The Cailleach : Celtic crone and goddess of winter (Folklore and Mythology)
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
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Deity Tracker No 1. Part of a series of videos on gods and goddesses.
The Cailleach is a hag or crone goddess in the Gaelic speaking world, Scotland, the Western Isles and Ireland. Also synonymous with Beira the Queen of Winter ruling from Samhain to Imbolc.
She is said to be a weather god, as well as the ancestor of all the other gods, the creator of the world, Great Mother and the very ground of Being, her origins are mysterious.
This is an exploration of the folklore, mythology and legend surrounding this figure. Her possible origins in the Celtic or earlier (neolithic) people of Britain and Ireland.
Her similarities with other Indo-European deities, including the Norse Thor, the Welsh Ceridwen and even the Hindu goddess of destruction Kali.
For more information on the Cailleach and other British and Irish pagan and gods as well as the history of magic and witchcraft, I can recommend none better than historian and Oliver Cromwell impersonator Professor Ronald Hutton.
The Cailleach is not a goddess in the deity sense, she is a primordial nature spirit. I believe she represents the spirit of the glacier that covered Scotland before the Holocene really kicked in. The Atlantic Islands, and Scotland in particular have ice carved landscapes. The glacier retreated and returned a few times (one example is the Loch Lomond Readvance) before finally melting away in land forming floods. Our animist ancestors would have viewed the ice as a living, breathing force of nature and have had great respect for it.
I completely agree, and like your interpretation. Of course we can get caught up with definitions. Animist principles blend into nature spirits which bleed into deities in the more classical sense. All of this is compounded by the fact that we don’t know how old the Cailleach really is. But I like your interpretation. It makes sense.
@@TheStoryCrow Thank you for being so open to this interpretation. Where I live, in Canada, there was also a large glacial sheet during the last ice age. There are huge boulders scattered through the forest that I come upon while wild crafting plants. Just dropped out of the retreating glacier thousands of years ago. Much like the Cailleach drops stones out of her apron. Can you imagine the sound cracking of the ice cracking and breaking during the time it was living? Much like the sound of a huge hammer or mallet. Then there were the environmental conditions created by the large field of ice. It's personality, very harsh and unforgiving, if you were caught out in it unprepared. Much like the cronish personality of the Cailleach. Blue, her color like the thick blue ice of a glacier. Her whirlpool at Corryvreckan, a symbol and what is left of the profond, and hard to comprehend, turbulence and power, of the awe inspiring amounts of rushing water that flooded the land as glacial ponds and seas were suddenly released. Sometimes , on the landscape, I realize that I am looking at massive erosion caused by those melting waters of the glacier here. Gaps out into the sea, hundreds of feet high, created over the course of not years, but days and weeks. The Cailleach is not here where I live. She is unique to the Atlantic Islands, but I understand her in my blood and I have been seeking to connect with the Nature Spirits here for more than a decade. She has been a great guide to me in my search.
@@beenforet5391 Yes I know fully what you mean regarding connecting with the spirit of the landscape. My native Wiltshire is similar to how you describe (on a smaller scale probably) huge glacial valleys carved millennia ago, littered with saracen stones used to make the megaliths of southern Britain such as Stonehenge. When I walk these hills, like the flank of a great dreaming animal, I know I'm walking in the footsteps of my ancestors. I've always wanted to visit Canada though. Beautiful, vast, wild country. You must be very lucky, carrying the gods of europe in your blood as you say, but also being close to the spirit of the land of that great country and the incredible mythos of the First Nation peoples. I often find amazing similarities between Celtic and Norse mythology and that of Native Americans. Particularly Labrador, Newfoundland and their Trickster figures. Loki and Wolverine would get on like a house on fire in my view. Anyway. Thanks for watching and sharing your story.
Very nicely done. Don't dismiss your idea that the Cailleach and Kali might be related by thinking that their etymologies are different so quickly. "Hooded One" or "Shrouded One" and "Dark One" can carry the same connotation of "obscure" or "mysterious" are are usually used to describe the world of Death, with which each is associated. Your knowledge and style with which you share it are both a treasure.
