We will explore a particular fear of a ‘bad death’, focussing on salient points to help us understand some of the current Scottish folk and funerary customs discussed later. A different kind of death as we understand today.įollowing in Sir Orfeo’s footsteps. Phrases like “ not one in twenty dies a true death, they all pass into another life” and “ when a man dies, he does not die at all, but the daoine maithe take him away” show a belief of the dead being taken elsewhere. To the Scotsman and Irish man the dead would have been carried off body and soul by the sidhe. How is this so? The state of the dead demonstrates they didn’t die well. These decapitated, asphyxiated, burnt and drowned were still alive. Whilst there, Sir Orfeo notices the castle walls and impressive vaulted roof are made of the still living dead, most of them maimed and suffering. The otherworld This is a very similar tale you’ll hear in Celtic Myth stories about the voyage tales. After going mad in the wilderness he sees her travel past in a fairy host and rushes after her. In the poem Sir Orfeo travels to rescue his wife who has been taken by the king of the fairies. It’s no coincidence death is bound up in these times too.Īn example that helps us grasp this idea of the liminal dead who are still alive is the poem entitled Sir Orfeo. It was at these liminal times folk were most worried about the interference of the daoine maithe – “the good folk” or the sidhe/sith. The astute among you will know Scottish folk-lore focuses primarily on liminality. Such as still-borns, women in labour etc. Stomma explored the restless dead who trouble the living. Come death, and pass life – Scottish folk charm to urge death. For example, those who hadn’t received the right funerary rights, who were murdered or through acts of suicide would become the restless dead. The intervention of people through folk rites and/or fate moved the departed between these categories. We will focus on two of these – the restless and the peaceful dead. Our ancestors divided the dead into different distinctions. Fairy faith a repository for all things that couldn’t be taken into Christianity’s increasing ideological expansion I feel Purgatory and saint worship was a definite attempt at adopting some of the earlier beliefs of ancestor veneration the church needed to compete with. The burial mounds of our ancestors Sidhe mounds. In Scotland, the repository for this lore became the Sidhe, the daoine maithe (good folk). The living dead were reduced to appearances in dreams, phantasms and at times demons by an active Kirk. The dead were moving, roving things that could eat, fight and fuck. The way we conceive of the dead today is not the same way as our ancestors. Hidden in names of towns, rivers, munros and glens. Their tales, long forgotten, can be found buried in the Scottish landscape. His Red Riders and a boat ferrying the dead to his house, Teach Duinn, at Samhuinn, an appropriate entourage. The first of the Milesians to die in Ireland and become Lord of the Dead. For example, a Gaelic exemplar of ancestor turned deity is the tale of Donn. On the reverse, the dead are associated with tutelary spirits, genii loci and deity. Disease, evil, madness, revenge, curses, blighted crops and destroyed livelihoods are associated with them in many societies both modern and historic. Return of the dead, its corruption and putrification is a common unifying anxiety. These philosophies shaped a unique form of folklore relating to the dead born from this melting pot. Before the influence of the kirk and the dead’s exile to formalised graveyards the Picts, Celts, Norse, Roman, Viking, Anglo, Saxon and others left deep-rooted beliefs. Cultural interplay has provided Scotland a rich diversity and depth of folklore. Nowhere, even in modern times, do religious ritual and custom retain a stronger hold on the majority of mankind than at the crisis of death and burial. I also have highlighted relevant reading as I’ve gone along and happy to discuss sources if you’re interested. I’ve hopefully managed to find a way you can read them as you go along and cut your brain load. To keep the flow a little easier I haven’t referenced academically but written the odd note here and there which you’ll find when you click on > These are the footnotes. (and maybe more than you’d like to read- It needs chapters). A fuller exploration of the subject of funerary customs, death and folklore requires more writing than I feel I’m capable of in a web format.
Due to the amount of lore and other related bits of information this article is quite dense. It sets the tone of the rest of the series. If you haven’t read it I suggest you have a wee read. I introduced a series of writing exploring the role of the oft neglected dead in Scottish folk magic.