DASG Blog

Gaoth-carach

I have been reading “Irish Superstitions”, by Dáithí Ó Hógáin, about superstitions of the Gaels and they are all very interesting, looking at the insight... and understanding of the Gaels of the past. It is interesting to find that little has changed in terms of superstitions we have today.

I would like to look at words that deal with “whirlwind,” “eddy-wind,” etc. In Irish, starting with “The man of the wind”, the man responsible for the wind and for knocking and felling stacks of corn, especially if one hasn’t gathered their stacks in their barns. There is a story in Munster where a widow’s son was furious because the wind kept damaging his mother’s house. The boy decided he would set off to see the mand of the wind for compensation. He followed the direction of the wind to a large whole in the ground where he found the mand of the wind, to whom he made his complaint. The man of the wind was unaware of the damage he was doing to the widow and he took pity. Then he compensated the boy with bellow that had the ability to control storms and the wind. With this bellow the boy grew up to be a rich man.

Some people are, and were, of the opinion that gods were responsible for whirlwinds when they would move in the air: Some might say that the fairies are responsible and this is clear in Gaelic; for example there is “Sitheadh gaoithe” [gust of wind] but this has come from “sí gaoithe” [sìth gaoithe] [fairy wind], trying not to name the fairies while they go about. If one was to see a “fairy wind” it is advised not to watch it and to recite a prayer. This is clear because of another name for it, “Deamhain aeir” [demon of the air], recognising the supernatural, unchristian connection as well. But this could be too “strong” for some and so “leamhan aeir” [moths of the air]could be said, which is a lot more pleasant in its imagery. I have read the word “Fairy wind” somewhere in Scotland for the same thing. It is interesting that this same thought is shared with other cultures of Scotland in Scotland and Europe. Do you have a word or information about something similar?

In our own corpus we have many words for “whirlwind” from different areas respectively. Here is a list of what we have:
Cuairteag (Strontian), cuairteanach (Polbain, Rosshire), gaoth-carach (Embo, East Sutherland), ioma-chathadh (Harlosh, The Isle of Skye), ioma-ghaoth (Tiree), iomadh-ghaoth (Horgabost, Harris) agus iomaghaoth (Lewis).

There are many other words to find in “Am Faclair Beag” such as gaoithreag and srann-chòrr (or sreann-chor in Islay) with other that are very idiomatic, such as eachan gaoithe and beatiful imagery such as “Bha snìmhean nan riombalaibh buidhe” as well.

I would love to look further at supernatural connections to weather but I had better stop before this blog goes on any further! Do you know any words of the like above? Do you have any different words? Why don’t you let us know on facebook, twitter and our website!