Monaghan Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore

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Her name is sometimes translated as “good

mother,” a phrase that may be impersonal rather

than specific. Some texts contrast her with ANU,

mother of the gods. Some stories from the FEN-

IAN CYCLE name her as a WARRIOR WOMAN who

trained the great hero, FIONN MAC CUMHAILL.

bucca (bwca, bucca-boo, pwca, bwci, coblyn,

bwbach, bwciod) Welsh mythological being.

This household sprite of Wales was very like a

BROWNIE; he would work for food, but if a

householder failed to leave out a bowl of milk or

other treat, mischief was likely to result.

Similarly, it was important not to ask the bucca

its name, for the question would cause it to leave

the farm in disgust. Some folklorists and story-

tellers distinguish between the helpful bucca

gwidden and the evil bucca dhu. The name is

sometimes used as a generic term for FAIRY.

bug Celtic folkloric figure. Variations of this

syllable are found in the names of many sprites,

especially meddlesome ones, in Celtic countries:

bug-a-boo, bugbear, bullbeggar, bogle, BOGIE,

BOGAN, boggart, boogyman. As boge is a word

found in other Indo-European languages meaning

“god,” the frequency of this syllable’s appearance

in the names of spirits in Celtic countries has been

used to support the argument that such creatures

are diminished deities, although other scholars

utterly reject this connection. Yet others have con-

nected this word to BOG, often seen as a liminal

location or opening to the OTHERWORLD.

On the Isle of Man, a bug or buggane

haunted a church reputed to have been built in

the 12th century by St. Ninian, which was called

by a variant of his name, St. Trinian’s. The

church was never roofed, because every time

roofers ascended to do so, a coarse-haired appari-

tion destroyed their work. A tailor attempted to

undo the buggane’s magic by sewing the roof to

the rafters, but even he was chased away by the

buggane, who threw his own head at the tailor.

The buggane was never seen after that, but the

roofing project was also abandoned.

Sources: Killip, Margaret. The Folklore of the Isle of

Man. London: B. T. Batsford, Ltd., 1975, p.

106; Ross, Anne. “Lindow Man and the Celtic

Tradition.” In Stead, I. M., J. B. Bourke, and

Don Brothwell. The Lindow Man: The Body in

the Bog. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cor

nell University Press,

1986, pp. 162–169; Spence, Lewis. The Minor

raditions of British Mythology. New Y

ork:

Benjamin Blom, Inc. 1972, p. 87.

building to the west Mythic theme. In tra-

ditional Celtic countries, it was ill-advised to

build an addition to your house on the west side,

for you might be inadvertently building on FAIRY

property. Places built on “gentle land” where

fairies lived would find themselves the site of

endless trouble. A youth building a cowhouse on

one such place—to spite the old folks who

warned him against it—found his cattle mysteri-

ously dying, and darts (see FAIRY DARTS) thrown

at him while he slept in his bed. He took the roof

off the cowhouse to expose it to the elements,

and all was well again.

Buitch (Fir as Mraane Obbee, or “man of

enchantment”; Fir as Fysseree, or “man of

knowledge”) Manx witch. The generic Manx

word for WITCH probably derives from that

English word, just as buitcheragh probably comes

from “witchcraft.” The craft was considered gen-

erally harmful among residents of the Isle of

Man, although some practitioners could use their

skills for good.

bull Symbolic animal. Found iconographically

in Europe before the rise of the Celts, the bull

may derive from the pre-Celtic past. Both in

image and story, the bull was embraced by the

Celts, who associated it with ferocity on the

one hand and agricultural abundance on the

other. Some Continental sanctuaries show evi-

dence of bull sacrifices; entrances to shrines

were sometimes guarded by bull skulls. An

important Continental god connected to the

64 bucca

bull was ESUS, who also appeared as a woods-

man cutting down trees in the presence of

bulls; some scholars have seen the tree and bull

as parallel images of sacrifice.

The bull as emblem of strength and feroc-

ity appears in significant Irish texts, most

importantly in the TÁIN BÓ CUAILNGE, where

the great cattle raid on ULSTER is launched

because of the residence in that province of a

bull,

DONN CUAILNGE (actually a transformed

swineherd), the only equal on the island of the

great white-horned bull of AILILL mac Máta,

FINNBENNACH (also a transformed swineherd).

