Glaistig
A composite character, included among the Fuathan. She sometimes has the attributes and habits of the Cailleach Bheur, sometimes assumes animal form, often that of a goat, but more often she is described as half-woman, half-goat. She is a water-spirit, and when she is regarded as a Fuath she is murderous and dangerous. As the Green Glaistig, however, she is more like a Banshee, mourning the death or illness of her favourites, and even undertaking domestic duties. She was often said to have been a human woman, taken and given fairy nature by the Fae. In her benign form, she was fond of children and often took old people under her protection. She frequently herded the cattle of the farm she haunted, and expected libations of milk.
What follows are some descriptions and tales from old sources:
(27-08-2020 I'm informed by mrs. Catherine Ann Gabbott that the translation is not correct: Glas should be translated as 'grey-green'.) The glaistic is a
vicious creature, half woman, half goat, frequenting lonely lakes and rivers.
She is much dreaded, and many stories are told of her evil deeds. MacUalrig Mor, Big Kennedy of Lianachan,
Lochaber, was coming home at night when he saw the glaistic. He seized her and
put her on the saddle before him with his sword-belt round her waist, and when
he got home he locked her in the cul-taigh,
back-house. In the morning Big Kennedy heated the coulter of his plough and
requested the glaistic to swear on the iron that she would never again molest
man or woman in the place, and never more be seen in Lochaber while the sun
shone by day or the moon by night. When the glaistic stretched out her lovely
little hand and placed it on the coulter to give the required assurance, her
hand was burnt to the bone. With a shriek of agony she flew out at the window
and through the mist of the morning to the hillside beyond, and there she put
out three bursts of the blood of her heart, which are still visible in the
discoloured russet vegetation of the spot, and with each burst of blood the
glaistig uttered a curse on Big Kennedy and on his seed for ever:
‘Fas mar an roinneach
daibh,
Crion mar an luachair
daibh,
’S diombuan mar cheo
nam beann.'
Growth like the fern to them,
Wasting like the rushes to them,
And unlashing as the mist of the hill.
The descendants of Big Kennedy of Lianachan say that the
curse is still upon them.
Carmina Gadelica,
Volume. II, by Alexander Carmicheal, 1900
"An aithne dhuibh Carn-na-Caillich
Air an leacainn ghlais ud thall?
'S mise chruinnich sid
le cliabh,
A' h-uile spitheag
riamh a th'ann.
Drochaid a chur air
Gaol Muile,
'S bha ifurasd' a chur
ann.
'S mur briseadh an iris mhuineil
Bha i nis gun teagamh ann.”
"Know ye the Cailleach's cairn
On that green hillside yonder?
It was I that gathered it with a creel,
Every pebble that is in it,
To put a bridge on the Sound of Mull
And to put it there were easy,
Had not the neck-rope broken,
It were there now beyond doubt."
In the High-land Society's Dictionary the glaistig is a
she-devil, or hag, in the shape of a goat. Some folk-tales refer to her as
being very tall, while others depict her as a stout little woman. She has in
widely scattered folk- tales various animal forms in addition to the goat,
including those of the dog, mare, foal and sheep.
Herding sheep and cattle was supposed to be one of her chief
occupations. She was fond of fish, her favourite fish-food being eels. In Mull
she took refuge in a yew tree. Elsewhere she has her habitation in a cave or is
supposed to be behind a waterfall, or at or in a ford of a river or a loch.
Many folk-tales connect her with the strongholds of chiefs or with other old
houses. As a family guardian she made merry when a marriage was about to take
place, or wailed before a death. When unexpected visitors were coming, she
could be heard at night in a house rearranging furniture and washing dishes. As
a rule she was invisible, but when she permitted herself to be seen she was
found to be attired in green like the fairies, and was consequently spoken of
as a Ghlaistig uaine (the green
glaistig).
She is sometimes referred to as having a magic or druidic
wand like Cailleach Bheur. A Mull story tells that a glaistig who was attached
to the family of Lamont at Ardnadrochit was herding the Lamont cattle when
raiders from Lorne came to "lift" them. "She struck the cows and
converted them into grey stones, which are to be seen to this day in "the
Heroes' Hollow" (Glaic nan Gaisgeach).
She broke her heart over this incident, died and was buried by Lamont.
The glaistig was credited with being fond of children. Mrs.
Watson writes in this connexion: While the township women milked their cattle
in the Bualie, the glaistig would play hide and seek with the children. 'A ghlaistic duibh cha bheir thu oirnn,'
(Thou black glaistig, thou shah not catch us),"said the little ones, as
they hid behind stones and bushes, and then the glaistig would pretend to be
angry and would shower twigs and daisies on the imps. She also protected people
of weak intellect. The writer has often heard her referred to as one who cared
for lonely elderly people. J. G. Campbell, dealing with her attachment to
particular individuals, mentions an old woman named Mòr, resident on a farm.
"When Mòr fell sick, the glaistig used to come to the window and wail
loudly."
