Another facebook post. I am trying to get back to real writing.
The Cailleach of Scotland, who brought the Highlands as boulders in her apron, probably arrived via Ireland and the raiding Scotti that gave Alba her English name. She is present in place names in Ireland and Scotland.
Like the Irish Tara I imagine she is one of the least altered Indo-European deities to travel with the Celts, and a relative of Hindu Kali. (Green Tara and White Tara are definitely linked to Irish Tara.) The Cailleach is blue skinned and has one red eye. (In Hindu systems the Third Eye chakra is red. That is why unmarried women wear that red bindi on their foreheads.)
The Cailleach in Scotland was a trickster. She would trick strong men into working for free by challenging them to keep her pace. Seeing the ancient hunched creature they would laughingly agree. None ever received a penny for the work they did. And some dropped dead trying to keep pace with her.
Cailleach is still the word for old woman and witch in modern Irish. Sgàthach, the famous Scots warrior that trained the greatest hero in Ireland, Cú Chulainn, and for whom Skye is named, was known in Scotland as being a daughter of the Cailleach (which means Aoife was too, probably). The Scots, being more stoic and Presbytarian, and less likely to celebrate female warriors (or witches) quite frankly, did not write about her as much.
Stories about her are usually confined to the locales of her place name, and each story is specific. In Scotland her name is often used for nuns, such as Inchcailloch, the Island of the Cailleach, on Loch Lomond. So in that legend she is a nun or founded the convent, or in some way played a part in shaping the Island's former occupants. (It's a public park and picnic spot now.)
In Ireland the Old Woman of Bearra "crowned" kings (by bedding them). There is a beautiful old Irish poem where she walks on the beach at Bearra and laments her youth and the beautiful warriors she used to know.
I feel like I must have seen this poem before, as the author is well know in Old Irish circles, but I do not recall it. (BTW, Cú Chulainn is the "Hound of Ulster" but cú can also mean "cub" so in Irish there is an even more poetic meaning to that first line.) He was political and executed during the Easter rebellion, and the poem is about the division of Republic and Northern Ireland. (Also, this poem structurally is amazing. He uses a triad and other forms found in Old Irish. Amazing poet, man, warrior.)
Poem from:
Pádraic Mac Piarais (1879–1916)
I am Ireland:
I am older than the old woman* of Beare.
Great my glory:
I who bore Cuchulainn, the brave.
Great my shame:
My own children who sold their mother.
Great my pain:
My irreconcilable enemy who harrasses me continually...
Great my sorrow
That crowd, in whom I placed my trust, died.
I am Ireland:
I am lonelier than the old woman* of Beare.
Mise Éire:
Sine mé ná an Chailleach* Bhéarra
Mór mo ghlóir:
Mé a rug Cú Chulainn cróga.
Mór mo náir:
Mo chlann féin a dhíol a máthair.
Mór mo phian:
Bithnaimhde do mo shíorchiapadh.
Mór mo bhrón:
D'éag an dream inar chuireas dóchas.
Mise Éire:
Uaigní mé ná an Chailleach* Bhéarra.