The bull as emblem of abundance connects to

the general importance of CATTLE among the

herd-owning Celtic people, as does the reiter-

ation of the image of the food-beasts in the

reincarnated swineherds.

See also BULL-SLEEP, WATER BULL.

Sources: Green, Miranda. The Gods of Roman

Britain. Aylesbury: Shire Publications Ltd.,

1983, p. 8; Green, Miranda. Symbol and Image

in Celtic Religious Art. London: Routledge,

1989, pp. 89, 149; Hull, Eleanor. The Cuchullin

Saga in Irish Literatur

e. London: David Nutt,

1898, pp. 111 ff; MacCulloch, J. A. The Religion

of the Ancient Celts. London: Constable, 1911,

p. 243.

bullaun Symbolic object. Round stones with

holes in them, found at holy WELLS and other

sacred sites in Ireland, bullauns have been

described as feminine symbols like the yoni

stones of India. They were held to have healing

power, especially helping women to conceive or

to survive difficult pregnancies. Some bullauns

were large flat boulders with basins, either natu-

ral or artificial, from which women would drink

water ritually. Bullauns were also used as recep-

tacles for libations or fluid offerings.

bull-sleep (bull feast, tarbhfleis) Irish and

Scottish ritual. One of the great DIVINATION

rituals of ancient Ireland was the tarbhfleis or

bull-sleep, used to determine who was the

rightful king of TARA. A poet, who had been

trained as a seer, gorged on the flesh of a just-

killed BULL, then slept wrapped in its bloody

hide in an attempt to divine through dreams

the identity of the next king. Should the poet

fail, the punishment was death. Sometimes the

poet’s vision was cryptic, as when the king

CONAIRE appeared as a naked man surrounded

by BIRDS, approaching Tara. At that moment

Conaire, whose mother was a bird, dreamed

that he should approach Tara naked, thus ful-

filling the prophecy.

A similar ritual was known among the

Scottish Highlanders, who bound up a diviner in

bulls’ hides and left him to dream of the future.

The ritual was apparently long-lasting; a literary

tourist in 1769 described a ritual of “horrible

solemnity” practiced in the Trotternish district

in which a man was sewn up in an oxhide and

slept under a high waterfall to gain precogni-

tive knowledge.

Sources: MacCulloch, J. A. The Religion of the

Ancient Celts. London: Constable, 1911, p. 249;

Ross, Anne. Folklore of the Scottish Highlands.

London: B. T. Batsford, Ltd., 1976, p. 58.

burial rites See FUNERAL RITES.

butter Mythic object. Butter was connected

in folklore to FAIRIES and WITCHCRAFT. Irish and

Scottish rural life revolved around CATTLE,

which provided food in the form of milk, butter,

and cheese, as well as meat. Churning butter

from cows’ milk was an important part of

women’s work in these lands: Milk was beaten

until the butterfat congealed into a yellow mass.

The leftover liquid, buttermilk, was consumed

as a nourishing drink, while the butter itself was

shaped and stored until use. At any point in the

proceedings, the process could fail and the but-

ter be spoiled, leaving only a half-congealed,

half-liquid mess. The most common complaint

was that, no matter how hard the woman

butter 65

churned, the butter did not “come” or thicken

from the liquid milk. At such a time, it was

alleged that someone was “stealing” the butter,

which was indeed forming within the churn but

was being spirited away. As fairies were thought

to have a great hunger for butter, they were a

common culprit, but WITCHES were also blamed.

See BUTTERY SPIRITS.

buttery spirits British and Scottish mytho-

logical beings. Fairies loved rich food, so this

was a generic name given to fairies who stole

away butter.

See FAIRY FOOD.

Buxenus Continental Celtic god. This Gaulish

divinity, known only from a single inscription,

was described by the occupying Romans as simi-

lar to their warrior god MARS.

bwca See BUCCA.

66 buttery spirits

Cabyll-Ushtey Manx mythological creature.

On the Isle of Man, this variety of the WATER

HORSE was a monster that stole cattle (and some-

times people) from the safety of land and

drowned them in lakes or in the sea.

