R, ruis, the dwarf elder in Ogham. The rochat, or ... - Rodney Mackay

R, ruis, the dwarf elder in Ogham. The rochat, or rook;
ruadh, blood red; November 26 to December 23.
RA, RÉ, space, time, relating to raon, a field, a road, a plain,
the sky. “A moon-title” having many variants as Ur, Er and
Ara. In Scotland a surviving form from pagan times is Mo-
Urie, the “Greater Moon.” This is sometimes combined as
Mourie. In the Christian era this designation was attached
to the Irish monk named Maol Runha (640-722 A.D.) who
founded the monastery at Applecross on the Rosshire coast.
Here he is buried and travellers take earth from his grave to
ensure their safe passage into the hinterlands. In those
parts all oaths used to be made in his name, and his name
appears in many place names.
In 1678 Hector Mackenzie travelled to Saint Mouries
Isle (now Isle Maree) in Loch Maree hoping to benefit
Christine Mackenzie who was “sick and valetudinaire.” It is
recorded that he and his sons, and a grandson, sacrificed a
bull to forward their interest. In 1695 the records of the
local Presbytery make it clear that the locals were still
putting down bulls on the feast day of the saint (August 25)
and practising “other idolatrous habits” including
necromancy. See ré.
RABHART, a tall tale, senseless talk, hilariously
exaggerated tales, "the tides of spring."
RADH. Affirming, expresing, saying, adage, proverb, word,

noise, assertion, speech, an exprewssion of an intentionto
act; obs. Past aff. of abair, I have said; still used as pt. Pr. I
say, I affirm, utter, express. Thus in a combined form
samhradh, “confirming summer,” “Summer’s voice.”
RAGALLACH. A king of Connaught whose death at the hands
of his own child was foretold by a druid. Hoping to avoid his
fate the king ordered his infant daughter to be placed in a
bag and given to a swineherd to destroy. The compassionate
servant left the child on the doorstep of a woman who
raised her as her own daughter. At maturity the daughter
became one of Ragallach’s concubines and fulfilled the
prophecy. The historic king bearing this name (645 A.D.) was
assassinated by an unrelated male killer.
RAID, a for of rad or rod, road, theway, path, track, ditch,
seaware cast on shore, the foaming sea beating on the
shore, foam, scarify, comne up throughthe ground, blade;
rodaih, coarse-featured, ruddy, dark, rotten, smelly,
shrunken, rough, forteward; rodair, a wayfaring man. Raide,
cunning, slyness; raideachas, boastful, speech, arrogant
language, aqrrogance, excesssive pride, slaying, a trial of
skill; but raideil, inventive, cunning, and raid, or raidean, a
judge, ranking soldier, arbitration, decision, appeal,,
entreaty, threat, threatening, good-will, competition; also a
quarter of the year; raidheach, prone to making threats;
similar to raic, boastfulness and raicheach, A Queen. See
next.
RAIDSACH, chief witch, after raidse, idle talk, prattling,
verbose, garrulous. raidis, witchcraft, witchery,
enchantment. Raidhmheas, a dream, romance;
raidhmheasach, fabulous account; raidbreach, prayer,
supplication, petition, request; raidse, a prattler, idle
talker; raidseachas, witchery, enchantment.
RAIGEACH MANACH, a tonsured monk. The druids had heads
shaven in the front from ear to ear. Christian monks had the
top shaven in a circular pattern. The druids and Culdee
clerics had their heads shave at the front from ear-to-ear.

RAITHEACH, REITHEACH, covenanting, affiancing
(Sutherlandshire, Scotland). See latter spelling as well as
the related raith and rath.
RAITH, a quarter of the year, see raid, above, MIr. raithe,
Skr. rtu, a season of the year, a time appointed for worship,
thus raitheach since contracts were considered cemented by
the gods at these times.
RAMACHDAIR, a coarse individual, cf. ramair, a blockhead,
ramhlair, a humorous, noisy, boisterous fellow, related to
Eng. rambler.
RANN, a division or portion, a quatrain, a stave, verse, a
charm, confers with the English run. Alliterative poetry;
poetry that flows. Ran-dan, a drunken spree, characterized
by singing. Note ranndair, a murmuring, complaining sound.
Cy. rhan, OBry. rannou. Eng. rant.
I am putting you under spells and crosses,
And under nine constraints of the walking wandering
sidh mothers
(the Befind, the three weird sisters)
That every lamb weaker and more misguided than
yourself
May take from your head and your ear
And from your livelihood,
Unless...(here is inserted the demand of the baobh).
from Gaelic).
(Tales Until Dawn, p. 28, trans.
RAON, a field, plain, road, OIr. roe, a plain, a place for easy
travel, Lat. rus, the Eng. room, ON. rein, a strip of land.
RAONULL, MG. Raghnall, Ronald, Ir.Ragnall, from ON.
Rögnvaldr, ruler from the gods, ruler of the counsel. Hence
Reginald, Reynold, M’ Raonuill, Mac-ranald, Clanranald.

