|
The Modern Antiquarian Forum » Wells O' Wearie » OT: Wells and folklore |
Log In to post a reply
|
|
|
|
| Topic View: Flat | Threaded | |
drewbhoy 2559 posts |
Sep 26, 2009, 03:54
|
||
|
Branwen wrote: LMAO at Hob The Black Well at Culloden is also called The Dead Well, and the well o wearie was connected with the legends of all those women that were killed there too, which got me thinking on connections between these two names, apart from the obvious fact of black being a mourning or negative colour. The connection to death I thought of was that some wells were actually shafts, dug in celtic times with funerary or votive deposits in the bottom. T D Kendrick describes some which had a tree placed upside down in them, postulating a path climbing downwards to the underworld as well, perhaps for sacrificial messages to be carried, though that is speculation, obviously. Other well shafts have had little votive offerings, and animal bones in them, as well as those with human remains. I'm wondering now if a black well might be something like the red water wells, like the chalice well mentioned earlier in the thread. Is there anything that might make the water black, apart from peat? Peat wouldn't be poisonous though, I guess. Just wild speculations of my own, but sometimes you get a breakthrough bouncing ideas around. A light bulb over the head moment... Liggars Stone near Inverurie is associated with the same type of thing. The stone was placed, after being taken from a nearby stone circle (loads to choose from) to remember the womenfolk who died at the Battle of Harlaw, who followed their husbands etc.
|
|||
|
Branwen 824 posts |
Edited Sep 26, 2009, 04:20
Sep 26, 2009, 04:11
|
||
|
I clarified my earlier posts, the whole threaded and flat view were confusing for a while there, sorry, and I posted twice too. I found a copy of the well at the worlds end, (which was called the weary well at the worlds end in some tales) at sacred texts, it's supposed to be the version of the tale before it was retold a different way in Scotland, and resembles the Cuthildorie tales (goblin replaces the frog prince). The false knight stories I added to the site about the wells o wearie are too disimilar to be an extrapolation of the same tale, but the idea of the weary well at the worlds end, or life's end maybe, are a common thread. Any well might be a weary well, if it's the one where you are to be killed, as in the tales of the false knight. The place where you lay down life's weary burden. The maiden being taken to the weary well in the land of fairy in the Cuthilldorie tale might mean she was taken to the otherworld, where you drink from the well o weary, or waters of the afterlife. https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/eft/eft42.htm I should clarify that most people think the World End pub near the Weary Well of Edinburgh relates to the fact it was at the city wall, where the civilised world ended, and not because of the well stories, though that might be a theory that became popular and not the real reason.
|
|||
tjj 3606 posts |
Edited Sep 26, 2009, 23:51
Sep 26, 2009, 16:43
|
||
|
tiompan wrote: You are right tiompan, it is good. I usually describe myself as 'without religion' on one hand - but a student of all religions on the other. It seems that the somewhat secretive Culdees/Ceile De may be the true inheritors of the pre-christian druids. Having absorbed many of their rituals and staying true to early pre-roman christianity, they practice in small communities in secluded parts of Scotland and Ireland.
|
|||
Littlestone 5386 posts |
Sep 27, 2009, 00:05
|
||
|
I found a copy of the well at the worlds end... If this is the one by William Morris it's also available online from the Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/169 website. Dover Publications did a very fine facsimile of Morris' Kelmscott Press (1894) edition of The Wood Beyond the World in 1972 (ISBN 0-486-22791-X) which is really worth having if you can find a copy.
|
|||
thesweetcheat 6218 posts |
Sep 28, 2009, 21:08
|
||
|
Squid Tempest wrote: I've been having a bit of a read of that and there is some fascinating stuff in there. I hadn't realised that so many street names in London came from the sites of wells, or that wells were so important in the development of London. along the way (checking out Bride Lane, site of Bride's Well (from "Bridget" natch)) I also discovered that there is a church by the name of St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe, which tickled me... There's a chapter in Ackroyd's London - The Biography about the Clerk's Well (Clerkenwell), I seem to remember.
|
|||
|
Martin 401 posts |
Sep 29, 2009, 13:25
|
||
|
I too can think of some chalybeate wells. Recently visited one at the mouth of Glen Lyon (just near Fortingall). When I found the site at the side of the road it was chock full of fallen leaves, so I cleared them out. Without exagerating, my hands were orange for days after!! That's a serious amount of dissolved iron! Yes- I'm very much into wells, but this isn't really the place to post pics and site notes....
|
|||
goffik 3926 posts |
Sep 29, 2009, 14:39
|
||
|
Hi Branwen! Apologies for the late response... Branwen wrote: I am new to the forum, so if I've been off topic I apologise. Nah - it's not you that's been off-topic, it's me! And I'm only half-joking, anyway, really... The remit of this site being that the site needs to be of a proven age, which, sadly, wells often don't have a history that goes back that far, or that they really aren't as old as TMA is set up to feature! Personally, I'm happy as Larry to see more wells. Happily for me, with the "Disputed Antiquity" label, they're tolerated more than I guess they should be. ;) Nah - your folklore posts are most welcome! And it's unlikely *any* folklore will be considered as off-topic... G x
|
|||
|
Branwen 824 posts |
Edited Oct 02, 2009, 14:02
Oct 02, 2009, 13:59
|
||
|
Well it certainly clarified my thinking about the local Well O' Weary to have been able to bounce ideas around with youse guys. I've added my conclusions as a comment to the stone page relating to the subject. I know it's a minor little site, but in the past the most interesting stuff I've researched has come about from doggedly tracking down one little story, which in other works is just dealt with slightly, as part of a bigger genre. And some stories about a place really do help dating it, as the elements within the stories might be dateable to, say, the celts, for instance. So it's a worthwhile exercise. In Scotland the Celtic Church took over before the Roman Church did. The earlier Celtic Church had a lot more pagan practices in it, such as the belief in magic, reverence for nature, worshipping outdoors, creation and god being one... They also kept some of the earlier pagan customs such as the druid tonsure, and dated Easter differently, which the Roman church didn't like. They came to a head in a power struggle and the Roman Church won, basically. The Servants of God, Cuile De, are the remnants of that celtic church. I read that Cuile De, Catholic, and Druid groups are working to revive this church today, though, like Druid groups, there are neo Cuile-De revivalist groups popping up all over already, which don't quite agree on what to be. Some are very new age, some set on reconstructionism.
|
|||
|
Branwen 824 posts |
Edited Oct 06, 2009, 19:16
Oct 06, 2009, 19:16
|
||
Saw a reference today that says the people of Duddingston used to refer to the Devil as "Old Wearie".
|
|||
|
wideford 1086 posts |
Oct 06, 2009, 19:51
|
||
|
Branwen wrote: Saw a reference today that says the people of Duddingston used to refer to the Devil as "Old Wearie". makes you wonder about Wearyall Hill
|
| Pages: 5 – [ Previous | 1 2 3 4 5 | Next ] | Add a reply to this topic |
|
|
|
| The Modern Antiquarian Forum Index | |