Cado Breton mythological figure. A sea god

or sea monster of Brittany, he came to force the

beautiful pagan princess DAHUT to live with him

forever beneath the ocean waves. In the ensuing

tumult, Dahut’s magnificent city of YS was

destroyed. Some versions of the tale call Dahut’s

companion the DEVIL. Cado also appears in the

story of the princess BLONDINE as a forgetful

suitor who betrays his intended bride after free-

ing her from her magician father’s captivity.

Cáel (Caol) Irish hero. One of the great

romances of Ireland is that of Cáel, a slender hero

of the FIANNA who won the heart of the maiden

CRÉD by reciting praise-poetry to her. She had

challenged the BARDS of Ireland to create a poem

about her palace, into which no man had ever

stepped, with the prize being her own hand.

Using the telepathic abilities that resulted from

his poetic training, Cáel crafted the winning

verse. But he was soon killed in battle, and Créd,

overcome with grief, climbed into the grave to lie

beside him one last time, then died there of grief.

caepion See LAKE.

Cáer (Cáer Ibormeith) Irish heroine or god-

dess. A moving Irish romance tells of this

woman, beloved of the sweet god of poetry,

AONGHUS Óg. After dreaming repeatedly of a

woman he had never met, Aonghus grew so

lovesick that he set out wandering through the

world, searching for his mysterious beloved.

Finally, on the Lake of Dragon’s Mouths,

Aonghus found Cáer, swimming in the form of a

SWAN decked in 130 golden chains. Immediately

he, too, became a swan, and the two flew away,

singing so sweetly that any who heard the

melody slept soundly for three days and three

nights. One of W. B. Yeats’s most famous poems,

“The Song of Wandering Aengus,” is based

upon this tale.

Caer Arianrhod (Caer Aranrhod) Welsh

mythological site. The great mythic castle of

ARIANRHOD, goddess or heroine of the MABINO-

GION, was said to have been destroyed, like the

Breton city of YS, by an inundation brought on

by the sinfulness of its inhabitants; this is proba-

bly a post-pagan belief reflecting a Christian

judgment on the wanton, free-spirited behavior

of the goddess, who was said to have had affairs

with MERMEN. A rock off the coast of North

Wales, nearly a mile out to sea, is said to be the

wreckage of Arianrhod’s great castle, while other

sources say it was moved to the heavens.

Caer Idris Welsh mythological site. At the

top of a mountain in Merionethshire, there is a

formation of rock reputed to have magical pow-

ers. Anyone who spent the night sitting in the

stone chair would greet the dawn either insane

or inspired with poetry.

Caer Nefenhir Welsh mythological site. The

mysterious “castle of high heaven” was an OTH-

ERWORLD location that appears in several

ancient texts, including the story of KULHWCH

AND OLWEN.

Caer Wydyr Welsh mythological site. The

“glass fortress” was another Welsh term for

ANNWYN, the mythic and magical OTHERWORLD.

Cai Irish hero. The first BREHON or judge in

Ireland was the otherwise obscure Cai, a mem-

ber of the race of MILESIANS. He had studied in

Egypt, where he learned the law of Moses and

arranged the marriage of Míl to SCOTA, daughter

of the Pharaoh. When the great biblical flood

occurred, Cai fled with Moses, with whom he

endured the desert sojourn, but finally he joined

his own people in central Europe. From there he

sailed for Ireland, serving as brehon to the

invaders. The Arthurian hero KAY is also called

by this name.

Cailitin (Calatin, Calatín) Irish hero. There

were 28 parts to this DRUID warrior: one man and

his 27 identical sons, each of whom was missing

his left hand and right foot. After serving an

apprenticeship in sorcery in Scotland, the multiple

Cailitin enlisted in the service of the great queen

MEDB, who set him/them against the great hero

CÚCHULAINN, who killed the entire Cailitin con-

tingent. But the druid’s wife promptly gave birth

to two posthumous sets of horrific triplets, one

each of daughters and sons; the former included

the battle-crow BADB, whom Medb trained in wiz-

ardry that ultimately was used to bring about

Cúchulainn’s death. The one-eyed daughters, in

league with Cúchulainn’s enemy LUGAIDH mac

Con Ró, brought about the hero’s death.