Offerings of milk were made to the glaistig, being poured
over, or into a hollow in, a boulder called Clach
na Glaistig (stone of the glaistig). Those who forgot to give her milk
found that the cattle were neglected by night. Sometimes a glaistig was seen
basking in the sun while seated on a rock. Her clothing was often wet, and
stories are told of her entering houses by night to warm and dry herself at the
fire. She had long golden hair, and was consequently often referred to as the gruagach (gruag meaning hair of the head). In Tiree she was never called glaistig
but gruagach and gruagach mhafa ('sea-maid'). (More on the Gruagach: Here.) Like the
Cailleach Bheur, she was sometimes a wader of the deep sea or crossed it by
stepping from rock to rock or island to island.
She could pass from mountain to mountain or over the Minch
very quickly. A glaistig was a familiar
of Archibald Mac Ian Year (Mac Iain
Ghiorr), a notorious Ardnamurchan pirate. His skill in thieving was said to
have been bestowed upon him by the glaistig. He and his brother Ronald became
annoyed with her because she always claimed a share of their spoil. On one
occasion they went to Barra, thinking she could not follow them, but when they
had taken possession of a dwelling and had kindled a fire to roast venison, she
was heard calling to them through the smoke hole on the roof. When asked how
she had discovered their whereabouts she replied, "Bha mi air Sgùrr Eige" ("I was on the height of Eigg
Island"), an excellent point from which to keep watch. This saying became
proverbial in the Outer Hebrides, being used when one made discovery of actions
thought to be secret. The glaistig crossed the Minch very rapidly. She said
that when Mac Ian made the first clink (snag) while striking the flint to light
the fire, she was on the highest point of the Coolin Hills in Skye. As soon as
she entered the house she began to nibble at the roasting venison. When
Archibald Mac Ian died, the glaistig gave a shriek that roused the echoes of Ben
Resipol (Réiseapol). The same night
she was seen in the Coolin Hills in Skye, and after that neither her shadow nor
her colour (a du no dath) was
anywhere seen.
The sinister aspect of the glaistig is brought out in
folk-stories that tell of her attempts to waylay or kill travellers. Mr.
Alexander MacLennan, a native of Strathconon, told the writer of a glaistig
that haunted the River Meig. A man met her as he was crossing a ford and she
asked fiercely, "What have you against me?"
If he named a weapon, he could not injure her with it. His
first answer was "My sword ".
She said, "It is harmless: what else?" The man
next mentioned his black dagger in his right-foot stocking. "Anything
else?" she asked.
"Yes," the man made answer; "the long grey
thing at my thigh."
He referred to his
dirk, but, not having named it, its virtue remained. He seized and overcame the
glaistig and took her to his smithy, where he tied her to the anvil. She
shrieked all night and those supernatural beings who came to give her aid took
off the roof of the smithy, having raised a great storm. The man was glad to
release her, and after she fled the wind fell.
A Lochaber story which the writer recently found to be still
quite current in the vicinity of Roy Bridge tells of a glaistig being captured
by a man named Kennedy (or Mac Cuaric,
a local rendering of the surname. Also given as Mac Ualrig). The glaistig cursed the Kennedys, and her curse is
still supposed to cling to the family. Mac Ualrig More (Big Kennedy) of
Lochaber was a smith, and one night when going home on horseback he met the
glaistig as he was crossing Curr, the ford of Croisg. She hailed him, asking if
he would not be the better of a rider behind him, and he answered, "Yes,
and a rider before ". Stooping, he seized the glaistig and, lifting her on
to the back of his horse, threw round her sian-chrios Fhaolain "the wizard belt of Fillan". Another version tells that he put
her on the saddle before him with his sword-belt round her waist.) She could
not effect her escape from the magic circle. Shrieking and wailing, she asked
to be released. "Let me go," she cried, "and I will give you a
fold of speckled cattle and success on the hill (as a hunter."
He claimed what she offered but insisted that it was not
sufficient. Then she said she would build at once a house and charm it against
water, iron, arrows, poison, caterans and fairies.
"Fulfil your words," said the smith, "and
then you will be free ".
The glaistig shrieked and was heard over seven hills. From
fairy mounds and cliffs they
assembled and set to work speedily, calmly and orderly. A line of helpers was
formed from Clianaig waterfall to the site of the house and passed slabs and
stones from hand to hand. Others cut beams and rafters from the Knoll of Shore
inlet, while the glaistig ordered them to fetch every timber except mulberry.
At the grey dawning the house was ready and the smith had lit a fire, into
which he thrust a coulter, which became red hot. He released the glaistig and
as she passed a window she stretched out her crooked palm to bid him
farewell, but he thrust the red-hot coulter into it and she was "burned to
the bone". Uttering a shriek of agony, the glaistig leapt upon a grey
stone (evidently a "cursing stone")
to pronounce the smith's doom. She brought the curse of the people on him and
the curse of the goblins, saying,
"Grow like rushes,
Wither like fern,
Turn grey in childhood,
Change in height of your strength;
May not a son succeed."
Then she fled to the peak of Finisgeig, where she spilled
her life blood, "which is still visible in the discoloured russet
vegetation of the spot". It is said that the descendants of the smith grow
grey while yet quite young and that the male succession is uncertain, the curse
being still operative.
