Celtic curses (I). Sung and spoken curses.
As we have already seen in previous articles of this blog about Celtic magic and the druids, natural magic had great value within the Celtic worldview. And just as good things could be obtained, the duality of it was clear in the very stories where magic took place: creating a storm to strike down an enemy was good or bad depending on the side. Therefore, magic could be used for acts considered "bad," without necessarily being negative magic. And with a significant advantage: magic usually required great knowledge and study, but curses did not, and therefore could be performed by anyone who wished to do so.
Moreover, in the Christian Celtic world, and it can be thought that also in the pre-Christian, there is a somewhat different conception from the rest of Europe about what a curse is: there are "just" curses and unjust curses; in this way, we will find more typical curses, made with malice, and curses that even Christian priests and bishops could perform from the very altar of the Church. We will focus in the article on curses understood as spells and charms with malevolent purposes. We know part of the magical vocabulary and curses from medieval texts and ones external to the druidic world, such as the Lorica of St. Patrick, where it is said that this prayer protects against brichtu ban, gobban, druad (against spells from women, blacksmiths, and druids); or brechtaib ban mberar (against the enchantment of women) against brichtu drúad (against druid magic), as mentioned in the story of the Adventures of Connla. These texts have Christian components that raise doubts about whether these expressions contain the 'evil' associated with a curse, or simply refer to general magic. Only from Gaelic can we extract 'pisóca' as the word closest to witchcraft.
The issue is complex once again because Celtic pagan culture is primarily oral in dissemination. Thus, written records are the focus of multiple discussions. Furthermore, most traces come from the western European coast and the British Isles, especially preserved in Irish folklore, which adds to the problematic nature of trying to reconstruct the complete Celtic world with traces that are really very limited geographically. Although it may seem contradictory to say that most oral curses are found in literature, we can still classify them as such in as much as they are dialogued expressions, of which we would have no trace at all were it not for these works. That is to say: they are curses that were made by speaking, without physical support, and luckily have been partially reflected in writing.
Mallacht, the curse.
In general, curses are gathered under the medieval Irish name Mallacht, which literally means to curse. It should be noted that the vast majority of these curses are from the medieval period and go through that filter.We have more general curses than others. Because of legends, many have an epic and warrior-like cut and context.
Mallacht a gascid fair!, (Cursed be your weapons) or Fognad dúib ág is ernbas!, (May danger and destruction reach you).
In a Christian context, Mallacht Dé ort! (God curse you)
In literature, when bards and druids cast spells invoking gods or beings, it is called Anáil Siabhráin, "breath of the spirit" or "breath for hallucination." (Overall, it resembles more of a piseóg, as we will see below). Although this type of curse was also Christianized, replacing the pagan entity with the devil: Go marbhaí an diabhal tú (May the devil slay you).
We can deduce and compare a lot of Celtic vocabulary thanks to the historical and folkloric collections from the 19th-20th centuries. See the following poem in Gaelic, titled Mallachd (Curse):
<< Thainig dithis a mach
A Cathrach Neobh,
Fear agus bean,
A dheanadh nan ōisnean.
Mallaich dha na beana bur-shuileach,
Mallaich dha na feara fur-shuileach,
Mallaich dha na ceithir saighde, guineach, guid,
Dh' fhaodadh a bhi 'n aorabh duine 's bruid. >>
(Poem 147 of the Carmina Gaelica by M. Carmichael (20th century).
<<Two came out
From the City of Heaven,
A man and a woman,
To do the 'ōisnean'.
Curses upon the women of clouded eyes,
Curses upon the men of sharp eyes,
Curses upon the four poisonous arrows of disease,
That may be in the constitution of man and beast.>>
Here is the word ōisnean which generates controversy, as it seems clear that it is referring to some type of ritual, spell, or evil, but in Scottish Gaelic it means "corner" or "nook," and it is complex to associate the meanings.Another example can be another poem from the same anthology, in which someone is really conjured in advance against "possible" enemies who want to curse someone. Here we will see some recurring formulas, such as Gum bu… (May it be…), or the Christian safeguard of the one cursing, An ainm Dhia nam feart, a shiab uam gach olc (In the name of Almighty God, who protects me with his strength).
