Monaghan Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore

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Varia (Vaum) Irish heroine. An Irish folktale

tells of this nagging woman who was married to

an unusually lazy man named DONAGHA. When

he was gifted by the FAIRY people with two

wishes, he wasted one by asking that the load of

wood he was carrying would grow feet so that it

could walk by itself. When Varia cursed her hus-

band for his foolishness, he wished that she was

far, far away from him. Instantly he got his wish.

She was lifted high in the air, touching down at

at Teach na Vauria in Co. Kerry, while he was

transported to Donaghadee, at the other end of

the island in Co. Down.

Vates Continental Celtic social role. This Latin

word may have entered the language of Rome

from an original source in a Celtic language. The

word, which means “prophet,” refers to a social

caste of diviners who, like DRUIDS and BARDS,

served the religious needs of the people.

Venus Continental and British goddess.

Throughout the Celtic lands occupied by the

Roman legions, diminutive figures of clay have

been found that represent an ample-breasted

woman wearing a hooded cloak, or naked and

clad only in the cloak of her long hair. Because

the figures often emphasize the public triangle,

they are interpreted as FERTILITY figures and are

called by the name of the Roman goddess of

infatuation, Venus. The name or names that the

Celts used for this goddess has been lost.

The name of Venus is also given to a famous

statue in Brittany that represents a clearly non-

local goddess, Isis of Egypt; but the current

shape has been carved over an earlier one, creat-

ing an awkward though womanly form.

Whether the Venus of Quimpilly represents a

remnant of an earlier local goddess cult or an

imported divinity is unknown.

Verbeia (Verbia) British goddess. One of the

many RIVER goddesses of Celtic lands, Verbeia

was the resident spirit of the River Warfe,

known from inscriptions at a Roman fort in

Yorkshire. The name, which may mean “wind-

ing river” or “she of the cattle,” may not be orig-

inal, but a Latinized form of a Celtic name.

Local legend has it that the river goddess

appeared on BELTANE morning, on May 1, in the

form of a white HORSE; anyone seeing the

apparition should be wary of drowning in the

river’s spring flood. Such threatening tales have

been interpreted as indicating a folk memory of

HUMAN SACRIFICE (see PEG POWLER). Horses are

not typical familiars of the Celtic river goddess,

who is more likely to appear as a COW, so the

connection of the animal with Verbeia may indi-

cate a confusion with the mare goddess EPONA.

464

A sculpture found at Ilkley in Yorkshire

shows the goddess holding two long snakes in

her hands, possibly representing the watery

waves of her river. Some scholars have seen evi-

dence of a solar cult in Verbeia’s iconography,

which includes SPIRALS and WHEELS.

Viereckschanzen (sing., Viereckschanze)

Continental Celtic site. Across the Celtic

regions of Europe, archaeologists have found

these ritual enclosures, surrounded by a square

or rectangular ditch. Some show evidence of

timber buildings, presumably shrines or TEM-

PLES, within them; burials too have been found

on these sites, as well as the remains of what

appear to have been animal offerings. Often

there are indications of a WELL in the enclosure.

Vindonnus (Vindonus) Continental Celtic

god. The Romans equated this HEALING god

with their own APOLLO; he was worshiped in

what is today called Burgundy and may have had

special power over EYE diseases.

Vinotonus British god. This obscure god

may have been connected with wine-making or

grape-growing, for his name seems to include

the syllable for “wine,” vin-. A shrine dedicated

to Vinotonus, found on the Yorkshire moors,

points to his powers as a god of wild NATURE, as

does his identification by the Roman legion-

naires with their wildwood god SILVANUS. The

two associations may be linked by the tendency

toward wild behavior of wine-drinkers, or the

connection with wine may be a false etymology.

Vintius Continental Celtic god. This obscure

god was equated by the Romans with their TWIN

god Pollux, an unusual identification that unfor-

tunately does not much illuminate the god’s

meaning. His name seems to suggest a connec-

tion with wind, as does the fact that Vintius was

honored by Celtic sailors.

vision See AISLING.