RASAICHE, ras, shrub, underwood + ach, obs. Bank or mound;
a mound-dweller, a gypsy, rambler, particularly a
travelling woman, more specifically a roving lewd
individual. Rasdach, churlish, impolite, a churl; rasdair,
satiated.
RÀTH, obs. artificial mound, fortress, town, Royal seat,
cleared land, a fern, residence; currently, a circle, a raft; a
surety or bond, cf. Last. rata, a surety before the gods, MEng.
road. Eng. ratify. A place of refuge in law, rathach, obs, a
hough.
New Brunswick historian Donald S. Johnson has
concluded that Hy-Brazil was a complete abstraction, an
island having no basis in reality. He explains the circular
configuration as matching that of the Promised Land of the
Saints, as mentioned in Saint Brendan’s Navigatio. Actually,
there is no such suggestion that land was round although it
does seem to have had an east-west river like that shown
on ylla de Brazill as it is represented on a Catalan map of
the year 1660. Johnson presumes that Brendan’s Isle was
circular since the men of his expedition walked for fifteen
days at its coast finding “no beginning or end.” He says that
the walked in a circle and compares Hy-Brazil’s single
bissecting river with Biblical “rivers of life,” concluding
that a circle is a “fitting symbol” for the Christian
Promised Land named New Jerusalem.” Like most historians
Johnson has decided that Celtic mythology is based on a
Greek model, but the circle was never a Christian symbol.
It does symbolize a regenerate earth but it honours the
elemental gods, and not the Lord God.
It is absolutely pagan in its original intention, so
much so that the early Irish missionaries negated it where
they saw it on standing stones. They did this by inscribing
the Christian cross over it. The so called “Celtic-crosses,”
are nothing of the sort. These derivatives of the tradition of
the aboriginal cromlechs are still sometimes referred to as
the “alien Greek stones,” in Gaelic. The circle is endemic to
pagan theology representing the concept of renewability and

eincarnation. It is no accident that the Celtic holy wells
were built with circular stone walls in imitation of the
shape of the original “Cauldron of Life and Rebirth.” It was
generally supposed that this life-source was purloined by
the Tuathan “gods” from the sea-kingdom when they
followed the giants there after their defeat in Ireland. This
“Kettle of the Deep,” was eventually buried at the
geographic centre of Gaeldom where it became the astralgenius
of Ireland. Cup-and-ring markings are frequently
seen on megalithic monuments such as the cromlechs of
Ireland and Scotland. These are essentially cup-shaped
hollows gouged out of the stone, frequently seen surrounded
by engraved concentric circles. From the internal cup, a
single radial line is often seen drawn to a point outside the
circumference of the outermost circle. Occasionally a
system of cup are seen joined by a number of these lines,
but most often they simply end beyond the outside ring.
These enigmatic designs, “upon which no light has been
thrown,” are found on vertical and horizontal surfaces in
Great Britain, Brittany, and as far east as India, where they
are termed mahadeos, “great gods.” The fact that they are
engraved upon stones which the Irish call Cromm-leace
corroborates this idea, Cromm, being the dark-god,
corresponding with the creator-god Don. A leac is a
flagstone, the word being similar to our English “plank.” T.
W. Rolleston has noted European examples which are “richly
decorated and accurately drawn,” and he thinks they may
represent “diagrams or plans of megalithic structures.” He
observes the fact that the central hollows may represent
burial chambers and the circles, surrounding standing
stones, fosses or ramparts of earth. The penetrating
avenues would then represent doorways by which priests
moved to and from some interior holy spot or shrine. More
symbolically, we think the interior represents a place of
rebirth as well as that of death.
In cross-section, these rings have the look of the
human male and female reproductive organs in action, and
the standing-stones upon which they are engraved are more
generally taken to be phallic symbols. Something of pagan