Cailleach (Callech, Caillech, Cailliach, Cailleach

Bhéirre, Birrn, Béarra, Bhear, Beare, Birra in

Ireland; Sentainne Bérri on the Isle of Man,

Caillagh ny Groamagh in Ulster, Cally Berry; in

Scotland, Cailleach Bheur, Cailliche, and Carlin).

Scottish and Irish folkloric figure or goddess.

This important figure probably descends from a

pre-Celtic divinity; she is not found among the

continental Celts but is widespread in place-name

and legend in Ireland and Scotland. Her name,

meaning “veiled one” or “hooded one,” is not of

Celtic origin but is still used in modern Irish and

Scots Gaelic as a name for an old woman or HAG.

Her antiquity is suggested by the names born by

the largest mountains in those lands (Slieve na

Cailleach, Knockycallanan) and by legends that

she created the landscape by dropping rocks from

her apron or throwing them angrily at an enemy;

creation legends often are attached to the oldest

divinities of a land, and settlement in Ireland pre-

ceded the Celts by some 7,000 years. The

Cailleach was said to have formed the islands off

MUNSTER, in Ireland’s southwest, by towing land

around with a straw rope, that broke, leaving the

islands of Scariff and Deenish stranded in the sea.

Another tale tells how she struck an escaping

BULL with a rod as he swam away from her, turn-

ing him into an island of rock.

The Cailleach was described as an ancient

woman with a blue-gray face and uncannily sharp

eyesight, so sharp that she could see 20 miles as

clearly as her hand before her—this despite hav-

ing but a single eye. In spite of her advanced age,

the Cailleach was said to have inordinate

strength, so much so that she could best the

fastest reaper in the land in a one-on-one contest.

Although she was described as unappealing and

68 Caer Idris

even fearsome, legend does not show her acting

in a threatening fashion toward humans. To the

contrary, one of her primary activities was the

bestowal of SOVEREIGNTY on the chosen king,

who typically had to kiss or have intercourse with

the Cailleach in her hag form before she revealed

herself as a splendid young woman—a motif

often interpreted as a poetic image of the land

blossoming under the rule of a just king. Such

tales may derive from a pre-Celtic cosmic tale in

which the winter sun’s daughter is born as an old

woman and grows younger through the winter,

ending as a lovely maid, which was adopted by

the arriving Celts and melded to their own myth

of kingly INAUGURATION.

In Ireland the Cailleach was especially associ-

ated with Munster, where she was called the Hag

of Beare after a prominent peninsula there;

sometimes she has the name of Beara, while at

other times she is called Boí. Her divinity was

emphasized by triplication, with identical sisters

said to live on the nearby Dingle and Iveraugh

peninsulas. These areas were associated with the

OTHERWORLD, in this case especially as a loca-

tion of the CAULDRON of plenty, for the

Cailleach in that region was considered a god-

dess of abundance, as her personal name Boí

(COW, symbol of plenty) suggests.

The Cailleach was preeminently the goddess

of harvest, whose name was given to the last

sheaf cut in each field; dressed in women’s

clothes and honored during the harvest festivi-

ties, the Cailleach sheaf was kept safe until the

next year’s harvest. The hag goddess was some-

times said to appear as a HARE or other small

creature; a shout went up from harvesters as they

approached the end of a field to “drive the

Cailleach” into the next field. Some argue that

this harvest Cailleach was a separate goddess

from the Hag of Beare, although others see both

as aspects of a creative and protective goddess of

the land.

In Scotland Carlin was the name given to the

spirit of

SAMHAIN, the end of the harvest; the

sheaf representing her was exhibited in the home

to discourage Otherworldly visitors. The

Scottish Cailleach was, however, less connected

with agriculture than with the wildwood, for she

was seen as a herder of DEER, whose milk she

drank. Probably because fine weather was so

important during harvest time, the Cailleach was

seen as a weather spirit, sometimes called “the

old gloomy woman” or envisioned as a crane

with sticks in her beak which forecast storms.