Visucia Continental Celtic goddess. This

obscure goddess is known from several inscrip-

tions in southwestern France; sometimes she is

seen with a consort, Viscucius, whose name is

the male form of her own. It is unclear what her

character or powers were.

Vitiris (Vitris, Venus, Hvitiris) British god.

Many inscriptions to this popular god have been

found in northern England, in contexts that sug-

gest that he had nonnative as well as Celtic fol-

lowers. However, nothing is known of what he

represented, although he is sometimes depicted

with a PIG or a SERPENT.

Viviane (Vivienne, Nimue) Arthurian heroine.

The FAIRY LOVER of the great magician MERLIN,

Viviane may be the same figure who appears in

some legends under the name NIMUE, who may in

turn be the mysterious LADY OF THE LAKE, protec-

tor of king ARTHUR. Viviane is usually credited

with Merlin’s magical demise. Various reasons are

given for her actions toward him: that she was

angry when he refused to share his magical knowl-

edge with her, that she was jealous of his wander-

ing affections, or that she wished to save him from

the pain of growing old. In any case, she encased

the magician in a tree, where he still lives today.

Or perhaps she just bewitched him so that he

believed he was encased. The location of Merlin’s

prison-tree is usually given as the legendary forest

of BROCÉLIANDE in Brittany.

Vosegus Continental Celtic god. Although

like many other divinities of his region, Vosegus

is known only from Roman-era inscriptions and

sculptures, he is believed to have been the wild-

wood god of the Vosges mountains in eastern

France, which bear his name to this day.

votive deposits Celtic ritual. It was common

practice among the Celts to make offerings at

holy places. COINS, PINS, and other jewelry,

swords and other weapons, clay sculptures of

divinities or human forms—any could be offered

to the divinity resident in a place, in hopes of

votive deposits 465

gaining some boon or averting some danger.

RIVER sources, WELLS, LAKES, and thermal

SPRINGS were especially favored locations for

making such offerings.

vough (fuath, brollachan) Scottish folkloric

figure. This terrifying female BOGIE or KELPIE

was the most fearful apparition encountered in

the Scottish Highlands. She could be captured

but not held; one apparently successful hunter

found, when his companions gathered around to

admire his catch, just a smear of jellyfish into

which the monster had dissolved. Her name

means “hatred” or “aversion,” which is how she

was generally greeted.

Although usually female, the vough occasion-

ally appeared as male. Both had webbed feet and

noseless faces; they usually wore GREEN, the

FAIRY color. They disliked daylight but enjoyed

intercourse, sexual as well as conversational,

with humans; thus some families, like the

Munroes, claimed to have vough blood in their

veins (see also SEAL; SWAN MAIDEN). The word

brollachan appears to describe the vough in its

immature or larval stage.

Sources: Campbell, John Grigorson. Witchcraft and

Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of

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

188; McKay, John G. More West Highland Tales.

Vol. 2. Scottish Anthropological and Folklore

Society. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1969, p.

14; Spence, Lewis. The Minor T

raditions of

British Mythology. New York: Benjamin Blom,

Inc., 1972, p. 23.

vow See GEIS.

voyage (Imram; pl., Imrama) Irish literary

text. One of several categories of literary text

from which we derive our knowledge of Irish

mythology (see also AISLING, DESTRUCTION,

WOOING), the voyage tales describe how a hero

travels to the OTHERWORLD and what he encoun-

ters there. Some voyage tales have aspects of the

aisling (dream-poem); a few have elements of

SATIRE. Some famous examples of this genre

include the Voyage of BRAN, in which a human is

lured by a FAIRY LOVER to leave his home; and the

Voyage of MAELDUIN, in which the hero encoun-

ters several frightening Otherworld women

while at sea. A similar but distinct form, the

ADVENTURE, also describes trips to the

Otherworld but pays less attention to the actual

journey, focussing instead on the destination.