Yeah I think you are right, the etymology is not dissimilar and the two are tantalisingly familiar. I just wonder if the link (if any) is an ancient one or a relatively recent one, as Ronald Hutton suggests. Could be either I suppose. I prefer the ancient connection personally 🤷♂️ 😅
Yes, Kali The Destroyer and the Cailleach represent transformation through destruction.
@@TheStoryCrow a lengthy video on Kali and her connection as Mother Goddess in other cultures. I thought you may be interested.
czcams.com/video/K92BlPwz-7c/video.htmlsi=Jk9rIGTOFJLEJF0a
'Kali' is how you pronounce both the genitive form of Cailleach and the vocative form - so for example - Sliabh na Cailligh (the mountain of the witch/hag - or in modern Irish sliabh na caillí) is pronounced 'shlee-av na Kali' . The vocative form is "a chailligh" pronounced Khali (with a slight throaty-ness to the k). Is it possible that the name travelled but that the 'grammar' did not, or that it got 'lost in translation', and so in the Vedas, they just naively used the genitive or vocative form, unaware that it actually was a specific grammitical form? Bearing in mind that in everyday speech, twhen speaking of rituals, dances etc. associated with the Cailleach, and when addressing the Cailleach directly, these vocative and genetive forms would be far more common than the word cailleach itself .... Likewise we can see in Scotland how the name Hamish became a name its own right. But Hamish is actually the vocative form of Séamus ... ie A Shéamais... pronounced 'a Hamish' - same phenomenon, where a vocative form has been mistaken for the name itself.
Deepest condolences at the loss of your mum. Yes the Hag also teaches us of the cycles of life and rebirth. Many Blessings )0(
🙏
Several years ago, in late January, there was a fast and massive thaw here in southern Minnesota USA. I was at a friend’s house in the country for dinner, and we had the windows open! We could hear the ice cracking on the nearby creek, then the water rushing then…a long, keening, primal scream. I have heard lynx, bobcat, wolves, coyotes, foxes and other animals calling, but this was definitely “human” female sounding. I’ve always thought it was the winter goddess furious at the rapid melting. The Cailleach, perhaps…?
And my heart goes out to you at the loss of your mother. I lost mine in October 2021. It is life changing, and you grow in ways that are surprising.
Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that. Not the first time I’ve heard the Veiled One being described as a cultural memory of the glaciers once smothering Europe.
I’d just never heard such a visceral description of it from nature.
Thank you also for your kind words.
🙏✨
Minnesota was once covered in glaciers, too - which melted into a giant glacial lake. I’m of “Celtic” descent, so maybe She recognized my blood and knew I’d understand here across the pond.
Sounds more like the Banshee you heard.
Thank you for talking about her, the wise old woman, she’s one of those grandmother ancestor spirits who is always with me. The OG thunder God(dess)! ❤
Thanks for stopping by. New Celtic deity video coming at the weekend 🙏👍✨🌳
I honor her at the winter solstice, she and the Holly King are ascendant.
Lol my Wiccan name is Cerridwen! I remember when Cerridwen kicked me out of Circle! It was my fault. I deserved that. I normally speak with her very casually, but she made it very clear that in Circle I need to address her more formally. She turned up my internal heat. I had to be taken out of the ceremony, stripped down to my underwear, and sat down near a window to cool myself off before I passed out. Once I felt better, I spent the rest of the ceremony tending to the meal. We were celebrating Mabon and I was making a double Thanksgiving-esk turkey dinner for the whole coven. No one went home hungry. Everyone took leftovers and I still had a whole turkey to give my dad to bring in to his office the next day. I haven’t cooked for that many people in a long time. And I never forgot that lesson I got that night either.
Sounds like a proper old school coven that! Bb ✨🧙
From Ireland thank you for this
A pleasure friend. Thanks for stopping by. I’m driving to your country soon. Looking forward to it 🙏 🌊 🇮🇪
Proff Ron Hutton is fantastic to listen to. I met him a couple of times at Witchfests, he's such a gentleman xx
what a pure delight to have found you, this message, you are such a gift… my heartfelt and sincere condolences for the shifting of your mother to another world… for now ~ may you always feel her closer than you need
What a lovely comment, thanks for sharing it, and for stopping by. 🙏
I used to do a page on Instagram about the folklore of plants and found you when researching. You've got me wanting to get back into it now. Love your videos and you have such amazing knowledge just off the top of the dome lol
Do it! Good luck ☺️✨
This was great, thank you. I love the tales of the black earth mother in all her guises.
