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THE CAILLEACH: HAG OF SAMHAIN

In Irish lore, the Cailleach (pronounced \"kyle-yeukh\") descends from the mountains at Samhain to rule the land until Beltaine. She is the most ancient of all Celtic legends. She is a builder or destroyer, beauty or hag, protector or avenger, powerful or frail - but always as mysterious as death itself.

As with so many ancient goddesses, her once sacred image is now diminished to a mere shadow. The green-faced witch of Halloween is a feeble remnant of the Irish Cailleach. In present times, she is depicted as the dark fairy of Winter or the faraway banshee who howls as a death omen, a safe distance removed from our Halloween night.

One of the oldest literary citings of this divine crone is found in the fourteenth century Yellow Book of Lecan. Like most early Irish manuscripts, this transcript is derived from earlier oral traditions. Here the lineage of the Cailleach Beara originates among the Corcy Duibne, a long-forgotten people of whom it was written \"shall never be without some wonderful cailleach among them.\"

As the Old Woman of Beara, she is cited as being older than the oldest of all creatures. The Hawk of Achill says to her \"You are as old as the old grandmother, long ago, who ate the apples.\" She is older than Fintan, who is supposed to be the longest-lived human. A typical example of a Cailleach legend comes from Beara and illustrates the Cailleach\'s role as a builder and creator. In the time before this one, there were two giant old women, one lived on the mainland, the other on the island. They got into an argument and threw hurling sticks at each other. That\'s how the standing stones on Beara Island and Castletownbere came to be.

Beara is a peninsula on the southern coast of Ireland in West Munster, County Cork. Local legends tell of the Cailleach\'s descendants going off to create many different tribes and races. It is interesting to note that this area is the backdrop for Ireland\'s oldest myths. Here is the ancestral home of the aboriginal people known simply as Sean Erainn (Old Ireland). It is the same locality where Cessair is said to have first set foot in Ireland, on Dun na mBarc. Banba, one of the first settlers of Ireland, met the sons of Mil at Sliabh Mis in the same vicinity. It is easy to imagine the Cailleach being born in such ageless settings. Other legends, however, insist that the Cailleach was of the Tuatha de Danaan.

The Cailleach is well-known in eastern Ireland. In MeathSliabh na Caillighe (Witch\'s Mountain) bears her name. Near Lough Crew, this complex features chambered cairns and a huge thronelike kerbstone on the hilltop. Local stories describe how the Cailleach brought the stones for the cairns in her apron. When she finished setting them out, she made herself a seat nearby so she could look out over the land. The Chair Cairn is solid rock, ten feet long, six feet high and two feet thick. Its sides are carved with zig zags and concentric circles similar to the patterns at nearby Newgrange. Broken pieces of quartz are scattered around the Chair, perhaps remnants of offerings made to the Cailleach in ages past.

The archaeogically rich Dingle peninsula on the southwestern coast of Ireland is dotted with places bearing the name of the Cailleach in her various local aspects. The Dingle mountains are ruled by the hag goddess, Mish. At the famous Cliffs of Moher she is known as Bronach, or Sorrow. At Hag\'s Head, the resident crone goddess is called Mal.

In some of her stories, the Cailleach leaps great distances or flies through the air. In her guise as Hag of the Mill, she challenges Suibhne Geilt, no meager leaper himself, to a contest that ends in his death. She is often depicted as jumping from hill to hill at fantasic heights, either for sheer pleasure or to win some supernatural power or coveted prize. A later form of Caillleach is Nicnevin or the Bone Mother, who flies through the air with her demons on Samhain.

The Crone is naturally connected with Samhain at beginning of the barren season. Old seasonal customs linked with her are still practiced in rural Ireland and Scotland today. The first farmer to finish reaping the grain saves the last sheaf to make a doll-like figure of the Cailleach. The unlucky one who finishes last must keep and care for this dolly until springtime, when she is strewn in the fields or fed to the herds. Despite the Irish reputation for hospitality, no one welcomes this Old Woman as their winter guest.

Yet another aspect of the Cailleach is her role as Sovereignty, symbolic spirit of the land. In the old times, a ritual marriage to Sovereignty was required of any man who would be king. Sovereignty often appeared to a future king as a gruesome looking crone or \"black hag\" who tests him by demanding a kiss or perhaps something more. If he is brave enough to oblige, she turns into a beautiful woman and proclaims his royalty. A challenge from the Dark Goddess is a common theme in Celtic myth. If the challenge is properly met. a wondrous transformation and reward follows.

In closing, I offer this modern rendition of an 11th century Irish poem originally known as Lament of the Cailleach Beara. When her diminuitive descendants come to your door this Halloween begging for candy, remember the Hag Goddess and be generous to them!

Sources:

Peter Berresford Ellis, A dictionary of irish mythology

James MacKillop, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology

Alwyn and Brinley Rees, Celtic Heritage

TW Rolleston, Celtic Myths & Legends

John & Caitlin Matthews, The Book of Celtic Wisdom

Kathleen Hoagland (editor) 1,000 Years of Irish Poetry

Image of Cailleach by Thalia Took