tjj
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Re: Ancient Serpent Worship in Scotland
Apr 14, 2010, 08:04
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tjj wrote:
I have just been told by someone who knows, that Loch Nell is 'a perfectly natural esker'. Oh well! Its good to talk.
Thanks for all the info Branwen.
Lesson in not posting late at night - I meant of course the Serpent Mound at Loch Nell, not the loch.
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drewbhoy
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Re: Ancient Serpent Worship in Scotland
Apr 14, 2010, 09:18
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Yup and a saint burying himself for ages. Yup they are all noted along with the bull sacrifice thing at Loch Maree as well. Cheers Branwen you are a star (same for Tjj)
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Branwen
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Edited Apr 15, 2010, 14:16
Re: Ancient Serpent Worship in Scotland
Apr 15, 2010, 13:55
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Isn't Loch Maree where the story of the serpent wife is from? Muc-Sheilch I guess, though the story I read didnt give it a name. The boatman from the Fort Augustus boat ascribes the serpent wife story to nessie too but this seems to be a latter day story migration thing. I know the Cailleach and the slave girl story is ascribes to a few lochs, and has been for hundreds of years, from the many references. I've never seen the serpent wife story at ness in any older references though.
There are serpents in Loch Oich and Loch Tummel with interesting stories too. Although the Loch Oich one may be a water-dog or water-goat, which stories are older and pretty much forgotten these days. Water-goats might be a reference to goat horned serpents, would make sense anyway. The loch Tummel serpent is clearly a reference to Nethy though. Been a long time since anyone saw Lizzie of Loch Lochy huh?
Fraoch's serpent has quite a nice book about the subject for free here:
The Geste of Froach - The Celtic Dragon Myth
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cdm/cdm03.htm
Its clearly an irish import, told at a couple of lochs in Scotland. The serpent seems more often the villain in gaelic myth, not surprising I suppose as that culture didn't flourish here till post christian times. All the ones assosciated with the nine maidens have been cast as monsters, thats for sure. Female cults weren't tolerated after a certain point though, and were really ruthlessly wiped out.
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drewbhoy
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Re: Ancient Serpent Worship in Scotland
Apr 15, 2010, 21:44
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Correct, you are right again! Thanks for the additional info!
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drewbhoy
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Re: Ancient Irish Serpent Faith and St Patrick
Apr 28, 2010, 11:51
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Is there an overall web site for all this type of stuff.? Slovakia says the Bonwick book is really good! Cheers Tjj, and a site for ancient Celtic, not the team tho a medal or two would be nice, jewellry. You are a very nice person so thanks in advance. Trumpet time for me!
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Branwen
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Edited May 02, 2010, 18:06
Re: Ancient Irish Serpent Faith and St Patrick
May 02, 2010, 18:04
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Dunno if there is a copmprehensive site for all the serpent faith folklore or not, I've posted a list of useful links in the useful links thread that I use when looking for books though. I just have a lot of stuff accumulated through my interest in scottish pagan faiths.
Sites like mysterious britain are expanding all the time, so more and more it appearing there.
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tjj
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Re: Ancient Irish Serpent Faith and St Patrick
May 02, 2010, 21:39
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Branwen wrote: Dunno if there is a copmprehensive site for all the serpent faith folklore or not, I've posted a list of useful links in the useful links thread that I use when looking for books though. I just have a lot of stuff accumulated through my interest in scottish pagan faiths.
Sites like mysterious britain are expanding all the time, so more and more it appearing there.
I've just been looking at the Mysterious Britain & Ireland site Branwen, its very good and I could lose myself in it. I am interested in your own collection of Scottish paganism and folk-lore ... perhaps a book one day, keep us posted.
Yesterday I was with my sister getting lost on our way to a family wedding reception held in the village Shrivenham; I looked out of the car window and saw one of my favourite views - the Uffington White Horse ... which always tells me I am near home and not very lost. Here is the well known Dragon connection on Mysterious Britain site (a tenuous link to serpents).
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Branwen
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Re: Ancient Irish Serpent Faith and St Patrick
May 02, 2010, 22:01
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I've written for a couple of on and offline pagan magazines before. Nothing was turned down at least, though I only sent them to places requesting unpaid work too, so they are beggars that cant be choosers maybe. I wrote a book about Edinburgh's saint and her pagan connections, but haven't made any attempt to publish it. I tell myself it's because I'd like to illustrate it next. But it's really fear of failure and can't be arsed-ism. It was a good exercise in the benefits of one track research in expanding a subject usually only briefly mentioned in a book covering a wider genre, though.
If you google greysleeves and druid you'll get an article I wrote which was taken up by several magazines, offline and on. It was part of a series but I never sent any of the others in.
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drewbhoy
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Re: Ancient Irish Serpent Faith and St Patrick
May 03, 2010, 13:31
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Cheers for Mysterious Britain Branwen, some interesting stuff in there. Including a lot of things I'd never read about before.
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