466 vough

waff British folkloric figure. In Yorkshire this

name was applied to what is called elsewhere a

CO-WALKER, a spirit double that appeared just

before someone’s death. Unlike what occurred

in other traditions, however, death could be

averted if one spoke sharply to the waff, which

became frightened and departed, leaving the

speaker a few more years of life.

wake Irish ritual. After a religious funeral,

Irish people today typically gather to share food

and drink, stories and music. The tradition is a

long-standing one, with possible roots in the

pagan past, when the deceased were believed to

have gone over to an OTHERWORLD from which

they could occasionally return, especially on

SAMHAIN night when the veils between the

worlds were thinnest. Similarly, the wake may

have its roots in a belief that the beloved dead

are most vulnerable to FAIRY KIDNAPPING when

newly deceased; the wake then served to protect

against fairy influences. In contrast, the world-

wide fear that the dead may drag the living into

the Otherworld with them may have given rise

to wake amusements as a means of protecting

the living.

Until recent times, the non-Christian aspects

of the wake were significant, so much so that

priests attempted to discourage traditional

games that may have descended from old rituals.

Gathering to “wake the dead” occurred before,

rather than after, the funeral service. The body

was laid out, face uncovered, often in the parlor

or best room; thus the deceased was able to

“attend” the wake. Loud KEENING—wailing or

sobbing, usually by women—announced that the

wake had begun. Although members of the fam-

ily might keen, unrelated women of the commu-

nity assisted, expressing grief through loud cries.

During the wake, it was traditional that

someone always sit with the body, so that the

deceased was never alone while there were peo-

ple in the house. Visitors arrived over the next

12 to 24 hours, paying respects to the corpse

and then finding their way to food and drink.

Anyone was welcome, no matter how distantly

they knew the family or the deceased; no one

was turned away.

Despite the somberness of the occasion, visi-

tors made quite merry, for it was considered ill

fortune for a wake to be without laughter. Much

of the merriment was verbal, for jokes and sto-

ries, puns and rhymes were part of the occasion.

Jokes could become quite insulting, with ridicule

and mockery formalized in games like “Making

the Stack” (a gossip game) and “I Have a

Question” (a self-revealing game). Then there

were indoor athletic contests, including “lifting

the corpse” (not in fact that of the deceased, but

any corpulent visitor willing to stiffen his body),

wrestling and arm wrestling, and piggyback

467

riding (called “driving the pigs across the

bridge”)—all likely to cause some commotion in

the narrow confines of an Irish cottage.

Some of the games hint at a belief in per-

sonal rebirth, as when mourners pretended to

be dead and were awakened by their fellows.

Others focused on the cyclical rebirth of life

implied in sexuality, for kissing and courting

games like Frumso Framso, in which ardent

kisses were exchanged among virtually all at the

wake, were common.

Source: Ó Súilleabháin, Seán. Irish Wake

Amusements. Cork: Mercier Press, 1967.

Warna Cornish heroine or goddess. The

patron saint of shipwrecked mariners, honored

on the Isles of Scilly off Cornwall (see SILLINA),

may have originally been the goddess of that

region or its waters. History records a local habit

of leaving offerings at Warna’s sacred WELL in an

effort to attract the wealth of wrecked ships to

the islands; this rather predatory prayer seems at

odds with Warna’s alleged protective function.

Source: Straffon, Cheryl. The Earth Goddess: Celtic

and Pagan Legacy of the Landscape. London:

Blandford, 1997, p. 83.

warrior women (bangaisgedaig) Mythic

motif. Throughout the ancient Celtic lands, we

find goddesses whose speciality was war: British

ANDRASTE, Irish BADB, Gaulish CATHUBODUA.