<< Ulc a dhean mo lochd
Gun gabh e 'n
galar gluc gloc
Guirneanach,
gioirneanach,
guairneach,
Gaornanach,
garnanach,
gruam.
Gum bu cruaidhe
c na chlach,
Gum bu duibhe
e na 'n gual,
Gum bu luaithe
e na 'n lach,
Gum bu truime
e na 'n luaidh.
(... lists a long series of diseases… )
An ainm Dhia
nam feart,
A shiab uam
gach olc,
'S a dhion mi
le neart,
Bho lion mo
luchd-freachd
Agus fuathachd. >>
(Poem 193 from the Carmina Gaelica by M. Carmichael (20th century).
<<To the cursed one who
would wish to harm me,
may they catch a disease
of the throat
,global,
spiral,
circular,
stuffy,
with pills,
nodular and macabre.
May it be harder
than stone,
may it be blacker
than coal,
may it be faster
than a duck,
may it be heavier
than lead
(... listing a long series of diseases…)
In the name of God
almighty,
who protects me
with his strength,
from the net of my
breakers and my
destroyers >>
Yes, the power of the word, well known to the Celts, was not exclusive to the Druids or sorcerers. The bards had a special power through their memory and their voice, and they undoubtedly played a fundamental role in the spread of news, events, myths, legends, and religion: in fact, it is believed that, historically speaking, the bards played a very relevant role in the expansion of Christianity throughout the Celtic world on the islands, as their words could be held in the same high esteem as those of the Druids.
We know that the words used to refer to the songs of the bards and their critiques have components related to their magical power. Satire can be said: áer, but they were also called congain comail, "biting words," which is related to the lexicon used in sympathetic magic spells, such as driving pins into figurines or curse tablets. In some way, the words could also affect the people they were directed at, not so much in a psychological sense but in a magical one, within the context of the time. We can even say that curses, as such, had a special power if they were sung, as deduced from some tablets (which we will see in a second article), where the Latinized word necracantum appears, that is, songs of death. In other cases, the satires and tales of the bards, especially in medieval texts, appear directly with words clearly from the world of magic: túaithe is enchantment, corrguinecht as witchcraft, and glám dícenn is a sort of curse, a 'lethal satire.'
Piseóg
Pronounced /pishogue/, it is a superstition quite widespread to this day in Ireland. It is probably where the term pisóca comes from. It involves brief curses performed at night, intended to absorb the luck of the enemy. They can be interesting in a context of battle or magic, but mainly it ended up being associated with envies between farmers and neighboring villages, considering that livestock or crops being more abundant, or a marriage being more harmonious, could be due to an intentional piseóg. It ended up being something like the evil eye in other cultures.
To defend against it, it is necessary to sprinkle holy water or Cumann na dTrí nUisce 'water where three things meet (for example, three cities or three rivers) in the four cardinal directions. There are also the piseóg curses that require an accompanying ritual, such as burying certain objects or performing certain actions in the middle of the night. But we will talk about them in the second article on Celtic curses: written and physical.
Curses and Taboos
In the literary world, we also find curses typical of fairy tales. In these stories, the protagonists are limited by some type of taboo or action they cannot carry out due to a curse that someone placed on them when they were babies. Such is the case of Cúchulainn, who cannot eat dog meat, but also cannot refuse any food offered to him; or his son Connla, who can never say his own name. In other cases, it is not about taboos but the vision of an important event or the moment of death, which the characters try to avoid. It also recalls the remnants in European fairy tales of blessings or curses placed on newborns by benevolent or malevolent beings.This type of curse is known as geis or geas (geisa or geasa in plural), which originally meant prayer or guidance, and in medieval times already meant "prophecy."
Continues in: Celtic curses (II). Written and physical curses.
Pietro V. Carracedo Ahumada - pietrocarracedo@gmail.com
Bibliography:
-Stuart McKie. The Social Significance of Curse Tablets in the North-Western Provinces of the Roman Empire. The Open University, 2016.
-Mees, B, T, Celtic curses. Boydell Press, 2009
-Waters, T. Irish Cursing and the Art of Magic, 1750–2018. Past & Present, Volume 247, Issue 1, May 2020, Pages 113–149.
Related articles
> Celtic magic (II). Natural magic and divination
> Celtic curses (II). Written and physical curses.