The glaistig is also spoken of as a trickster like Shakespeare's
Queen Mab, who "plaits the manes of horses in the night", and her
fairies, who love cleanliness in a house and "pinch the maids as blue as
bilberry" if they are guilty of "sluttery". Folk- stories tell
of the glaistig giggling in the darkness and speaking with a lisp, expressing
herself often in verse. She is reputed to sing melodiously and often
plaintively.
Sometimes she has appeared at a ferry as a poor old woman, asking
to be taken across, although the tide might be running strong and the weather
rough. It is told that one day she entered the boat of " Yellow Dougall of
the Cave " (Dùghaill Buidhe na
h-Uamha) to cross to Lismore and took the bow oar.
"A hearty pull, Dougall,' she cried.
'Another hearty pull then, honest woman,' said he."
She pulled so vigorously that Dougall had to row harder than
ever he had done before. He marveled at her strength, but on reaching the
island realized who had been his helper, because she suddenly vanished,
according to one version, or, according to another, plunged into the sea and
swam back.
Sometimes the glaistig is accompanied by a little son, who
is quick witted and has a sharp tongue. Our Cailleach Bheur, as shown, is
usually associated with wild animals whose forms she is capable of assuming.
The glaistig cares for domesticated animals instead, including cows, horses,
sheep, goats and dogs, whose forms she can take at will. In Mull she was commonly
seen in the shape of a dog and was said to carry a pup at the back of her head.
Yet, like the fairies and Cailleach Bheur, she fears dogs and takes flight from
them.
Gregorson Campbell objected to her association with the goat
on the ground that only the devil assumed the form of a goat, but in the north
Highlands the goat is closely associated with fairies. Women were complimented by
having their eyes compared to those of the goat.
"Suil ghobhar
ghean
An aodann bhan
Gu mealladh fhear.”
"The eye of the sportive goat
In the faces of women
To wile the men."
A supernatural animal known as the " lame goat" (gobhar bacach) wandered through the
country. It was supposed to lie down on the best land in a particular area. In
Skye the "lame goat" was
known as the glas ghoibhle. A rich
grassy stretch in Strath is called Leaba
na glais-ghoibhle, and the goat was also associated with Glendale. This
supernatural animal was supposed to be "always in milk" and to have
sufficient, indeed, to supply a large force of warriors. Another supernatural
being with a goat connexion is the urisk
(uruisg), a monster, half human, half
goat, with abnormally long hair, long teeth and long claws. (For another meaning of gobhar bacach: Here.)
Reginald Scott refers to an urisk in the north of Scotland
who was reputed to be a giant and the father of the fairies: "Many
wonderful and incredible things did he also relate of this Balkin ('lord of the northern mountains'), affirming that he was
shaped like a satyr and fed upon the air, having wife and children to the
number of twelve thousand, which were the brood of the northern fairies,
inhabiting Southerland (Sutherland)
and Catenes (Caithness) with the
adjacent islands." As there were various forms of the goddess Artemis in
Greece, so apparently there were various forms of the ancient goddess of
Scotland. It has been shown that Cailleach Bheur was associated with wild
animals, while the glaistig's association was with domesticated animals,
suggesting that she was the Artemis of the agricultural mode of life. Her
interest in and kindness to children were evidently due to her connexion with
birth. Artemis was in one of her phases a birth-goddess. The urisks were, as
satyrs, associated with the glaistig, as were the Fomorians with our Cailleach
Bheur.
Charms and spells against the fairies were exceedingly
numerous in Great Britain, but only the several classes of these can be outlined
here. Many charms were regarded as protections against the elves or as keeping
them at a distance. Some were couched in general and inclusive terms; as, for
instance, that Highland invocation quoted by Carmichael, which asks that :
“ From every brownie
and banshee.
From every evil wish and sorrow.
From every glaistig and bean-nigh.
From every fairy-mouse and grass-mouse,
Oh save me to the end of my day!”
Scottish Folklore and Folk Life, Donald Mackenzie, (1935).
British Fairy Origins, by Lewis Spence, 1946
Nico
At Inverawe House.
his mansion-house has long been haunted by a Glaistig known
as the 'Maiden of Inverawe' (Maighdean Inbher-athd),
who was to be heard (at least till very recently) rustling {srannail) through
the house. Stoups full of water, left in the house at night, were found in the
morning upset by her, and chairs, left however neatly arranged, were turned
round. She is said to have been some former mistress of the house who had
proved unfaithful and had been buried alive.
At Dunstaffnage Castle.
This castle (Dim-sta'innis),
once a seat of the kings of Scotland, was haunted by a woman known as the Sianag (or Elle-maid) of Dunstaffnage.
She broke into outcries of joy or sorrow (inulad
no aighear), according as a happy or unfortunate event was to befall the
inmates. A stranger, who accompanied one of the servants to the castle and
remained there that night, had his bedclothes twice pulled off by her, and
heard her all night walking through the room and in the adjoining passages. Her
footsteps were heavy like those of a man.
Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland, By
John Gregorson Campbell, 1900
Nico
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