We also find goddesses and heroines who were

warriors: the Irish MEDB of CONNACHT led her

armies into battle against the province to the

north, ULSTER; the great SCÁTHACH of the Isle of

Skye trained heroes like CÚCHULAINN; Scáthách’s

daughter (or double) AÍFE not only trained with

heroes but bore children to them. Beyond such

mythological material, we find historical evi-

dence of women who led their tribes into battle,

as did the British queens BOUDICCA and

Cartimandua, and of women who fought along-

side their men to protect their lands and families.

Nonetheless there is general scholarly agreement

that Celtic women were not typically warriors.

Source: Clark, Rosalind. The Great Queens: Irish

Goddesses from the Morrígan to Cathleen Ní

Houlihan. Irish Literary Studies 34. Gerrards

Cross: Colin Smythe, 1991.

washer at the ford (bean nigh, bean nighe,

washer-wife, washing fairy) Irish and Scottish

folkloric figure. A form of the BANSHEE or death

prophet, this spectral woman appeared before a

death, washing the clothes of the doomed in a

river, stream, or small pool. A passerby heard a

noise that sounded like water rippling; it was the

sound of her slapping at the laundry in the cold

water. She appeared as a small GREEN-garbed

woman with RED webbed feet.

Occasionally the washer was said to be the

ghost of a woman who, dying in childbirth, left

laundry unfinished, but most agree that she was

a member of the FAIRY race. Like others of her

kind, the washer was generally prescient, able to

see other things in the future besides imminent

death; thus if you could catch a glimpse of her

before she saw you, you could demand a

prophecy, which was always accurate. Such for-

tune-telling was risky, however, because the

washer could injure those caught spying on her,

inflicting broken bones by waving her washing.

The washer appeared most often before bat-

tles, when she had a great pile of laundry to do;

the more brutal the battle, the greater her work-

load. As a result, she was sometimes associated

with the war goddess BADB or with the phantom

queen MÓRRÍGAN.

Sources: McKay, John G. More West Highland Tales.

Vol. 2. Scottish Anthropological and Folklore

Society. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1969, p.

32; Spence, Lewis. The Minor T

raditions of

British Mythology. New York: Benjamin Blom,

Inc., 1972, p. 22.

wasteland Mythological motif. Their myths

suggest that the Celts believed that if a king were

468 Warna

wounded in body or spirit, his land would cease

to bear fruit and his people would starve. Many

myths revolve around the question of the BLEM-

ISHED KING, but it is unclear how such beliefs

affected the lives of actual rulers. The most sig-

nificant literary use of the motif appears in

works inspired by the GRAIL legend, in which the

FISHER KING was wounded in his genitals (or

more discreetly, his thigh) and the land became

barren. Exhausted and in pain, the king was

unable to rule but only fished in the increasingly

sterile LAKES. In Irish legend a BARD was to cre-

ate a SATIRE fierce enough to drive the failed

king from the throne, but in Arthurian romance

knights instead sought the sacred Grail to

release the land from its endless winter.

water Cosmological concept. The Celts saw

fresh water as sacred, whether it ran in RIVERS

and SPRINGS or was still in LAKES and WELLS.

This appreciation for a vital part of the ecosys-

tem is appropriate to a people to whom NATURE

was a source and residence of divinity. Water

often appears as a dividing line between this

world and the OTHERWORLD; thus FAIRIES live in

cities at the bottom of lakes or on islands in the

middle of rivers. Water from holy wells, usually

devoted to a SAINT or diminished deity, was held

to be a HEALING medicine.

water bull (tarbh uisge) Scottish folkloric

figure. Like the more common WATER HORSE,

this creature from the realm of the FAIRY was

unfriendly to humans; it often stood guard at the

entranceway to FAIRY MOUNDS or palaces.

water horse (aughisky, agh-iski, eachuisge, each

uisge) Scottish and Irish folkloric figure. This

horrible being rose from beneath the waves of

LAKES or from the ocean, looking like the

strongest and most powerful horse ever seen. If

you mounted it—unable to resist the temptation

to ride as fast as the wind—you would soon regret

your decision. The water horse galloped away, so

fast that the rider suffocated from lack of breath;

or the animal plunged back into the water, drown-

ing the victim. Even worse were the water horses

that grazed quietly by a riverside with no bridge;

an unwary traveler who thought to keep clothing

dry by riding the horse to the other side found

that, once halfway across the river, the water horse

dove down and tried to drown the rider.