Winter storms were sometimes greeted by the

descriptive phrase, “The Cailleach is trampling

the blankets tonight.” She was the “sharp old

wife,” the Cailleach Bhuer, the latter word (“cut-

ting”) probably referring to wintry winds; she

was also called the “daughter of the little sun,”

presumably that of winter. Mumming dances

drove her away in spring, when she was replaced

by the figure of Bride, a maiden figure possibly

related to

BRIGIT, who married a hero once the

winter-witch was frozen into stone; the day of

her defeat was March 29.

On the Isle of Man, the Caillagh ny

Groamagh (“gloomy old woman”) was a WITCH

who, around IMBOLC, the beginning of spring,

went out to gather twigs for her fire; if it was fine

and bright, she gathered enough wood to extend

the winter, but if weather kept her indoors, she

ran through her previously gathered woodpile,

and spring came earlier.

A hag-like figure appears in many legends

from the insular Celtic lands; she was guardian

of the wildwood and its animal life, an ARTEMIS-

like figure who may ultimately derive from a

separate aged goddess conflated with the

weather-witch Cailleach. This figure, called the

Hag of the Hair or the Hag of the Long Teeth,

was said to punish hunters who killed pregnant

animals, choking them to death with her hair;

she was often accompanied by a monstrous CAT.

In a story told in Scotland, the Cailleach

befriended a hunter, permitting him to see

which deer she struck in her herd and thus

marking it as prey.

The Cailleach appeared in Arthurian legend

as the LOATHY LADY who begged a kiss of a

kingly contender. She appeared as a hag to PER-

CIVAL, mocking him because he failed to answer

Cailleach 69

the questions of the mysterious FISHER KING and

thus lost the sacred GRAIL that would have

healed the land. She also appeared under the

name of RAGNELL in a famous Arthurian story, in

which she assumed the alternative forms of hag

and maiden.

One of the most famous Irish medieval

poems, written ca. 900 C.E., depicts the Cailleach

as a woman mourning her beauty and forced to

take the veil in her old age; apparently the

Christian author understood the veiled woman as

a nun rather than as the earlier crone goddess.

However much the author of the “Lament of the

Hag of Beare” attempted to bring the Cailleach

to heel, he could not entirely subdue her earlier

nature, for she slipped in a boast about renewing

her virginity like the self-renewing Cailleach of

old. In addition to her appearances in Gaelic-lan-

guage literatures, the Cailleach appeared as

Milton’s “blew, meager hag” and as the foul “olde

wyf” in Chaucer’s “The wife of Bath’s Tale.” The

20th-century Irish poet Austin Clarke updated

the Cailleach’s image in his poem. “The Young

Woman of Beare.”

See also GLEN LYON.

Sources: Hyde, Douglas. Beside the Fire: A

Collection of Irish Gaelic Folk Stories. London:

David Nutt, 1890, pp. 161 ff; MacNeill, Máire.

The Festival of Lughnasa, Parts I and II. Dublin:

Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann, 1982, pp.

160–161, 412–413, 207–208; MacKenzie,

Donald A. Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk Life:

Studies in Race, Culture and Tradition. Glasgow:

Blackie & Sons, Ltd., 1935, pp. 136–155;

McKay, John G. More W

est Highland Tales. Vol.

2. Scottish Anthropological and Folklore

Society

. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1969, pp.

166, 379 ff; Paton, C. I. Manx Calendar Customs.

Publications of the Folk-lore Society, reprinted.

Nendeln/Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint Limited,

1968, p. 37; Spence, Lewis. The Minor Traditions

of British Mythology. New York: Benjamin Blom,

Inc., 1972, p. 78; Straffon, Cher

yl. The Earth

Goddess: Celtic and Pagan Legacy of the Landscape.

London: Blandfor

d, 1997, pp. 45–52, 179–180.

Caílte (Cailte, Caoilte) Irish hero. A nephew

of FIONN MAC CUMHAILL and hunter for the fair

GRÁINNE, this FIANNA hero was a poet who

entertained after the evening meal with recita-

tions and song. He was also an athlete renowned

for his fleetness of foot. How fast was Caílte? So

fast that he could herd rabbits by racing around

them. So fast that he was able to pick up a fistful

of sand from every beach in Ireland every morn-

ing, so that if any enemy had stepped upon the

land, he could smell the intruder.

