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Scathach, Gaelic Goddess of the Dead, the warrior-woman risen to Divinity,
patron of blacksmiths and warriors alike. The Goddess of those slain in
battle and the passage of the dead to Tir Nan Og. Once mortal, she was
touched by the Tuatha de Dannan in a way usually only seen in the Sidhe.
In her duties, she is similar to the Valkyrie of the Norse. She searches
the battlefields for the souls of the slain, and guides them along the
Imrama na Anam, or Death Journey (lit. "Journey of the Soul"),
to Tir Nan Og, the Land of Eternal Youth and Beauty.
Scathach is said to be the daughter of the king of Scythia. Aoife,
another fierce warrior queen, is reputed to be her sister, while Uathach,
her daughter, is a fellow teacher at her school. She also told to have two
sons named Cet and Cuar from an unnamed man and trains them within a
secret yew tree. Another source tells that she is mother to three maidens
named Lasair, Inghean Bhuidhe and Latiaran, the father being a man named
Douglas.
However, although the warrior dead get preferential treatment, Scathach
does guide those who did not die in battle when they get lost on the
Imrama. The reason so many vision-seekers get lost on the Imrama is that
Scathach does not guide the living. It is also the duty of Scathach to
drop those who acted poorly in life on one of the mystical islands of the
other world, where they pay their debts and learn their folly. Not many
living mortals ever make it to Tir Nan Og successfully (Olsin being the
most famous exception).
In the Ulster Cycle, she is a fearsome expert in the arts of war. It is to
her that Cu Chulainn, the greatest of Celtic warriors, comes in his youth
to learn his craft. This teaching took place in Alba. It was from Scathach
that Cu Chulainn received the 'Gae Bolg', his formidable barbed spear (or
sword, in some versions) whose thrust was invariably fatal.
Scathach, is a warrior queen and also mistress of a school for young
warriors. The school is located in Scotland on the island of Skye,
reputedly named after Scathach; other sources say she's living in the
Alps. She teaches unto her children martial arts, discipline, how to work
iron and steel, magick, the ways of the seer, and the way of the sword,
spear, and bow. She initiates young men into the arts of war, as well as
giving them the "friendship of her thighs", that is to say,
initiating them sexually.
Legend tells us that she grants three wishes to the hero Cuchulainn,
because her daughter Uathach, being in love with him, has told him how to
make her do it. The three wishes are to train him in the arts of war, to
marry her daughter Uathach and to tell his fortune... which she does by
using imbas forosnai ("charm of the palms"), partly foretelling
the events of the Tain Bo Cuailgne (Cattle Raid of Cooley) in dark very
terms.
Scathach was also a potent magician herself. Lore tells us that she had
the gift of prophecy, and she foretold Cu Chulainn's fate during the
course of Queen Madb's onslaught against Ulster.
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The Winged Isle of Skye
© 1998, Frances Billinghurst (Published in
the "Pagan Times" Issue 24 and 25)
The Cullin Mountains, home of the Warrior
Goddess Scathach
Probably the most famous of the Scottish islands is Skye, off
the North West coast. Approximately 77 kilometers from North to South, and 43
kilometers from West to East at its widest part, the island's jagged coastline
makes it impossible to be more than eight kilometers from the sea at any point
you stand.
Skye is a romantic's dream, and a mountaineer's paradise. It
evokes mystery and enchantment with its spectacular scenery and ever changing
colors. An aura of mysticism still remains from Norse and Gaelic times when the
Isle was known as the Isle of the Clouds by the Vikings, and the Winged
Isle by the Celts. Today, with the revival of Gaelic, it is known as Eilean
a' Cheo, the Isle of the Mist.
Cuchulainn and the Warrior Goddess Scathach
One of the best known features of Skye are the Cullin
Mountains. The Black Cullins are a horseshoe-shaped range encircling one of the
most isolated and remote lochs in Scotland, Loch Coruish. The twenty sharp peaks
are all over 900 meters high and are often necked in clouds. Facing these are
conical summits of pink granite known as the Red Cullins. The mountains are,
according to Celtic legend, names after the Ulster Sun God, Cuchulainn, when he
journeyed to the domain of the Goddess Scathach, on Skye. Scathach was a
formidable warrior queen and prophetess, and the ruins of Dunscaith on the Sleat
Peninsular in the south of the island are said to have been her stronghold.
Cuchulainn's journey to Skye was one for him to gain wisdom,
skill and to be transformed. He passed through various trials on the way - the
Plains of Ill Luck, where the feet of men could be pierced by razor sharp grass
blade; the Perilous Glens, filled with its devouring beasts; and the Bridge of
the Cliff, stretching between the mainland and Skye, said to throw anyone
attempting to cross it to their deaths. Cuchulainn avoided this fate by
performing his "Salmon Leap" (which is described to have
involved twisting and turning like a salmon) to gain access to Scathach's
stronghold.
One legend tells us that Cuchulainn served as one of
Scathach's students for one year and a day, and won battles in single combat
against the other student before taking on Scathach's sister, Aoife, who was
know for her battle skills. Cuchulainn eventually won this match, but only by
out-tricking her. According to legend, Aoife, later became his lover and bore
him a son, Colai, and it was the boy's own fate to be killed by his father.
Another version of the legend says it was Scathach's
daughter, Uathach, who was beaten and this angered the warrior queen so much
that she decided to fight the young hero herself. They battled for four days and
four nights, neither eating nor sleeping, and it was only when they finally
realised neither of them would win that they stopped. Scathach subsequently
awarded Cuchulainn Gae-bolg, the "belly spear", which, it made a
single entry, once inside the body the 30 barbs would open and tear the stomach
apart. And when the youth returned to Ireland, Scathach named the Cullin
Mountains after him out of respect.