Celtic theology is embedded in the sixteenth century Cymric
work known as the Barddas. While it is “contaminated” by
Christian beliefs, Rollestan says that it does “speak of an
independent philosophic system.”
Not surprisingly this “druidic” system supposes
antagonistic forces, that of Hu, or God, which is
constructive in intent and result, and that of Cythrawl
(corresponding with Cromm) the principle of destruction
and chaos. Organized life was thought to have arise at the
will of the creator-god, who created the primal substance
of the universe as minute indivisible particles each a
microcosm of the primal god-force. The innermost circle
from which all else sprang was called Annwn in the Welsh
language, and this confers linguistically with An Domhain,
“The Deep.” It was thought that this innermost place was
one of primal life forms all struggling to evolve out of
chaos. Those entities that succeeded were considered to
move to an outer ring of being where life was more
“purified” having attained triumph over darkness and evil.
The third ring of being is termed Infinity, a place inhabited
by god alone. It is predicted that “all shall attain to the
circle of Gwnfyd (White light) at the last.” In Celtic
societies, the mortal god-king, and his queen, were seen as
the “fountain” and the “well” of regenerative spirit, thus
their place at the centre of the community, within a holy
circle which conferred with “The Cauldron of the Deep.”
Stone fortifications were largely “ring-forts,” the
largest representing the belly of Danu or Domnu, smaller
ones being microcosms of the larger, all relating back to
the one source of life within the deep-ocean. There are
currently ruins of ring-forts numbering “from thirty to
thousand individual structures,” in Ireland alone.
The expressions "lios" and "ràth" are usually applied to
earthen forts as opposed to "cathair" and "caiseal", which
are of stone. O’Riordain notes that the simplest ring-fort
consists of a circular space surrounded by a bank and a
fosse, the former built by piling up the debris obtained from

digging up the latter. Ràth originally referred to the
enclosing earthen bank and lios to the open space between
this and the dwelling places within, but the word ràth is
now used to identify fortifications which are round, in
short, earthen-ring forts. It is generally held that these
embankments had no military significance although they
may have saved cattle from the wolves. It is possible, of
course, that wooden palisades might once have been erected
upon the "rath."
The ring-forts vary greatly in size, and their remains
range from 50 feet in diameter to about 400 feet. Examples
of large, multi-circled raths are uncommon but they do
exist and being sited on high land are referred to as hillforts.
Examination of artifacts associated with these ringed
structures shows that some are pre-Celtic dating back to
the Bronze Age. Some of the stone circles, formerly
regarded as ritual sites, have recently shown evidence of
past habitation, and it is now known that the uprights were
placed as a framework for building banks of rubble, sod and
earth. In some cases wooden posts had the function of
these upright stones and in these cases all that remains is
circular plug-holes to indicate this style of construction. It
is assumed some of ring-forts were defensive in intent, but
many have “one slight bank and a shallow fosse,” whose
security must have been theological rather than military in
intent.
See following.
RÀTH. Circle, the mariner dismembered by the mer-people
after a female of their kind lulled him to sleep with her
song; a not uncommon fate for interlopers on the great
western ocean.
RÀTHCROGAN, RATHCHROGAN. One of the largest raths of
ancient times was that held by Queen Mebd and her consort
Ailill, which was called Rath Cruachan or Rathcrogan. Its
outer circle encompassed numerous other fortresses, and
the place was still used in 645 A.D., when the Connaught

king Ragalach was assassinated on its grounds.
In times past Connaught, Ireland, was alternately
called Cruachan from the fame of this residence of the
semi-mythic goddess-queen. Notice the implications of the
word crogan , a drink of blood taken to inspire the bloodfury
which the Norse called the berserker-rage. Rathcrogan
has the further sense of “penfold of the banshee,” or
“death-maiden.” “The manner of the house was this: There
were seven companies in it from the fire to the wall. all
round the house. Every (circular) compartment had a face of
bronze. The whole was composed of beautifully carved yew
wood. Three strips of bronze were laid in at the door of each
compartment. The house from here out was built of pine. A
covering of oak shingles was what it had externally. Sixteen
windows were in it, each with a shutter of bronze, and bars
of bronze were made to close each shutter. Ailill and Mebd’s
compartment was at the centre of the house and it had a
doorway front of silver and gold. There was a wide band of
silver on the side of it that rose to the ridge of the house,
and reached all around it from one side of the door to the
other.” It is said that “the place was surrounded by five
concentric ramps, three of which may still be seen.”
Confers with the next.
RÀTH CRUACHAN, the famous western royal-residence of
the witch-queen Mebd and her consort Ailill in County
Connaught. As we have seen, access to the west usually
involved an imrama. While the water route was the most
commonly used we have noted souterrains, which offered
immediate “temporal displacement” from one world to the
other. The most famous cave-entrance was Ràth Cruachan,
the “Fortress of the Hip, or Hump,” which was once the
personal property of Mebd. The name Cruachan was
frequently given as an alternate name for Connacht
province, and the old hill itself was described by Christian
scribes as the “Gate of Hell.”
The fact that the hill is also termed Ràthcróghan ties
it more firmly to the old warrior queen, for the word cró is