In several texts Caílte was described as run-

ning the entire length and breadth of Ireland in

a single day. In others, he raced with the HAG

goddess CAILLEACH at CRUACHAN, cutting off

her head as he ran; in other stories about the

Cailleach, this motif of decapitation resulted in a

rebirth missing from this version, unless it can

be found in what appears to be a separate story

of Caílte racing with a young and beautiful

woman; because hag and maiden together com-

prise the goddess of SOVEREIGNTY, it is possible

that the two tales are mirror images or part of

the same original.

Caílte was not fast enough to outrun change.

In a famous passage in the COLLOQUY OF THE

ELDERS, Caílte argued pagan values against ST.

PATRICK, who preached for Christianity, the

worldview that eventually won out against that

of the Fianna.

Caíntigern Irish goddess or heroine. This

minor figure in Irish mythology was the mother

of the magical king MONGÁN, whose father was

the Irish sea god, MANANNÁN MAC LIR.

Cairbre (Carbry, Carpre, Cairpre, Corpre)

This common male name was borne by several

Irish legendary heroes:

• Cairbre mac Éadaoine (Corpre mac Étaine),

a poet who bore the matronymic or personal

name of his mother the poet

ÉTAN; his father

was OGMA, god of eloquence. Cairbre

expected to be treated with the hospitality due

70 Caílte

a BARD, but when he visited the royal resi-

dence at TARA, he was shut into a stinking hut

and fed nothing but stale bread. His SATIRE on

the stingy ruler BRES mac Elatha raised sores

on the king’s face; as a BLEMISHED KING could

not reign, Bres was forced to step down.

Cairbre employed his magical poetic power

next in the second battle of MAG TUIRED,

assisting the

TUATHA DÉ DANANN toward vic-

tory. When he died, his mother’s heart broke

and she died with him.

• Cairbre Cinn-Chait (Catcheann), a usurper

who ruled over the MILESIANS. His name,

“CAT-head,” was given to him because he had

the head of a feline. He seized the throne of

TARA by ambushing and killing the heirs. But

as the Irish land would not bear fruit under an

unjust king, this Cairbre’s short reign was fol-

lowed by the resumption of the kingship by its

rightful kings.

• Cairbre Lifechair (of the Coffey) This high

king’s outrage at being taxed for his daughter’s

wedding led to his waging war upon the wan-

dering heroes of the FIANNA, which in turn led

to the destruction of that legendary fighting

force—but at the cost of Cairbre’s life, at the

renowned battle of GABHAIR.

• Cairbre Nia Fer, a king of TARA who

opposed CÚCHULAINN and was killed by him;

he was renowned for his 12 handsome

daughters.

Sources: O hÓgain, Dáithí. Myth, Legend and

Romance: An Encyclopedia of the Irish Folk

Tradition. New York: Prentice-Hall Press, 1991,

p. 70; Ross, Anne. Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies

in Iconography and Tradition. London: Routledge

& Kegan Paul, 1967, p. 100.

Cairenn Irish heroine. The consort of

EOCHAID Mugmedón and mother of NIALL of

the Nine Hostages, Cairenn was said to have

been a British princess who was captured and

enslaved in Ireland despite her regal status; thus

the great king of TARA, ancestor of the O’Neill

family, would have been half-British. Eochaid’s

first wife, MONGFHINN, was jealous of her hus-

band, and thus Cairenn stole away from Tara’s

court to give birth near a sacred WELL. As with

many early Irish kings, Niall’s birth and later life

are described in mythological terms.

cairn Mythological site. On the tops of moun-

tains and at other significant places throughout

the Celtic lands, mounds of rock are found, left

by the unknown pre-Celtic people of the

MEGA-

LITHIC CIVILIZATION. Some of these have interior

chambers, while others apparently do not. Many

cairns were adapted by the Celts to their own

mythological uses and became sites of legend

and, possibly, ritual as well (see COURT TOMBS).

cait sith Scottish mythological animal. In the

Scottish Highlands, this black spectral creature

of ambiguous species (probably feline) was so

large that it was sometimes mistaken for a BLACK

DOG. Although its name (“fairy CAT”) suggests

that it was of the FAIRY race, it was also reported

to be a shape-shifting WITCH or her familiar.

cake (struan, strone) Symbolic object. At cer-

tain feasts, cake (sometimes called bannock) was

served, not only as a festive food but as part of a

ritual. In some sites, the cake was displayed to all

in attendance, then won by the best dancer or

athlete, who was then charged with breaking and

distributing the cake. One piece of the cake was

sometimes blackened, and the person who drew

that piece was said to be “devoted,” a custom that

may suggest an ancient rite of HUMAN SACRIFICE.

