Bride & the Cailleach

A long time ago, in the far north of Scotland, there once lived an old hag. The Cailleach she was called, arousing great fear in the people that lived nearby. She was said to be tall like the mountains. Large, so large, that the waters of Mull would only come up to her knees. People told stories of her, huddled around the fire light, in the deep grasp of winter, frozen and petrified. She was said to have one eye, that scanned the mountains, freezing the world with her look, cloaked in a dun-coloured shawl she trailed her silver hair across Scotland’s rocky ground.

She was said to roam the mountains of Scotland, singing mournful songs, striking her hammer on the cold earth, turning it into Iron. She was said to have created great boulders to house her many sons, her Giant sons that threw boulders at eachother in play, which is still evident in the landscapes of the Scottish isles, today.

“I speak no honied words” she sang, “no wethers are killed for my wedding, my hair is scant and grey”

One day, the Cailleach spied a young girl walking in the glen. She was cloaked in a white robe which she held wrapped tightly around her body as the winds, upon the orders of the Cailleach, became more and more fierce. Determined upon her path, the young girl marched on in the gales, her fierce eyes fixed on the horizon. But the Cailleach saw in the girl what she once possessed and swooped in and snatched her away.

Bride, as the young girl was called, worked hard from dawn until dusk, under the cruel glare of the Cailleach who snarled and taunted her. And yet, Bride grew stronger with each passing day, becoming more radiant while the old hag grew weaker and weaker.

Each night, Bride, after waiting for the Cailleach to fall asleep, stepped out in dead of the night to walk into the glen. She spoke and sang to the emerging greenery. She walked to the place where the waterfall pooled into a fountain and watched the Moon enchant her.

One day the Cailleach gave Bride a brown fleece and instructed her to wash the fleece in the fountain until it was snow white. Bride took the fleece to the fountain and began washing. She washed and washed and washed. The fleece remained brown as ever. For days, she came to the pool to wash the fleece, and every day she left, disappointed that the fleece was still brown. No matter how hard she tried she could not get the fleece any whiter.

One day, at sunset, Bride set out to tell the Cailleach, whose wrath she greatly feared. She was crying as the wind blew into her hair and at that moment Angus Og, the Giant son of the Cailleach, saw her and recognising her as the girl from his dreams, resolved to meet her.

The very next day, he went to Bride, in his finest raiment, noble brow scanning the lochs, waiting for her. And sure enough there came Bride with the same brown fleece. She was startled when she found the Giant sitting at the bank of the pool.

“All night now I’ve been dreaming of your beauty. Even as you cry, I dream of you. Tell me, why do you cry?’

‘Who are you?’ asked Bride.

‘I am Angus, Lord of the Green Isle. Give me the fleece, I think I can help’. And upon touching it, the fleece turned snow white.

‘Go tell the Cailleach, that the end of the Winter is here, new herbs and new grass are on the rise.’

When Bride relayed this message to the Cailleach, she grew furious:

She howled with anger and called for her eight hags.

‘Ride in all four directions, ride like the wind!’ she cried.

‘Strike the world with frost and chill, so that no flowers bloom and no blade of grass survives.’

Angus Og who sat among the mountains of the Green Isle and watched the storms over Scotland, that made travel impossible even for a giant. And yet he couldn’t forget his dream of Bride and he was determined to find her.’

‘It is the Wolf month and the tempers of wolves are uncertain,’ thought Angus. I shall cast a glamour on the sea and a glamour on the land, and borrow one day from August.’

- from the Fairytale recounted by Lisa Schneidau

Angus left his perch on the green isle and crossed the tempestous seas. He swam across from the Hebrides and the Mountains, but Bride was nowhere to be found. He crossed Ben Nevis and waited near his mother’s castle. The moon was dark, and the stars lit up the Bealach na Bó Finne up above, and patiently he waited, for Bride to walk outside.

At dawn, as the cold frost returned, Angus Og spied a trail of little snowdrops across the woodland glen. Following this trail of sweet blooms he looked up to find Bride, at long last. Angus hurried to meet Bride. He tenderly took her hand and together they walked deeper in the woods and made a hiding-place where not even the Cailleach could find them. And here, in the dark night of the moon, Bride and Angus Og fell in love and made promises to eachother.

The next morning, the weakening Cailleach rose from her bed, weary and weak, no breath for shouting. She walked everywhere to find Angus and Bride but at dusk, she banged her hammer under a holly tree and transformed herself into a barn own and flew silently, weary and broken to the Green Isle, the land of the youth.

The Cailleach sat silently by the spring all night, watching in her giant form. When the first hint of light rose from the east, she held the water to her lips and drank from the fountain of youth.

The great Cailleach dissolved and the sun filtering through her, shimmered pale green and across the glade violets and crocuses began to bloom.

Catkins appeared on the hazel and fluffy buds on the willow

and Bridsong rang out of the trees

The rock glistened and sparkled with quartz and mica in the sunshine

In the woods the new king and queen of springtime,

Angus Og and Bride,

filled with new strength and fire

and they danced, laughing with the joy of it all..

- from the Fairytale recounted by Lisa Schneidau

Reference:

• Folk Tales of Britain & Ireland By Lisa Schneidau