Jack and the Beanstalk

[hvered]

There's an interesting site regarding Kieran or Ciaran. He appears to have been a cattle herder at one point and on wikipedia there are references to his ability to control a variety of animals.

http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celti ... ieran.html

Wikipedia tells us that Ciaran of Saigir was a leather clad wild man. ' A tradition shared by all four Lives describes Ciarán as a wild man wearing skins, whose first pupils are animals in the forest.'

I can't find any references to him arriving in Lewis.

Quite an archetypal figure so presumably St Kieran didn't exist. Sounds like a typical 'leader of the hunt', wild man of the woods, etc. that keeps occurring in folklore, which has a shamanic feel (to me). Hermits who tend beacon fires, give directions and remain apart from communal life seem to have a lot in common with shamen.

'Ciaran' means a dark or swarthy man. Dwelly has 'ciaran' combined with 'mabach' which can mean entangled, cofused, or 'furnished with tassels or fringes.'

Shamen traditionally have dark clothes with many attachments, bear paws, feathered headdresses and hanging pieces of iron or other metal.

Bells are interesting. They are supposed to ward off evil spirits (I think) much as fire wards off predators. Bell sounds like it is connected to war (bellus, bellicose, etc.) but rooted in the countryside (campana etc.), perhaps in the way a hunt is confined to a particular area.

[Boreades]

An exciting job prospect (Boro perhaps?)

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04 ... 21571.html

Tempting! But I was rather hoping for the job of restoring Avebury to its original condition, and getting rid of all that grass that's been left to grow on it.

[Boreades]

'Ciaran' means a dark or swarthy man. Dwelly has 'ciaran' combined with 'mabach' which can mean entangled, cofused, or 'furnished with tassels or fringes.'

Shamen traditionally have dark clothes with many attachments, bear paws, feathered headdresses and hanging pieces of iron or other metal.

Don't forget the pointed hats.

[macausland]

I came across this quote on a site regarding a conical hill, Freebrough Hill, in North Yorkshire.

'I only leave the first bit in because it might be funny if you know someone from Whitby.

The People of Gisburgh are civil, cleanly, and well-bred, contrary to the Temper of the Inhabitants of Whitby, who, to us, seemed rude in Behaviour, and sluttish.

In the Way from Whitby to Gisburgh, we passed by Freeburgh Hill, which they told us was cast up by the Devil, at the Entreaty of an old Witch, who desired it, that from thence she might espy her Cow in the Moor.

From p177 of 'Select Remains of the Learned John Ray, with his Life' by William Derham. Published 1760.
Online at Google Books. I think John Ray's journey was made in 1661. '

There's another conical shaped hill about ten miles away, Whorl Hill. Dwelly gives one translation for 'whirl' as iomain and links it to shinty and driving cattle.

This is the Freebrough link for anyone interested.

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/pos ... l#comments

[Mick Harper]

There are three "shaped" Megalithic hills. There are the conical ones eg St Michael's Mount and the well-known Freeborough Hill (it's in North Yorkshire for people who aren't experts in this field). There are the jelly-mould ones eg Jethou and Maiden Castle. And there's a third type that I haven't quite run down yet.

[hvered]

There's another conical shaped hill about ten miles away, Whorl Hill. Dwelly gives one translation for 'whirl' as iomain and links it to shinty and driving cattle.

It's clear when viewing a landscape through 'Megalithic' eyes that prominent hills, with or without so-called hillforts, are often intervisible and ten to twelve miles apart. These conical hills appear to be artificially shaped, perhaps constructed, not by Megalithics but by earlier hunters/herders according to Sheila Macgregor's thinking. In her account tor is cognate with deer so although she doesn't actually say that tors are manmade constructs it can probably be taken as read that is the assumption.

[Also of interest are the hunting overtones of some 'Megalithic saints', for instance the hilltop chapels on opposite sides of the River Wey named for Sts Catherine and Martha are said to have been built by giantesses tossing a hammer to and fro across the valley. And what about Margaret, who is really a pearl-bearing mussel, swallowing a dragon!]

[macausland]

hvered

Speaking of dragons I forgot to mention that Whorl Hill had a dragon which of course was slain by a hero. I think the story has it that its skin was still at the nearby castle when Cromwell came, but it disappeared after that.

There was another dragon or worm apparently at nearby Sexhow. Similarly despatched.

[hvered]

Don't forget the pointed hats.

Conical hats!

[Penny]

The eminence associated with hunting vocabulary is apparent in other languages, not only Gaelic, cf. Aramaic/Hebrew "tzaid" as in Cid (El), found in Sidon, Sfat, etc. etc. Although I concur wholeheartedly with her analysis, I wonder if Sheila Macgregor has researched other areas and languages as thoroughly.

P.S. Morris dancing came up on QI and they said the collective noun is 'sides'. The Aberfeldy description of two lines of huntsmen coming together in a choreographed movement to trap deer reminded me of our local Morris men with their camouflage, cudgels and ringing bells. The Abbots Bromley Dance, which even folklorists concede is very ancient, seems to commemorate deer hunting.

[macausland]

Penny

I think the official history of the Abbot's Bromley horn dance is that local people were involved in a fight with invading 'vikings' or whoever. The locals won and got the horns from reindeer the invaders had brought with them.

This is supposed to have been in around 900AD.

Chris Crudelli made an interesting series on Asian martial arts some time ago. One scene was a group of young men in the Philippines who were dressed in outfits rather like Morris men, they had sticks and 'danced' to the music of a guitar. The footwork and hand movements looked very much like Morris dancing except that the man teaching them explained that it was really a martial art which was turned into a 'dance' following the invasion of the Spanish. He went on to explain that the sticks would be replaced with knives when needed and the footwork was a mixture of kicks and trips. The old English 'Morris' staff was a full size fighting stick as opposed to the quarter staff or half staff.

On the other hand, the Basques of the Pyrenees do something very similar to Morris dancing and Maypole dancing etc. The link below starts with a choir but then goes on to give snatches of various dances. A bit more vigorous perhaps than our Morris dancers but quite similar in many respects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH0g56PhRcY