This volume presents an analysis of the "wise woman healer" from the oral traditions of Ireland's rural communities. Stories, told and retold, embedded in the texture of culture and community, collected and studied for many decades, are here translated and made available to the general reader. The figure of the "wise woman", the "hag", the Cailleach, or the "Red Woman" are part of an oral tradition which has its roots in pre-Christian Ireland. In the hands of Gearoid O'Crualaich these figures are subtly explored to reveal how they offered a complex understanding of the world, of human psychology and its predicaments. The thematic structure of the book brings to the fore universal themes such as death, marriage, childbirth and healing, and invites the reader to see the contemporary relevance of the stories for themselves.
Not bad, could do better As a collection of Cailleach stories this is interesting but some of the groping to make all stories of hags in Irish culture stories of the same Cailleach and it all feels like a mish-mash of stories that are divorced of place and special and in many instances I think that the place is important to the story and that he's treating too many of the stories with a badge of same without thinking about what makes them unique and specific. He also fails to distinguish between stories that echo and are almost avatars of the Cailleach and speak to the endurance of the story over time and how it still resonated to people up to the early 20th century. It's a good collection of stories but I'm not happy with the conclusions.
Reading updates
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2 November, 2015:
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2 November, 2015:
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