"Hag Stones."

September will be full of happiness

September will be full of blessings

September will be full of growth

September will be full of surprises

September will be full of positivity

September will be full of love

September will be full of kindness

Scottish Folklore for Holy

There are many plants thought of protective in Scottish folklore, and Holly(cuileann in Gaelic) is one of them.

Holly . This name is probably a corruption of the word holy , as this plant has been used from time immemorial as a protection against evil influence . Folk Lore: Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century By James Napier

Much like rowan, holly could be placed inside the house above the door as a protective seal. If done, this plant was said to protect against evil intent(including from fairies), and nightmares.

The HOLLY . Pieces of holly along with rowan were placed inside over the door of the stable to prevent the entrance of the nightmare . My informant has cut the tree for this purpose. The Folk-lore Journal (Pg41): SOME FOLK – LORE ON TREES , ANIMALS , AND RIVER FISHING , FROM THE NORTH – EAST OF SCOTLAND

If planted near the house (outside) it was also said to protect from lightning. As it turns out, they may have been right.

“We now know that the spines on the distinctively-shaped holly leaves can act as miniature lightning conductors, thereby protecting the tree and other nearby objects.” The Holly Society,

It was considered bad luck to cut down a holly tree, but cutting of boughs for use was allowed.

The only time the tree was never to be trimmed was if they grew in in boarder hedges, due to the belief that witches would run on top of hedges, but the holly would act as a barrier to stop them.

It is even said that in 1861, the Duke of Argyll even had a prospective road rerouted to avoid cutting down the holly there.

KITCHEN WITCHERY

HAPPINESS - Chamomile, Lemon Balm, St Johns Wort, Oregano

MONEY- Spearmint, Basil, Cinnamon, Ginger

SUCCESS - Bay Laurel, Lemon balm, Lovage

BANISHING - Chilli Pepper, Mandrake, Frankincense, Mugwort, Rosemary

WISDOM - Thyme, Cinnamon

LOVE - Jasmine, Rose, Meadowsweet, Coriander, Basil, Marjoram

FERTILITY - Myrtle, Geranium, Mandrake, Mistletoe, Clary Sage, Fennel

HEALING - Calendula, Allspice, Elderberry, Ginger, Eucalyptus, Lavender

PROTECTION - Angelica, Lavender, Aloe Vera, Agrimony, Star Anise, Salt

PSYCHIC POWER - Frankincense, Yarrow, Bay Laurel, Mugwort

PURIFYING - Rosemary, Juniper, Sweetgrass

Protection from Fairies: Juniper

Just like rowan, juniper is sometimes mentioned as being lucky and a ward to keep away the evil eye. Where Juniper is truly useful, though, is for saining. Saining is essentially purifying a person or area, and juniper was one of several tools that could be used to do this.

Juniper, or the mountain yew, was burned by the Highlanders both in the house and in the byre as a purification rite on New Year’s morning. Like all magical plants, it had to be pulled in a particular manner. The Silver Bough: Volume 1  by F. Marian McNeill (1957-1968)

“This plant is a protection by sea and land, and no house in which it is will take fire. It must be pulled by the roots, with its branches made into four bunches, and taken between the five fingers…” The History of Witchcraft in Europe by Various Authors

Drawing of a branch of Juniperus communis with fruit cross-section and catkin. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.), v. 15, 1911, p. 557

Historical Hogmanay (Scottish New Year)

Hogmanay is the name for the Scottish New Year Eve, and was once thought to be a time when the veil was thin, allowing all sorts of creatures from the Otherworld into ours. Some theorize that this supernatural aspect is even where the name came from.

 “We know that on this night it was considered necessary to propitiate the dwellers in fairy-land, who, with the Phynnodderees, Witches, and Spirits of all kinds, were abroad and especially powerful. We may, therefore, perhaps translate Hog-man-aye into Hanga-man-ey–“mound-men (for) ever,” the Fairies being considered as dwellers in the hows (or tumuli, or green mounds)…-“ The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man by A. W. Moore[1891]

The pagan roots of the festival were once clear, and some locations held onto those traditions longer than others. For example, the Isle of Man once had a person puppet a horses head made of wood that was called White Mare.