Sources: Carmichael, Alexander. Carmina Gadelica:

Hymns and Incantations. Hudson, N.Y.:

Lindisfarne Press, 1992, pp. 88, 624; Ross,

Anne. “Lindow Man and the Celtic Tradition.”

In Stead, I. M., J. B. Bourke, and Don

Brothwell. The Lindow Man: The Body in the Bog.

Ithaca, N.Y.: Cor

nell University Press, 1986,

pp. 162–169.

cake 71

Caladbolg Irish mythological object. The

sword of the great warrior FERGUS mac Róich

may have been associated with king ARTHUR’s

magical EXCALIBUR, for its name reflects the

Welsh name for the latter. Caladbolg caused

rainbows whenever Fergus used it, as when he

lopped off the tops of the midlands mountains,

creating the flattened hills we see today.

calamity meat Irish folkloric motif. This term

was used of animals that died accidentally, falling

over a cliff or crushed by a boulder or in another

unusual fashion. The bodies of such animals were

supposed to be buried whole, with not a bite taken

of them nor a steak cut off their flanks, for they

were thought bewitched by the FAIRIES—or, even

worse, to be the disguised body of an aged dead

fairy, left behind when the living animal was stolen

AWAY. It was best as well to puncture the animal’s

hide with an IRON nail before burying it, to protect

the land in which it was buried from further fairy

influence. Until recent times, rural people in

Scotland and Ireland refused to eat calamity meat

for fear of devouring a fairy cadaver.

Sources: MacGregor, Alasdair Alpin. The Peat-Fire

Flame: Folk-Tales and Traditions of the Highlands

& Islands. Edinburgh: The Moray Press, 1937,

p. 3; O hEochaidh, Séan. Fairy Legends of

Donegal. Trans. by Máire MacNeill. Dublin:

Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann, 1977, p. 79.

Caledonia Celtic land. Now used poetically to

mean Scotland, Caledonia was originally a tribal

territory in northern Britain. When the Romans

occupied the island, they encountered a people

called the Cadedonii, who later united with other

Celtic tribes including the Lugi, Taezali,

Decantae, and Smeretae to form the Caledonian

confederacy, which fiercely opposed Roman

occupation. The Caledonian language, still not

completely understood, has been claimed as an

ancestor to or relative of Welsh. The ancient

tribal name still hides in the name Dunkeld, the

“fort of the Caledonians,” in Scotland.

calendar Cosmological concept. Unlike most

ancient people, the Celts did not divide the sea-

sons at SOLSTICES (the year’s longest and shortest

days) and EQUINOXES (when day and night are

equal). Rather, they began and ended seasons at

the central points between the solar pivots. Thus

winter began on SAMHAIN, November 1, midway

between the autumnal equinox on September 21

and the winter solstice on December 21.

Similarly, spring began on IMBOLC, February 1;

summer on BELTANE, May 1; and fall on LUGH-

NASA, August 1. Some scholars have argued that

this annual division was not Celtic but Irish, since

such a calendar is not found among the conti-

nental Celts and since it more clearly reflects the

seasonal cycle in Ireland than in France. Such

great stone monuments as STONEHENGE and

Newgrange (see BRÚ NA BÓINNE) are pre-Celtic,

designed to mark points of the solar year rather

than the midpoints celebrated by the Celts;

nonetheless the Celts adapted them to their own

use and wove myth and legend around them.

The Celts saw darkness as preceding light,

both in the diurnal and the annual cycle. Thus a

day began at sundown; Samhain began on the

evening of October 31, which we now call

Hallowe’en or the “hallowed evening.” Similarly

Samhain marked the beginning of the new year

and the end of the old. This precedence of night

over day has given rise alternatively to theories

of a dualistic struggle between light and dark on

the one hand, and a matrifocal society that hon-

ored women’s cycles on the other; neither inter-

pretation has been proved or disproved.

