Татьяна Михайлова – Вестница смерти – хозяйка судьбы. Образ женщины в традиционной ирландской культуре (страница 33)

Leborcham the great sorceress

In the stories of the Ulster cycle there is a character named Leborcham. In the story of Deirdre, Leborcham acts as a trickster, a trouble-maker. Deirdre lived in isolation and was only allowed to see a restricted number of people; nevertheless, Leborcham managed to get an access to her because ‘she was not the one to be refused’. Attracting Deirdre’s attention to Noise, she eventually causes death of both lovers and brings shame on Ulster warriors.

In other sagas, Leborcham acts as an ambassador and messenger for king Conchobar. She chooses a wife for the king (Tochmarc Luaine), on of her request Cuchulainn agrees to catch the two magic birds for the Ulster women (Serglige CoinChulaind). In the Siege of Howth (Tallaind Etair), she comes through the camp of Leinster warriors to bring some food to the besieged Ulstermen. Leborcham also prophesizes to the Ulster women the victory of their husbands: in the same time she ‘sees’ and prophesizes it: she creates the future by describing it.

This story also contains a description of Leborcham herself. She is one-eyed, ugly (but not old); she can make the round of all Ireland in one day; her knees are turned backwards, and her thighs and heels are turned forward. Mythical beings with strange-looking legs are common not only in Irish, but in other traditions as well, and those orthopedic anomalies are most often accompanied by the ability to move with a supernatural speed. Because of this ability, Leborcham could acquire a great amount of information. In our opinion, this «ultraspeed» movement was not only a movement in space, but also in time, and Leborcham’s prophetic gift was not only an ability to know the future, but also, perhaps, an ability to influence the future. Why, than Leborcham was «not the one to be refused»? First, for her there is no social barriers. She has a free access to the king, gives him advice and information. This character is close to the one of a jester, whose glaring behavior often goes unpunished. But the main property of a jester – his (pretended) madness is absent in our case. Second, the authors of the sagas, explaining her immunity, call Leborcham a banchdinte – a female satirist. It is worth noting, than in one version of the Deirdre story, Leborcham is called beanchaointeach, lit. ‘a female mourner’. This may be a term for a professional mourner, but also for a banshee in her capability of a messenger of death [Lysaght 1986, 33–4]. Than, Leborcham ‘one-eyed, all-knowing, and not to be refused’ was, perhaps, not only a messenger of Death, but also the Death itself.

The Queen Gorm(f)laith: Name as a Micro-text

The story of Irish queens named Gorm(f)laith, who lived in 9^th‑11^th centuries, was already treated in some detail by [A. Trindade, 1986] and by [Ní Mhaonaigh 2002]. (Compare also [Dagger 1989] on women named Eithne). There were at least three Gorm(f)laiths:

1) Gorm(f)laith daughter of Donnchad, wife of the king of Tara Niall Caille, abducted by the Munster king Feidlimid mac Crimthann in 840.

2) Gorm(f)laith daughter of the King of Tara Flann Sinna, a famous poetess, married to the Munster king-bishop Cormac mac Cuillenan, than to the Leinster king Cerball, and than to the king of Tara Níall Glundub (d. 948).

3) Gorm(f)laith daughter of Murchad, married to the king of Dublin Vikings Olaf, than to his political rival Mael-Sechnaill king of Tara, and than to Brian Boru, king of Munster and later king of Ireland.

A number of scholars suggested that a queen named Gorm(f)laith may be perceived as a personification of sovereignty. The Old Irish gorm has a wide range of meanings such as ‘violet’, ‘dark’, ‘distinguished’ and ‘blue’. The Vikings were sometimes described as ‘blue / distinguished (gorm) foreigners’. The second element can be interpreted as laith ‘drink’ and flaith ‘sovereignty’. An (intoxicating) drink and sovereignty were closely associated in Old Irishtradition.

There were no less than 19 queens with the name Gorm(f)laith in Irish history and some of them, e. g. the wife of the first Gorm(f)laith’s son Aed Findliath were married a number of times. Perhaps, kings who longed for power consciously choose wives named Gorm(f)laith. For a mythological consciousness, the name determined the character of person and his / her destiny. «What a hero does is only what his name semantically means» [Фрейденберг 1982]. The old Irish scholars were most interested in the etymology of a name. Regarding historical or pseudo-historical persons, they looked at his / her sobriquet or patronymic / matronymic without looking at a personal name. In this way, the name Gorm(f)laith was not understood by the contemporaries as a ‘blue fire’. Most likely, the perception of this name was precedentoriented. Marrrying a Gorm(f)laith, later Munster kings Cormac and Brian were imitating their predecessor Feidlimid. Moreover, the girl’s parents, as Dr.K. Simms suggested to us, could choose the name Gorm(f)laith in order that their daughter would become a powerful and sought-after queen.

Appendix: Why you shouldn’t let a she-wolf in your house

The Old Irish law-tract Bretha Crolige, possibly written in 8^th‑9^th centuries, deals with different ways of atonement for injuries and wounds. According to Old Irish law system, the culprit was supposed to pay the fine, and than take the victim in his own house, feed and treat him/her, until recovery (the so-called sick-maintenance). The title of the tract, traditionally translated, as The Judgments of Blood-lying due to polysemy of the word cro is better understood as «Sayings on Atonements for Injuries». The tract is accompanied by a number of late glosses, to which we shall return.

The Old Irish law-system was focused on person. Regarding penalties, the status of the victim was most important, and, even more interesting, some personal qualities could affect the status of a person. Some persons were not entitled even on a fine, e. g. prostitutes, thieves, witches (baislec aupta, lit. ‘a basilisk of sorcery’). Bretha crolige and the Heptads give a list of such persons. There were also certain categories of persons, who, being entitled to a fine, normally were not entitled to a sick-maintenance. According to E Kelly, those were: 1) people who could not be easily replaced: those, whose social standing was extremely high (king, bishop) or skilled craftsmen, and, 2) social deviants (madmen).

Among women, the Bretha Crolige discerns 12 types of person who are not entitled to the sick-maintenance. This list also includes different kinds of social deviants (idiots). But there are also women, whose well-being was in one or other way significant for the tribe as a whole: wise-woman, craftsperson, woman-satirist. The «woman, who turns the armies back», the «one who assigns hostages», the «expert in wonders» (?) and the «venerated by the people» – all could play a role in the warfare.

Other types of women are included in this list because of their bad behavior. Those were: ban birach ‘a woman of the sharp words’ (a mischief-maker); befoimrimme ‘a vagrant woman’ and confael conrechta ‘a werewolf’. A mediaeval gloss explains be foimrimme not only as a vagabond (prostitute), but also as a person who uses to visit sude, and her supernatural friends can bring bad luck upon a family she is staying with. Confael conrechta, in reality, perhaps, refers not to the shape-shifting, but defines a woman as a ‘wolfess’, a ‘bitch’ with uncontrolled sexual desires. The word conrechta in this context is to be translated as «a wolfish heat/desire».

As we can see, the explanations offered by the glossators, being not real, are not, in the same time, worthless. They reflect a renaissance of the folk belief after the Norman invasion and show that witches in Ireland, while not fully socially acceptable, at the same time could feel relatively safe. Even if they were not to be nourished because of their deviant behavior, they were entitled on a fine for injury.