“He went round the table snapping the horse’s mouth at the guests who finally chased him from the room, after much rough play.” The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man by A. W. Moore[1891]

Similarly, some places in Scotland had a person in a cows hide who would be chased around the house by people with sticks.

“Each then pulled off a piece of the hide, and burnt it for the purpose of driving away disease.” The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man by A. W. Moore[1891]

Many of the traditions have died out, while others might still seem familiar.

Fires

For some on the last day of the year, the fire was to be smothered and made smooth. First thing in the morning, you would look for prints in the ash.

“The first thing on New Year’s morning was to examine if there was in the ashes any mark like the shape of a human foot with the toes pointing towards the door. If there was such a mark, one was to be removed from the family before the year was run. Some climbed to the roof of the house and looked down the “lum” for the dreaded mark.” Notes on Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland by Walter Gregor, M.A. (1881)

For others, the fire was not allowed to go out all night.

"It was a practice not to be neglected to keep the fire alive in the house all night. No one was to come near it but a friend, and, as an additional security against its going out, candles were kept burning. Hence, the other name given to the night, Oidhche Choinnle, i.e. candle night." Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland by John Gregorson Campbell (1902)

If the fire did go out, you would be on your own. It was considered unlucky to give out fire on the first day of the year, so your neighbors would be unlikely to assist.

“It gave the means to witches and evilly-disposed people to do irreparable mischief to the cattle and their produce. The dying out of the fire was, therefore, a serious inconvenience in days when lucifer matches were unknown.” Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland by John Gregorson Campbell (1902)

Juniper Saining

“On New Year’s day the Highlanders burned juniper before their cattle.” Old Scottish Customs, Local and General by Ellen Emma Guthrie 1885

Saining is a set of practices to cleanse or ward off evil, and juniper smoke is one example of it. Saining could be done at any time of year, but it was though to be stronger during times when the veil was thin.

Every room was cleansed with the smoke, and so were humans and cattle.

“Stewart in his “Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland” tells how on the last night of the year the Strathdown Highlanders used to bring home great loads of juniper, which on New Year’s Day was kindled in the different rooms, all apertures being closed so that the smoke might produce a thorough fumigation. Not only human beings had to stand this, but horses and other animals were treated in the same way to preserve them from harm throughout the year. Moreover, first thing on New Year’s morning, everybody, while still in bed, was asperged with a large brush.” Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, by Clement A. Miles, [1912]

Mumming

Mumming or guising is something people tend to associate with Halloween (trick-or-treating), but it also happened on Christmas and Hogmanay. Mummers (commonly poor folk) would entertain in exchange for food and drink.

Here is an example of just one rhyme:

“Get up, goodwife, and shake your feathers, And dinna think that we are beggars; For we are bairns come out to play, Get up and gie’s our hogmanay!” Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, by Clement A. Miles, [1912]

Drinking

This is something people will recognize; drinking. People would get together with food and drinks (typically het pint).

“On the approach of twelve o’clock, a hot pint was prepared—that is, a kettle or flagon full of warm, spiced, and sweetened ale, with an infusion of spirits. When the clock had struck the knell of the departed year, each member of the family drank of this mixture ‘A good health and a happy New Year and many of them’ to all the rest, with a general hand-shaking.” Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, by Clement A. Miles, [1912]

When midnight hit, you would share with neighbors.

"Even the poorest in Scotland exchange sips of hot spiced ale, and make offerings of cakes, buns, and shortbread to their neighbours when ushering in the New Year on the stroke of midnight." Manners, Customs, and Observances: Their Origin and Significance by Leopold Wagner[1894]

First Footing

Who was first to enter your home on the new year could alter your luck for the year.

“The first-footers are off and away, flying in every direction through the city, singing, cheering, and shaking hands with all and sundry.” Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, by Clement A. Miles, [1912]

For many places, you would hope it to be a dark-haired man.

Lughnasadh (sometimes written Lughnasa or Lúnasa) is a festival originating from Ireland that celebrates the start of the harvest season.

It is traditionally celebrated on August 1st (in the northern hemisphere) or halfway between the summer solstice and the fall equinox.

The festival is named for the Irish God Lugh and it is said that the festival started as a funeral feast and athletic competition to honor his mother or foster-mother Tailtiu who had died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture.