Same here friend 🧙🏾♀️
What a wonderful video. Love the way you interconnect mythology, philosophy and story telling with a personal note.
That’s a lovely thing to hear, thank you. Mythology I feel always has a personal or psychological level. We live in myth, not the other way round. I think anyway 😅
The Appalachian mountain range in the eastern United States is the oldest mountain range, although they appear young and green. The mountains of Scotland look scoured stripped. There is a program replanting trees, fenced in to keep the sheep out.
Are they really the oldest? Interesting. I know the rockies are young, but didn’t know about the apple a’s.
And I’m glad they’re being reforested. Many British ranges are barren due to grazing and we don’t see them like they once were. Green and verdant. 🌳 🌳 ⛰️
I've discovered your channel just today with this video and so happy to find it as you explain things on a charming, simple and truly way... all around folklore-mithology-last times history theories... making it really special and understandible for me.
Just a beautiful discovering!
From Spain now, but after few years living in Scotland.
Thanks!
Pleased to hear that, welcome and thanks for watching 🙏🏴🇪🇸
Depending on how old the Oak King/Holly King concept is it would make sense for there to have been a feminine equivalent that ran along the same metaphysical lines.
I agree. A lot of these concept tend to run into each other and overlap. Perhaps the oak and holly king being on the solstices represents more Germanic paganism and the cailleach and bride being on Beltane / Samhain represents more Celtic paganism but I have no idea. Even the concepts Germanic and Celtic paganism seem to be rather modern classifications. But the basic metaphysical structure seems to be very old, whatever we label it. Thanks for watching!
This is my new favorite channel thank you so much for your insight into on deities and exceptional story telling! I love how you connect the similarities between god/ess representations throughout different cultures.
Thank you, I should do more deity tracker videos …
Great video. Imbolc blessings for this week x
Same to you! 🕯️ 👰🏻 🌱 ❄️
@@TheStoryCrow why have you called yourself ‘Crow,? I ask out of curiosity as I’m currently working on a project about crows. Do you have any stories involving them?
I started this channel just going to do crow stories, but it kind of grew into wider folklore. But I do really love crows and corvids. I’ve raised a few orphaned daws and have a crow tattoo on my leg. I guess they’re my totem animal.
Just now starting the video! Curious to see if you will also feel there’s a connection between The Caileach and the goddess Kali, like I do! ☺️
Certainly seems that way doesn’t it ☺️
100% Thank you! 🍀🍀🍀
You are so welcome 🇮🇪 🙏
Condolences about your mother passing. Be the alchemist dear friend, when there is darkness you will have hope knowing the dawn is coming. ☀️✨
🙏✨🌳
excellent video. one aspect of the cailleach that occurs to me often when i wander about in winter, is her role in protecting the woodland animals during the winter months. it is her more benevolent side, and is the best explanation i can think of for the survival of the deer through the harshness of winter.
Good point 🙏❄️
Sorry to hear about your mother. Mine passed last June and I feel like I’ll never be the same person as I was before she left. It is a very hard lesson indeed.
Just found your channel recently and I’ve loved every video. You have a great voice and presence and the stories are so compelling. Thank you for helping to fill my troubled mind with lighter things 🙏
Thanks for writing. Everything happens for a reason, as my mum used to say. I’m sorry you lost yours. I never really stop thinking about it… Much love to you, wherever you are 🙏
Thank you for this, I had no idea about the Cailleach. It really resonated with me, my solar return is in the dead of Winter I am older now, more crone. I was born under a Cancer full moon, the archetypal mother. I hope your journey with releasing your mother grief softens with the knowing that she lives through you❤
The crone is a sacred time. The most sacred 🙏✨
Do you think the Cailleach and Brigit, share a prehistoric origin with Persephone and Cora?
Persephone means bringer of death and is associated with winter just like the Cailleach, and Brigit is also called bride, while Cora means the maiden. So similar name meanings, and both are synonymous with the Spring / Summer season.