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Faeries and Wytches
 The earliest human occupation of Skye dates to around 3500
BCE. From this time came many of the chambered tombs and brochs which are
scattered around the island. Brochs, being dry stone towers, were believed to
have been built for dene purposes, and are said to be "as old as
Sithichean" - older than man. They serve a more sinister purpose in
folklore, being the dwelling place for faeries and the entrance way to their
kingdoms. Mortals and cattle alike were said to be carried off by faeries to the
brochs, from which emanated an eerie green light when the Sun went down.
Dun Beag Broch
One of the best preserved brochs on Skye in Dun Beag, which is near the
main road to Struan, overlooking Loch Bracadale. The broch occupies a
rocky knoll, making its walls appear even taller and more impressive. With
its extensive views of the Cullin Mountains, there is a surreal peace
about the place, being surrounded by flowering heather, foxgloves and
bracken during the summer.
This belief of the Faery folk was still strong in the 1830s when a
chambered tomb near Broadford was investigated. The men who entered the
chamber, were armed with pistols to defend themselves, believing that
strange animals lived within. Instead, all that was found were charred
skulls, several flint implements, and some pottery fragments.
The history of some chambered tombs tends to relate more to
folk legend than fact. One example is of the two massive cairns close to the
road at Vattern, in the west of the isle, which were said to have been built on
the site of the last great battle between the Clans MacLeod and MacDonald.
According to legend, thick mist descended during the battle, causing great
confusion, and resulting in the deaths of most of the warriors. So many men were
killed or wounded that the only people left to dig the graves were the women,
children and old men. The best they could do was to make two piles of the
bodies, according to clan, and cover each with stones.
And finally, amongst the rich folklore, is a story about the
island's wytches, which, unfortunately, is not dated. Three of them once lived
near Portree, the island's largest town, at Camusianavaig Point. One of their
clients was a skipper of a local fishing boat who wished to get even with a
rival crew. On the day he decided to consult the wytches, bring with him a
bottle of whisky, only two were home. They went ahead anyway and, by the time
they had decided on a suitable spell, the whisky bottle was empty. About this
time the third wytch returned, and she was furious - not only for not being
consulted about the spell, but also because there was no whisky left for her. It
is said that as the skipper's boat sailed past the point, a squall suddenly blew
up, engulfing the boat and its crew. And even today, her anger can still be felt
as winds still blow near Camusianavaig Point when the rest of the bay is calm.
MacDonalds of Sleat
Skye's history is long and complicated. The Celts and Norse
came and went, and ever since the 13th century the island has been ruled, to a
greater or lesser degree, by the Dunvegan MacLeods, in the north, and in the
South by the MacDonalds of Sleat.
Dunscaith Castle on the Sleat Peninsular in the south, the
legendary home of the island's Goddess Scathach, is attributed to the MacDonalds.
It was their principle seat up until the late 15th century, and the local legend
surrounding it was that Dunscaith was built in one night.
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Ruins of Dunscaith Castle
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"All night the witch sang, and the castle grew.
Up from rock, with tower and turrets crowned.
All night she sang - when fell the morning dew.
'Twas finished round and round …"
The MacDonalds then took over Duntulm Castle in the
north from the MacLeods in 1482, and this was their new home until it
was abandoned in 1730, when a nurse dropped the chief's baby son from
the window to the rocks below, thus cursing the household. From that
point, they moved south again, and eventually ended up at Armadale, with
a modest manor house which today is the genealogical center.
Duntulm Castle is said to be haunted by the ghost of
the eighth MacDonald chief, Donald Gorm Mor, who is said to return to
the castle with two companies to get drunk!
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MacLeods and the Faery Flag
The MacLeods have fared the centuries better. Their ancestral
home is Dunvegan Castle, which is lived in today by their 29th chief. Maybe this
is because in their possession is the "faery flag", a 600 year old
tattered silken banner which is shot with gold thread and marked with "elf
spots". Many stories are associated as to how the flag came into the clan's
possession, including it being captured and brought back from the Crusades.
However, one favourite is of a MacLeod chief being married to a faery. Later,
when she decided to return to her own people, she dropped a piece of silk at her
husband's feet at a place called the Ford of the Three Burns (known today as the
"Faery Bridge", and said"
"Keep this flag and unfurl it to the wind whenever
crisis hits you. It will save you and your twice. But woe betide you if you
unfurl it a third time".
Some say that the flag has been used twice - to win the
battles of Glendale in 1490, and of Waternish in 1580. Others say that is was
Titania, the Faery Queen herself, who gave the flag to the MacLeods.
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The Ancient Pict
Skye has also been the home to the Picts. The Picts
were the original inhabitants of northern Scotland and were so named by
the Romans due to their practice of adorning or decorating their bodies
with tribal totems and magickal designs. Such designs were either actual
tattoos and drawn with woad. The Picts had many beliefs in common with
the Celts, one of which was their shared aversion to written language,
their religious beliefs and traditions were committed to memory.
There is a beautiful symbol stone still standing in
the open near Skeabost. The other two symbol stones found on the island
are now in the Edinburgh Museum. Skye was also the most northern isle St
Columbia visited when he brought Christianity to the islands, and in
1746 local lass Flora MacDonald helped Prince Charles Edward Stuart
(later known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie") escape the English
after the slaughter of his Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden. She
dressed the Prince in her maid's clothes and hid him in a cave before he
could escape to France.
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Skeabost Pictic Stone
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Today
Skye today is a place of peace and tranquility...there are
few residents, and even in the peak of summer visitation, there is always a
quiet place to be found to sit, and remember the goddess Scathach and her story.
References:
"Skye" by Ann MacSween
"Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain" by Jennifer Westwood
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