Waulking Songs and the Loireag | Scottish Folklore

A waulking song is a traditional song that was sung for a group to keep in sync while rhythmically beating newly-woven fabric on a surface. This motion shrinks the fibers of the fabric, which makes it better at repelling water.

“There would often be 24 of them at one table, singing songs for four to five hours at a time, during which 300-400 yards of cloth would be waulked.” Audio Recording Transcript: “WAULKING THE CLOTH, ” Track ID: 65191, Date: 1961. Source: tobarandualchais.co.uk

This could be done sitting around a table and moving the fabric with your hands, but in some places the fabric was waulked using feet.

As they sing, they both beat and move the fabric a clockwise direction.

Related to this practice is a water fairy called Loireag(lorryack). She was a rather mischievous fairy that is often described as having an obsession with tradition.

“The ‘loireag’ presided over the warping, weaving, waulking, and washing of the web, and if the women omitted any of the traditional usages and ceremonies of these occasions she resented their neglect in various ways.” Carmina Gadelica, Volume 2, by Alexander Carmicheal, [1900]

Not only did she make sure things were done in the right order, but she also disliked people singing out of tune, and hated hearing the same waulking song twice.

” If a song were sung twice at the waulking, the ‘loireag’ would come and render the web as thin as before, and all the work of the women of no avail. They had to begin anew and waulk the web over again, taking special care not to repeat the offence. “ Carmina Gadelica, Volume 2, by Alexander Carmicheal, [1900]

The loireag had such a great love of milk that people would leave out offerings of it for her. If this was forgotten, she would take matters into her own hands by enchanting the milking animals to be as still as a statue while she drank her fill.

In one story where this occurred, a girl in Benmore discovered a loireag sucking a cow. The girl tried to drive the fairy away, but nothing worked so she went to fetch her father. It turns out her father was a Carle. Carle can be a derogatory term for a commoner man, but it can also be an alternative name for the "Bodach," which they may be intending in this case.

“The little Carle leapt out at the door in sparks of red fire, swearing at the impudent ‘loireag,’ and at the cow. He threw a boulder at the ‘loireag,’ wishing to kill her, but struck the cow instead and nearly killed her!” Carmina Gadelica, Volume 2, by Alexander Carmicheal, [1900]

He then grabbed the very point of one of the cows horns in the name of “Columba the kindly,” who was “the best leech of man and beast in Alban in his day.” With those words, the cow broke from the enchantment and leapt away. At the same time, the loireag took off running while singing back insults.

“Little carle of Corrie-foot, Little carle of the short coat, Little carle of the foot of the Pass Much I praise your aim.” Highland Mythology by Watson, E. C. (1908)

WAULKINGS SONG EXAMPLES:

(link) In this waulking song a man mourns the fact that another is courting his beloved while he sails the seven seas.

(link) This is a short fragment from a waulking song with a love theme.

(link) The composer describes going through the strath and seeing a herd of hinds. A man was driving them down the hill. He had a bow and arrow and a gun.

(link) This is a waulking song of the type found at the start of a waulking. The chorus refers directly to waulking the tweed, which is unusual in waulking songs.

(link) In this waulking song a sailor tells of his feelings, as the girl he loves is unfaithful. He expresses the hope that his beloved will not take the tailor, the shoemaker, the shepherd or the herdsman.

(link) In this waulking song, the composer lists by their occupation the men who are unsuitable, and then gives details of the one she would accept.

(link) In this waulking song, a woman longs for the man she loves, but his family disapprove of the relationship.

Helpful website

While not as popular to celebrate today, Midsummer was once an important celebration in Scotland.

The day was eventually renamed “St. John's Day” by the church and major attempts were made to remove the old traditions associated with Midsummer.

Many of the old traditions involved using the purifying nature of fire, so a statute was enacted in 1581 forbidding the practice. Much to the annoyance of authorities at the time, even that did not stop the fires completely.

"...and in 1665, the Presbytery of Dingwall ordained that their congregations should be abjured to 'desist from the superstitious abuses used on St. John's Day by burning torches through their cornes and fires in their towns, and thereafter fixing their stakes in their kail-yards." The Silver Bough Vol 2 by F. Marian McNeill

How the fire was used could change slightly depending on the place. Some would light a fire by their door, while others would carry torches around their properties or light fires in a location that ensured the smoke would carry over their fields.

