Greening the Hag

Ecological aspects of the Cailleach in Scottish and Irish folklore

I don’t think that many of you who follow my work and have read my books will be unaware of the remarkable gigantic old woman in the Gaelic folkloric traditions: the Cailleach, the creator and shaper of the land, and (in Scotland, at least) the spirit of the season of winter. I’ve been researching and writing about this character for two full decades now, and over that time it’s been a delight to see her creep into contemporary consciousness again. Because that’s how these archetypal characters function, for me. They don’t go away, but we often lose connection with them over time. Because the overculture is focused on different values; because the overculture tries to sell us a different story about who we should be in the world. And when we lose our connection to these archetypal characters, we lose connection to an essential aspect of who we are, and who we might become. But when an archetype pushes its way back into consciousness, and when you begin to pay attention to it, then it wakes up. It becomes relevant again, and so continues on its own journey of transforming and becoming; along the way, it transforms us too.

Well, that’s my mission, right now: to bring back into contemporary consciousness the archetypal qualities of older women that we’ve lost. To make the archetypal old women in our ancient stories relevant again – because I think they have something profound to teach us about how to be in the world.

The Cailleach certainly has something profound to teach us, which is why I’ve focused on her for so long, and why she’s been such a great teacher for me. So if you’ve read If Women Rose Rooted, or Hagitude, you’ll know something about why I think this. In If Women Rose Rooted, I wrote:

‘To a woman of the Celtic nations, to become Elder is above all to become Cailleach: to represent the integrity and health of the wild places and creatures of this world. To become Elder is to become strong – strong as the white old bones of the earth, strong enough to endure the long, lonely vigil to the end of the world. To become Elder is to hold the power, stay the course.’

In Hagitude, I wrote:

‘If the mythology and history of our culture includes elder women who are strong and fierce guardians and protectors of the land, then it opens up a space for women to grow into and live up to those stories. To be taken seriously, and have our voices heard – not only for our own sakes, but for the sake of the land itself, and the other-than-humans who inhabit it alongside us.’

But although in each of those two books I presented a brief  summary of who the Cailleach is in our old folklore, and gave a couple of examples of it, you might not know quite how much folklore there is about her, or the depth and richness of other traditions about giant old women in Britain and Ireland – and, indeed, throughout Europe. So today I wanted to offer those of you who are interested an in-depth review of all the folklore about the Cailleach which presents her as guardian and protector of the land: as the original ecofeminist in our ancestral traditions. This is based on a thesis I wrote for my MA in Celtic Studies, in which I focused on myth and folklore. And so it’s full of references and footnotes – but those of you who, like me, are fascinated by this Old Woman of ours might like to follow their trails, and so dig deeper.

And as an example of how, for me, she remains relevant today, at the end you’ll find an audio file of me reading ‘No Country for Old Women’, the story about the Cailleach that I wrote for my collection Foxfire, Wolfskin and Other Stories of Shapeshifting Women. I hope you find something in all this to enjoy.

(The research project which resulted in all the information below was carried out over a long period of time, is now an academic publication, and is all my own work. If you’d like to quote or re-use it, you’re welcome to do so, but since it is my copyright, please fully credit me as the source.)

Image by Natalie Eslick for Hagitude: Reimagining the Second Half of Life, by Sharon Blackie.