A break in this pattern came in the organiza-

tion of the lunar months, which began with the

full moon, perhaps because it was more readily

visible than the dark new moon. The

COLIGNY

Calendar of the continental Celtic people shows

the months as follows: Samonious (October/

November), Dumannios (November/December),

Ruaros (December/January), Anagantios

(January/February), Ogronios (February/March),

Cutios (March/April), Giamonios (April/May),

Simivisonios (May/June), Equos (June/July),

Elembiuos (July/August), Edrinios (August/

72 Caladbolg

September), and Cantlos (September/October).

A 13th month, Mid Samonious, was added every

30 months to adapt the lunar year to the longer

solar year.

Source: Danaher, Kevin. “Irish Folk Tradition and

the Celtic Calendar.” In Robert O’Driscoll, ed.

The Celtic Consciousness. New York: George

Braziller, 1981, pp. 217–242.

Caliburn (Carliburnus, Caladfwlch, Caedvwlch)

British mythological object. Alternative name for

EXCALIBUR, the magical sword of ARTHUR.

Callanish (Callernish) Scottish mythological

site. This STONE CIRCLE on the isle of Lewis and

Harris, part of the Outer Hebrides off Scotland,

is widely renowned. Every 18 years, the full

moon, as seen from Callanish, rises from the feet

of a woman-shaped hill and travels across her

body until it sets behind her head. Celtic peoples

probably converted such monuments, built by

the MEGALITHIC CIVILIZATION some 4,000 years

prior to their arrival in the land, to their own rit-

ual purposes. Local tradition has it that the

stones of Callanish, like many other stone cir-

cles, were originally GIANTS who were turned to

stone, in this case for refusing the opportunity to

convert to Christianity.

Sources: Grinsell, Leslie V. Folklore of Prehistoric

Sites in Britain. London: David & Charles,

1976, p. 28; Straffon, Cheryl. The Earth Goddess:

Celtic and Pagan Legacy of the Landscape.

London: Blandford, 1997, p. 18.

Callirius British god. Equated by the Romans

with the woodland god SILVANUS, Callirius was

honored at a temple near Colchester; he may

have been the GENIUS LOCI of the region.

Camelot Welsh and British mythological site.

Several places in England and Wales lay claim to

having been the site of the legendary court of

King ARTHUR, where noble knights gathered

around the ROUND TABLE to determine their

next adventurous quest; a favorite contender is

Cadbury Camp in Somerset. The great palace

was said to have been erected overnight by the

magician MERLIN. The name Camelot has come

to mean an ideal kingdom, despite the downfall

of its heroic king Arthur. Camelot should be dis-

tinguished from AVALON, the OTHERWORLD

realm of the LADY OF THE LAKE and other pow-

erful beings; Camelot was entirely of this world,

though affected by influences from beyond.

Camlan (Camlaun, Camlann) Welsh mytho-

logical site. This unknown spot was said by early

writers to be the site of the final battle of king

ARTHUR’s reign, at which he was defeated by his

son/nephew MORDRED and from which he was

taken to the OTHERWORLD by the mysterious

LADY OF THE LAKE.

Camulos (Camulus) British god. Little is left

to identify the significance of this god whose

name was incorporated in the important town of

Camulodunum, “fort of Camulos,” now

Colchester. The invading Romans identified

him with their war god MARS. It has been theo-

rized that he may be a parallel to the Irish ances-

tral father CUMHALL, father of the hero FIONN

MAC CUMHAILL.

canach (catkin, clòimh-chat) Scottish folkloric

motif. The fluffy white wool of the cattail, a reed

that grows in marshes, was once thought to be

shape-shifted

WITCHES, riding to their secret

gatherings on the winds. The same was said to

be true of snowflakes, in which witches could

hide as they traveled. The fibers of catkins or

cat-wool, which carry the seeds of such trees as

the birch and the poplar, could be twisted into

little white cords that were reputed to keep away

WITCHCRAFT and other evil.

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

Vol. 2. Scottish Anthropological and Folklore

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

369, 370.

canach 73