For those who wanted to risk such a death, it

was important to point the water horse’s head

inland, for if he ever saw water, the rider’s fate

would be sealed. The creatures, which came out

most often in November, were wily enough to

take on forms other than equine; sometimes they

appeared as helpless maidens or handsome

youths, but if you offered them a hand, they

turned instantly into a ravening beast who tried

to eat you alive. (For this reason it was deemed

wise to check the smile of apparent humans you

meet at watery places; any sign of green veg-

etable matter stuck between the teeth was a sig-

nal that the water horse had been grazing and

shape-shifted when you appeared.) Humans

were not their only diet; they also ate CATTLE, so

it was dangerous to leave a herd unattended on a

lakeshore. Sometimes they inexplicably left the

organs of their victims in the grass, to be found

by grieving relatives and frustrated herdsmen.

It was almost impossible to kill a water horse,

although if you could snare it and hold it over a

fire—difficult to do, given the monster’s size—it

melted into a puddle of slime. Some legends say

that all lakes were the residue of ancient water

horses, melted away at their death.

See also CABYLL-USHTEY.

water-leaper (llamhigyn y dwr) Welsh folk-

loric figure. Like the WATER BULL or the WATER

HORSE, this monster (a kind of giant toad) hid in

the water until a man or beast walked by, where-

upon it leaped out, grabbed its prey, and dragged

it underwater to eat it.

waulking songs Folkloric motif. The songs

that were sung by groups of women as they

“waulked” or shrank woolen fabrics to make

waulking songs 469

them waterproof were filled with mythological

and folkloric references. Because of the conser-

vative force of such oral transmittal, the material

in the songs is often ancient. With the invention

of mechanical looms and machines to process

woolens, the tradition of women’s singing has

been in serious decline, although some contem-

porary artists like Scotland’s Capercaille have

recorded and made available some of the age-

old, heavily rhythmic, songs.

Wayland (Wieland) British folkloric or

mythological hero. Like the Irish GOBAN SAOR,

Wayland is a folkloric remnant of a mythological

character. The SMITH was, to the Celts, a magi-

cal being with powers that exceeded those of

normal humans; the Germans had similar

beliefs, so it is difficult to know whether the

smith whose name appears in British legend and

folkloric sites derives from one or both cultures.

The lameness attributed to Wayland was a likely

import from the Mediterranean, where the

smith god Vulcan was depicted as crippled.

Wayland’s handicap was imposed upon him by a

legendary king, Nithland (Nidud) of the Niars,

who cut his hamstrings, the better to trap him at

the forge. Wayland got revenge by killing the

king’s son and raping his daughter. Among

Wayland’s many gifts was the forging of

supremely effective weapons, such as EXCALIBUR,

the sword borne by king ARTHUR.

weasel See STOAT.

well (tober, tubber) Mythological site. Hun-

dreds of so-called holy wells are still in active use

in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales; in Ireland

approximately 3,000 have been recorded.

Although usually dedicated to a SAINT, there is

clear evidence that they were originally pagan

sites, perhaps pre-Celtic but certainly honored

in Celtic times. Because fresh WATER was not

only a necessity for health and life but also a

symbol of the magical OTHERWORLD, wells—

where cool, clean water sprang up from near

bedrock, more like a small stream than a deep

pit—were especially revered. They were the

sites for INAUGURATION of regional kings, who

would drink the water as a pledge of fidelity to

the SOVEREIGNTY goddess. They were also used,

as they still are today, for HEALING rituals. Often

the water was believed especially potent on spe-

cific days, including the Celtic holidays (IMBOLC,

BELTANE, LUGHNASA, SAMHAIN). Later, holy

wells were honored as Christian sites, often

given saints’ names that echoed, like BRIGIT, a

Celtic divinity. Rituals at holy wells continue to

this day in parts of Ireland and other Celtic

lands, usually involving a solemn procession

around the water, decoration of nearby trees

with ribbons called CLOOTIES, and placement of

stones, COINS, or other offerings in or near the

well’s water.

