stone of Gloucestershire was said to

cure children with measles, whooping cough,

and other contagious diseases, while those who

could safely drop through a large holed stone in

Dartmoor, called the Tolmen, into the North

Teign River below would be cured of arthritis.

In Ireland children suffering from the limb-

twisting vitamin deficiency called rickets were

passed through the Cloch-a-Phoill in Co.

Carlow in hopes of a cure. Another huge (10 9-

foot) stone, located at a triple crossroads in Co.

Sligo and called either Clochbhreach (Speckled

Stone) or Clochlia (Gray Stone), has an appar-

ently natural small (2 3-foot) perforation

through which children with measles were

passed. Holed stones from Ireland were revered

through England and Scotland as being especially

efficacious healers. Indeed, one Irish rock in

Northumberland was never permitted to touch

English soil, to preserve its healing powers; it

was held to work best if applied by a person of

Irish blood or ancestry.

In Scotland stitch-stones relieved skin ailments

and other chronic complaints; they were kept by

the healed individual until called for by someone

else, whereupon the most recently affected deliv-

ered the stones for use. The Stones of Stenness on

Orkney were considered curative of many ail-

ments if one walked around them three times deosil

(in the direction of the SUN, or clockwise).

Sources: Bord, Janet, and Colin Bord. The Secret

Country: An interpretation of the folklore of ancient

sites in the British Isles. New York: Walker and

Co. 1976, pp. 41–47, 60; Grinsell, Leslie V.

Folklore of Pr

ehistoric Sites in Britain. London:

David & Charles, 1976, pp. 15, 25; Meaden,

George Terrence. The Goddess of the Stones: The

Language of the Megaliths. London: Souvenir

Press, 1991, p. 186.

hearth Symbolic site. The Celts connected

the center of home with the OTHERWORLD. The

hearth, where the cooking fire blazed—a FIRE

that, in most cases, provided heat for the home

as well—was a significant spiritual symbol. Early

archaeological sites show an emphasis on the

hearth, which was found decorated with divine

symbols like those on the ram’s-head andirons

found in Gaul.

It is believed that sacrifices to the family’s

ancestors were made at each home’s hearth. It

was a liminal space, not entirely of this world but

opening out to that of the spirits. FAIRIES and

GHOSTS were attracted to the hearth, especially at

pivotal days such as SAMHAIN, the beginning of

winter on November 1; on that night, ghosts of

the deceased would sometimes be seen warming

themselves by the hearth-fire or sitting in their

accustomed place, calmly smoking or knitting.

heather Symbolic plant. Common in Ireland

and Britain, the low-growing heath or heather is a

tough BOG plant that blooms with charming pink

or purplish flowers that carpet wild areas in sum-

mer. BEES love heather and make from it a honey

that is a favorite food in parts of Scotland. In

Ireland heather was classed as a “peasant” tree, but

it nonetheless is included in the TREE ALPHABET.

heather 243