Celtic Hags 4

Caillagh Ny Gromagh (Old Woman of Gloominess) Cailleach Borus (Boiling Spring) Berengaria (Supreme One) Naas ní Ruadraigh, Nás (Red Place) Drabne of Dol (Our Stain of the Dark)

Finlay the Hunter lived with his sister in a lonely little house among the mountains, and near at hand there were giants who were descendants of Beira, the Queen of Winter. This giant clan was ruled over by a witch who was very old and fierce and cunning. She had heaps of silver and gold in her cave, and also a gold-hilted magic sword and a magic wand. When she struck a stone pillar with this wand it became a warrior, and if she put the gold-hilted sword into his hand, the greatest and strongest hero in the world would be unable to combat against him with success.
[When she comes to Finlay’s house as an old woman she grows bigger and bigger beside the fire, just like the sun]
– Donald A. Mackenzie: The Story of Finlay & the Giants

She finds lost children and brings the dawn. She can take the form of a cow, gigantic bird, or a plump woman holding a sheath of grain in the crook of her right arm. Where she treads, the earth is renewed. If St Brigid’s Day (1 February) is wet, she stays inside and if the weather is good, she comes out to gather sticks to warm her through the summer. She fell into a hole by Cronk yn Irree Lhaa, Isle of Man, where the footmark is still seen. The bottom of the hole a thousand feet down has a black cauldron filled with henbane, nightshade, wormwood and drearweed. She stole the god Hanratty’s shadow at noon when he defiled the sacred oak grove and Duibhne: Black stole Fionn: White’s reflection. They placed these in the cauldron with a frog, a spider, and spice. Two spites arose from the cauldron, one hurled north and one south. One bit Hanratty and one Fionn and the god’s changed places. Fionn had Hanratty’s appearance. Her sons are: Ainnle & Abartach. Her burial site is in Naas, Kildare County, Ireland. Kildare is in Laigean: Leinster: Raven and is bounded by the Wicklow Mountains. The Liffey: Aine Cliach: Aine’s Harp flows through the mountains. Barrow River. Her other sister is: Cailleach Bhéara Place-names: Borbhan: Bourban, France. (6, 71, 77, 108, 121)

Cait Sìth, Grimalkin (Fairy Cats)
(pron. cait shee) Large Highland black cats with a white spot on their breasts. They are transformed hags. Any witch was permitted to assume the body of a cat nine times. Cats are totems of many tribes. Caithness is named from the clan of the Catti, or cat-people.Taghgairm is where a live cat was roasted over a fire until other cats appeared to save him by answering questions and has been discontinued. (6, 210)