Every time I hear about the Cailleach and winter, I think of a Scottish Persephone. I wish I could remember where I read this, but I believe I read somewhere that they are both speculated to possibly be more ancient goddesses, that were incorporated into the later Indo-European cultures in their respective regions. And I’ve always wondered why Persephone and winter were such a big deal in a warm Mediterranean place like Greece, unless she came from an earlier culture, like the Anatolian Farmers during the ice age, who would have experienced colder winters, and also been obsessed with tracking the seasons for agriculture purposes.
That’s also, probably why they built all those stone circles, that track the seasons.
What do you think?
Yes I would certainly put Persephone in the same archetypal image basket, and variations of the theme do just keep emerging from the collective unconscious (if you will).
I think your suggestion that this might actually be a pre - indo European hangover is spot on. It’s funny, I’m thinking a lot about the horned god for my next deity tracker video and I think exactly the same thing has happened there. Earlier imagery reincorporated and repackaged.
Great observation. Thanks for sharing 👍
I love your channel it so informative and comforting at the same time
Glad you enjoy it, thanks for watching 🙏
Frey and Freya - the twin gods from Scandinavia leaves us with a godess who is just as powerfull as Odin. (Her husbonds name was Od... and she is rather obviously the same godess as Frigg, who was Odins wife. Freya had her own deadh realm/ "Valhalla" named "Folksvangr". Freya is in some traditions the spring godess. Freya was the ultimative Vølve... The Grand grand mother of Witches.
I would wich, that you will deep dive in the Nordic story (and especialy what is written between the lines) about Freya.
Love your videoes.
That’s a good idea, thanks for the suggestion. Wishing you well for the new year! 🌞 ❄️🧝♀️
Thanks and same same to You and yours. 🎄🌥️🕯️✨
Your answer is my best present. Say by the way “when” if you would like to dive together. It’s a bit of a “dark” matter… (hitten by the Christian munks who wrote the very small passages down several hundred years after Denmark / Scandinavian for Christianised).
I agree….. I’ve found similar primordial goddesses in a few cultures thank you touching on that. I love your content.
On your sharing about your mother’s transitioning. Sending comfort
Thanks friend 🙏
Christian churches stole a lot of the Feast Days celebrated by all Celts/Druids/Pagans etc. They call her 'The Holy Trinity' ... Thank you for such an interesting & informative video!
You are most welcome 🙏
I wonder if the Maiden, Mother and Crone were the source of the Christian Trinity, or visa versa.
@@jturtle5318 They would most likely have been, tho as 'The Church ' (regardless of which), are all patriarchal, it would been changed to the male terms of each...
I'm going through some stuff and have decided to change my human name.. I was considering Shailleach.. pronunced "shayla" for those who dont speak the language of the gods
I wander if the rise in popularity of Cailleach coincides with historical long cold periods like 1430's or wasn't there a volcano that created a long winter in the 1800's? Stands to reason that during a long period of good harvests and good summers you may forget all about the White walkers.
You forgot or are not aware of The Cailleach tales from The Isle of Man..... Some , including myself would not call her a Goddess. More of a 'Land Spirit'..'The Queen of Winter.' ..... I believe with many stories in many so called Celtic languages and areas, this is more of a TITLE than a single Goddess....i refute the aspect of God... There are many stories between Scotland, The Isle of man and Ireland, Even stories of two Callieach Crones having a huge fight and throwing stones at each other creating many Islands. Deity is replacing the term God & Goddess. Rather than being for specific gender . I believe that we all have aspects of God & goddess within us as extremes of emotion. Folklore is written. This is history modernising it is not our job we are custodians of the tales...The Goddesses of 3 is often more of a new age Wicca/Wiccan representation. The hooded figure to me is more representative of Badb and Gaulish goddess Catubodua..