Wells were believed to have the power to

move if offended by ill-considered behavior;

taboos were especially strong against placing any

kind of litter or garbage in the well. Tales

abound of wells departing from one region in

the middle of the night, accompanied by FAIRY

LIGHTS; the next day the well would be found in

its new home in a competing district. Such sto-

ries doubtless had the advantage of helping to

keep a region’s water supply free of pollution.

Wells appear in many myths, usually guarded

by a woman, who might be young and beautiful

(see

LADY OF THE FOUNTAIN) or haggard with

age (see

CAILLEACH). Some narratives warn that

women should not approach certain wells, espe-

cially those wherein the SALMON of wisdom

swam. Goddesses such as BÓAND and SÍNANN

ignored the advice and traveled to the well of

SEGAIS or CONNLAs well, only to be drowned

when the well rose up and chased them across

the land, forming rivers that bear the goddess’s

names (the Boyne and the Shannon respec-

tively). While usually cited as a warning against

women’s ambition for learning, the connection

of wells with women guardians suggests that the

myths may have been altered or that they are in

fact creation narratives, for by tempting the well

470 Wayland

out of its bounds, Bóand and Sínann create the

fertile watersheds of Ireland.

Sources: Bord, Janet, and Colin Bord. Sacred Waters:

Holy Wells and Water Lore in Britain and Ireland.

London: Granada, 1985; Brenneman, Walter,

and Mary B

renneman. Crossing the Circle at the

Hol

y Wells of Ireland. Charlottesville: University

of Virginia Press, 1995; Burne, Charlotte

Sophia. S

hropshire Folk-Lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings,

Part II. Yorkshore: EP Publishing, 1974, pp.

412–434; Gribben, Arthur. Ho

ly Wells and Sacred

Wat

er Sources in Britain and Ireland: An Annotated

Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing,

1992; Hull, Eleanor. Folklore of the British Isles.

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

106–117; Rackard, Anna. Fish Stone W

ater: Holy

Wells of Ireland. Cork: Atrium, 2001; W

estropp,

T. J. Folklore of Clar

e: A Folklore Survey of County

Cla

re and County Clare Folk-Tales and Myths.

Ennis, Co. Clare: Clasp Press, 2000, pp. 49–53.

well dressing Folkloric ritual. In some areas

of rural England, notably in Derbyshire and the

Peakland district, a springtime tradition is still

practiced wherein flowers, seeds, and other nat-

ural objects are embedded in clay to form pic-

tures, which are then displayed at holy WELLS.

The tradition, which doubtless harks back to rit-

uals of veneration addressed to the wells, contin-

ues as a source of civic and community pride.

Some of the patterned flower creations are quite

elaborate and artistic.

west Cosmological concept. To the Irish, the

direction of sunset was also the direction of the

OTHERWORLD. FAIRY beings like NIAMH of the

Golden Hair came from the west to lure humans

to their lovely but sterile world. ISLANDS off the

west coast, such as Inisbofin (the island of the

magical white COW), were magical because of

their location. Unlike some other cultures, the

Irish did not necessarily see west as a symbol of

death, except insofar as FAIRY KIDNAPPING took

humans AWAY to another world.

Among Ireland’s PROVINCES of Ireland, the

westernmost is CONNACHT, one of the most cul-

turally traditional regions; thus in Ireland’s spir-

itual geography, west represents WISDOM and

tradition.

