Cailleach
Cailleach is a Scottish divine creator and weather deity appearing as a hag. She has powers over creation and weather phenomena.
↻ synthesized from 4 sources
When
- First attested
- 500 CE
- Attested period
- 500 – 2020
- Historical notes
- Scottish Gaelic tradition, documented from medieval period.
Relationships
- co occurs with
- Caipora, Camulatz, Candileja, Canaima, Canotila, Caoineag, Cat Sidhe, Ceasg, Ceffyl Dŵr, Cercopes, Chakora, Chamrosh, Chaneque, Čhápa, Chenoo, Chepi, Cherufe, Chibaiskweda, Chimimōryō, Chindi, Chinthe, Chonchon, Choorile, Chort, Mara, Baba Yaga, Night Hag, Peg Powler, Grindylow, Jenny Greenteeth, Nelly Longarms, The Cailleachan, Atropos, Baubo, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Boann, chalkydri, Charybdis, Cerberus, Camazotz, Cabeiri
- allied with
- Brigid
- sibling of
- Ainé
- has aspect
- Brìghde
- consort of
- Mogh Ruith, Bodach
- syncretized with
- Beira, Queen of Winter, ghost of a little old woman
Mentioned by
Sources
Source passages
“Cailleach (Scottish) – Divine creator and weather deity hag”
#4186 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“In Irish and Scottish mythology, the cailleach is a hag goddess concerned with creation, harvest, the weather, and sovereignty. In partnership with the goddess Brígid, she is a seasonal goddess, seen as ruling the winter months”
#6562 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“Cailleach is a powerful deity in the Old Religion. She serves as the Gatekeeper to the Spirit World.”
#26977 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
“usually is identified as Celtic, the hag-like Cailleach figure of Irish and Scottish mythology. Margaret Murray proposed this, as did Anne Ross, who wrote in her essay "The Divine Hag of the Pagan Celts", "I would like to suggest that in their earliest iconographic form they do in fact portray the territorial or war-goddess in her hag-like aspect”
#27069 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001