Great comment. You’re right. So many variations of the Cailleach legends across these islands. Love the ones about the islands being formed by two such crones fighting. I also love the one about the islands and mountains dropping from her apron - so prosaic! I do also agree that the term Land Spirit does feel more apt in this case. I suppose we can get a little bogged down in semantics 🤷♂️ I also agree with your mentioning of the psychological aspects of these deities existing within us. Where I don’t agree with you is the goddess of three being mainly a new age Wicca / neo pagan phenomenon (although it is present there, of course) it is well attested in both the archeological and folk record as well. Especially in Britain and Ireland. The 3 ‘mothers’ and the three ‘hooded ones’ of Roman Britain for e.g. Obviously we don’t know their identity now, but the cailleach shares a tantalisingly similar etymology (hooded) as well as having folkloric similarities to other virgin / mother / crone triptychs in Celtic folklore. I would guess there may be a link there 🤔 Anyway. Ramble over. 😂 thanks for stopping by 🙏
Yes, I use the Triple goddess in some aspects, it feels like a modern interpretation of Hecate.
Wikipedia describes her as similar to Badb Catha, Battle Crow. My thoughts went to The Morrigan too.
Enchanting
🙏✨thank you
Can you recommend any good books in regards folklore and flora and weather? I only have a couple to refer to. Another great upload. ✨🙏✨
I don’t actually, that also include weather, that’s a neat concept
@@TheStoryCrow I wrote that wrong. I mean, do you know of any good books on folklore regarding flora?… and do you know of any good books that relate folklore to weather? I do have one on weather/folklore… when I find it, I’ll let you know what it’s called. I just hoped you might have some good recommendations other than my two books. Cheers 🍻
So Robert graves the white goddess. It’s dated, sometimes wrong, but still somehow brilliant. Then I have a book called botanical folk tales of Britain and Ireland. It’s a bit fluffy and overwritten, but sweet. Those two off the top of me head!
@@TheStoryCrow I’ve had that Robert Graves book on my shelf for years and not read it yet. Guess it’s time I did 🤭 And thanks, I’ll grab a copy of the other one soon as I can 👍🏼
@@TheStoryCrow Almost forgot… when going through my books boxes, I found the Weather Lore book I mentioned… “Weather Lore” by Richard Inwards AND… I found a book I forgot I had “Tree Wisdom - the definitive guidebook to the myth, folklore and healing power of Trees” by Jacqueline Memory Paterson. I really must focus on getting more bookshelves to accommodate my library. 🙄
That’s an interesting observation about Kali. I don’t think there is a ton of discrepancy between Kali meaning dark, and Cailleach meaning hooded. After all, a hooded face is pretty dark. 🤷🏻
I agree. But you know… Etymologists 🙄😂🤷♂️
Excellent video. I have just stumbled upon the Cailleach in my reading recently. Heading to Loch Awe soon which she is said to have created.
Oooooh. Great place. Went there in the van this year. Have fun 🧙✨😊
Cailleach is pronounced ‘Kye-yach’. Cailleach in Scots Gaelic is an every day word simply means old woman. More of a divine ancestor than a God.
I agree, but god works better on the algorithms 😂 thanks for the Scottish Gaelic tip, I’m not a native speaker 🙏
One of our more popular songs about a cailleach, good version from Hothouse Flowers... czcams.com/video/CcrowN94im4/video.html
Thanks for that. That was great. 🙏
@@TheStoryCrow May be fair to say yourself and Liam Ó Maonlaí are cut from the same celtic cloth...
@@TheStoryCrow Translates as "She is your mother, she is your mother, she is your mother, the hag with the money! "
She kinda sounds like Anu....creator,mother of the gods....
Could be an old link there, certainly in the darker, more crone like aspects 🤔
@@TheStoryCrow I was just noticing that Danu was also a creator, and mother to the gods. And her folk ended up going underground to live, as Cailleach goes underground to sleep after drinking from the fountain of the green isle. Geographically similar locations, altho I'm not sure where on the timeline they both turned up.....just a thought.
@@TheStoryCrow I really enjoyed your presentation and hope you will continue to do more.
😂😂😂ill give you a lesson
🫢😅
your pronunciation of Cailleach is killing me. In Irish it's pronounced ky-loch
I know my Irish pronunciation is hilarious. 😅
Luckily Cailleach is also a word in Gallic, Scots and also English - so I’ve lots of opportunities to mispronounce it 😂
Was looking for some lore on the Snowy Crone from the video game Elden Ring and I end up here. Very good video, I love myths and everything that relates to witches and the cold in general, thanks for the discovery (and I can see so many inspirations for the video game in your video)