See BUILDING TO THE WEST.

wheel Symbolic object. As a HORSE-rearing

people who traveled in CHARIOTS, the Celts

learned how to made wheels early in their cul-

tural history. Later the wheel became an image

of divinities, especially those associated with the

SUN, which was imagined wheeling through the

sky; rituals in honor of the sun often took the

form of rolling wheels (sometimes set ablaze)

down a hill. As a chariot wheel, the sun became

connected with war, and it was often depicted

with warrior gods.

white Cosmological concept. Words trans-

lated as “white” are often found in names and

titles of Celtic divinities. The word might be

better translated as “shining” or “radiant,” for it

refers to a quality of light rather than the

absence of color. Many deities and heroic figures

bear names that suggest they were seen as ema-

nating brilliant light: BÓAND (or BÓ FIND), the

Irish COW goddess, whose brightness may be the

light reflecting off her RIVER, the Boyne; FINTAN

the SALMON, who swam in the sacred WELL and

whose flesh carried all the world’s WISDOM; and

the brilliant hero FIONN MAC CUMHAILL.

White Horse of Uffington British mytho-

logical site. Near Oxford, at a high point of the

Berkshire downs, a huge earth sculpture can be

seen up to 20 miles away: the flowing, swirling

lines of the White Horse of Uffington, created

by digging shallowly in the ground. Because the

earth is chalky at that spot, removing the grassy

turf from the surface created a startling white

line in the green grass.

While there are several such British sculp-

tures of great antiquity (see CERNE ABBAS GIANT),

White Horse of Uffington 471

only one depicts the image of a HORSE; other

chalk-outlined white horses exist, but they are

much later in date and unconnected to Britain’s

prehistory and Celtic era. Almost 400 feet long,

the White Horse looks down on a valley called

the Vale of the White Horse, where ceremonial

horse-racing may have occurred; a nearby small

mound called DRAGON Hill shows signs of wear

on its top, as though spectators stood there

watching events in the valley below. Folklore

claims that the hill is flat because ST. GEORGE

buried a dragon there; such legends often indi-

cate an important pre-Christian site that needed

to be SAINED or sanctified in terms appropriate

to the new religion. On the hilltop above the

White Horse can be seen the remains of an

ancient HILLFORT called Uffington Castle, its

steep earthen sides high enough so that, within

it, a visitor can see nothing but the sky above.

While it is not certain who carved the White

Horse into the hillside, most scholars today

believe it was of Celtic origin, perhaps built by

the Dubunni who lived in the area. The flowing

style recalls horse patterns found on Celtic

COINS of the Roman era; one such coin shows a

horse almost identical to the one carved into the

hillside. Even presuming a Celtic origin, how-

ever, archaeologists are not settled on whether

the figure represents a divinity and if so, which.

Among the Celts, the horse was the emblem of

the goddess

EPONA; there is no known horse

god, nor is the White Horse anatomically a stal-

lion. As the White Horse appears to be running

from east to west, it may symbolize the

SUN trav-

eling across the sky from dawn to sunset.

While the White Horse itself is an impressive

earth sculpture it is even more impressive that it

remains at all, for grass would soon obliterate the

design were it not continually pulled out. Today

the National Trust cares for the monument, but

in the past it was “scoured” or cleared of

encroaching grasses every seven years, when a

huge local festival was held. For as much as 2,000

years, the people around Uffington kept the horse

clearly outlined on its height, long after the rea-

son for its creation and its meaning were lost.

Sources: Marples, Morris. White Horses and Other

Hill Figures. Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1981, pp.

28–66; Newman, Paul. Gods and Graven Images:

The Chalk Hill-Figures of Britain. London:

Robert Hale, 1987, pp. 19–41.

White Lady Folkloric figure. In both Britain

and Ireland, this term is used of

FAIRIES and of

the GHOSTS of human women. There is no par-

allel masculine term.

Wicca Modern religion. Although some self-

identified Wiccans believe they practice an

ancient religion, most contemporary scholars

trace the development of the rituals and philos-

ophy to mid-20th-century England. Celtic holi-

days are celebrated (as are the solar holidays of

EQUINOXES and SOLSTICES), but contemporary

Wicca is not a Celtic religion.