"On Midsummer Eve people in the Isle of Man were wont to light fires to the windward of every field, so that the smoke might pass over the corn; and they folded their cattle and carried blazing furze or gorse round them several times." The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer [1922]

Since the veil between our world and the Otherworld was thought to be thin at this time, that meant not only where more fairies around, but also that the magical protective properties of plants were at their strongest.

Birch branches might be hung over a door for protection, alongside elderberries and St. John's Wort.

"On Midsummer Eve, when their power is at its height, flowers and herbs are the only barriers to their incursions, and these are regularly spread at the doors of the houses to protect the inmates." The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man by A. W. Moore[1891]

One of the strangest things folklore said you could gather are fern seeds, but you only have one night to do it. According to science, ferns spread through spores, but according to folklore, you can collect fern seeds on midsummer eve. Collecting them was a dangerous act since they were protected by fairies, but getting fern seeds could give you the ability to turn invisible.

Other common traditions are fortune-telling, collecting morning dew, feasts, dances, and weddings or betrothals.

"Midsummer Eve" by Edward Robert Hughes (1908)

Want more research and citations? I have a longer list on my website (scroll to the bottom of the post).

The…Other Children of Lir

Lost princes || A family dynasty || Judgment 

Continuing my (very very slooow and overly specific) journey through Irish tradition, I wanted to talk about some of the more mysterious personages.  Tw for two (brief) mentions of assault/dubious consent, without detail. Manannan mac Lir is probably one of the better known figures (which is why he’s the jumping off point for so much of my writing) alongside his foster son Lugh and his pupil Aengus - but he’s also given an extensive family of children, including Mongan, Eachdond Mor, and Gaidiar. None are quite as well-known or have stories so well-preserved (apart from possibly Niamh of the Golden Hair) but what we do know about them is interesting. Niamh could probably do with her own post so I’ll respectfully leave her out of this one. Aine is also given as Manannan’s daughter in certain sources but I couldn’t verify this and she would also need her own feature.

Mongan is interesting in that in most stories of his birth he’s half human, half tuatha de - if such a division can be considered clear cut. In The Voyage of Bran, Manannan stops Bran (another appearance of Lough Foyle) at sea to tell him that he’s going to concieve a son who’ll be a great hero. Stories vary but generally, Mongan’s father Fiachna (meaning crow) is fighting in Scotland. He’s losing, until Manannan shows up and says he’ll help, for a price. Fiachna makes the old mistake - “I’ll give anything” - and Manannan asks for his wife. In other (nicer) versions, Fiachna’s wife is well aware and the all three people involved consent. Mongan is raised in the Otherworld until his late teens, when he returns to start his job as King. Interestingly, he doesn’t seem that interested in ruling and spends his time drinking wine and playing games. He has to be prompted into making decisions by his father, and even then he retains a sense of ennui and longing to return to the Otherworld. He shapeshifts into children, a washerwoman, a priest - he has as many faces and is as fluid as you’d expect.

Eachdond Mor, Mongan’s older brother, is pictured sitting as Manannan’s left hand, accompanied by his ally Abartach, a trickster who shares a name with a character from the story of the Gilla Decair and a “wizard”/sidhe lord/creature from Garvagh in Ulster, and may be connected with Midir.

Gaidiar is Eachdond’s brother, and commits “adultery” with Becuma, a “woman of the sidhe” (in some tellings he assaults her, in others it is consensual) while they are both in prior relationships, for which she is expelled from Tir na Nog beginning a saga involving a king falling in love with her and accidentally cursing Ireland. Becuma, as the woman, is treated as solely responsible while Gaidiar - and the king - seemingly avoid repercussions. 

Both brothers in their very brief appearances are portrayed as powerful lords or kings in their own right, rubbing shoulders with Aengus, the Dagda, Finbhara and Bodb Derg. 

((I’ll probably come back and edit this since I know there’s a story I’m forgetting, but I’m too tired to remember it properly now, but hopefully somebody finds it interesting!))