Gaelic for a animal killing pen, blood, death, or a
passageway (for example, the eye of a needle). Note also
the fact that the Scottish word “cro” indicates “the
weregild (i.e. banshee) of the various individuals in the
Scoto-Celtic Kingdom, from the king on downwards.” The
ending gann indicated something which is “hurtful.”
“The arms of the guests were hung above the arms of
all other persons in that house." This ràth was of dry
masonry with a wall thirteen feet thick at the base,
surrounded by five concentric ramps, three of which may
still be seen. Mebd also possessed an eastern residence
termed Ràth Mebd, situated in County Meath. Notice that
"Many examples of souterrains (underground dwellings)
occur in connection with forts...In some cases they are
completely enclosed by the forts...(however) not every fort
contains a souterrain and not all souterrains are enclosed in
or connected with forts. "The site of this fortress remains
as a huge ruin three miles north-west of Tulsk, County
Rothcommon. It is a circular site about an acre in extent,
surrounded by so many other structures, it has been
described as “a town of fortresses.”
Ràth Cruachan was still in use as the royal capital of
the province in 645 A.D. when king Ragallach was
assassinated there. The cavern of Cruach was not an easy
entrance for there were guardians, some of which emerged
into the world of men. One of these was Aillén, a
malevolent Otherworld monster who used to come out of the
cave at the unbinding season of Samhain. A pyromaniacal
dreag , or dragon, he lulled the defenders of Tara to sleep
with sea-music and then consumed them, often leaving their
residences in fiery ruin. This went on until Fionn mac
Cumhail opposed his music by pressing the blade of his
magic spear to his forehead. He then drove off the beast and
then beheaded it. Airtiech was another supernatural
resident of Cruachan.
He had three daughters who once assumed the shape of
werewolves and raided the countryside in every direction.

The warrior Cas Corach played music to enchant them and
convinced them that they should assume human form to have
a better grasp of the melodies. When they shape-changed,
the hero threw his spear at them, impaled all three at once,
and beheaded them. With this reputation it is not surprising
that men had to be bribed to enter the Hill of Cruach. Ailill
of Connaught regularly offered a prize of a gold-hilted
sword to any man who would go to the gallows just outside
the rath and encircle the foot of a dead captive on the
gallows with a withe or band of willow twigs.
This device then became as effective as a silver
bough in gaining admission to the Otherworld. Several
warriors went out on the Samhain to try this stunt but none
but Nera followed through to the end of the adventure. As
Nera was placing the withe, the corpse spoke asking that he
be taken down and given a drink. Nera obeyed carrying the
dead man half slung over a shoulder. The pair found the
first house they approached surrounded by flames, and a
second encircled by a broad moat filled with water, so they
moved on. At a third house the dead man was offered three
cups of water. The dead man spat out the third cup at the
people who had offered him hospitality and its poison killed
them on the spot. Nera then carried the corpse back to the
gallows as instructed.
Returning to Ráth Cruachan, this gillie saw Mebd’s
palace aflame and saw beheaded corpses scattered on the
ground. It appeared that Fomorian invaders had used the
opening of the “eye” that was the Cave of Cruachan to do
what damage they could in the world of men. Nera followed
this crew through the veil before it closed at dawn and on
the other side became the “guest” in a sidh of the
Otherworld. Here he was ordered to carry firewood and
lodged with a female of the species. They became lovers
and the sigh-woman informed him that what he had seen of
the destruction of the rath was a possible future rather
than an event, and that it could be forestalled by escaping
to the east and destroying the entrance. Nera therefore took
his wife and child back through Cruachan and told king Ailill

what the future might hold for him and his kingdom.
Ailill reacted by sending Ferghas mac Roth out to
destroy the sidh , and the warriors did more, taking great
plunder from its treasure house. These valuables included
the crown of king Brion, one of the three wonders of ancient
Ireland. The Echtra Nerai is obviously pagan but the tale
from which it derives is no later than the eighth century.
RATH DORCHA, the moon in wane; a bad time for most
transactions.
RATHAD SIBH, beauty spot, rathad, road; sibh, of the wee
folk. An invisible mark of favour placed on humans who
were related to the sigh or who happened to be in their
favour. This mark, which was only perceived by the
opposite sex, made the individual irresistibly attractive.
Thus Grianne was draw to Diarmuid to the disadvantage of
both.
RÉ. the moon, the Moon personified, luna, life, existence,
duration, a space of time, same as righ and ri, denoting
Royalty; presumed from the Celtic root revi, Skr. ravi, the
sun. A form of the Gaelic ra, space, time, raon, a field, a
plain, a road, EIr. roen, Lat. rus, Eng. room, Norse rein, a
strip of land. Note the Egyptian sun-god Ra or Re. From this
we have the Scottish province of Moray. See Mourie.
REABH, a wile or trick, reabhair, a subtle individual,
reabhradh, besporting, as a pack of boys from the Ir.
reabhach, a mountebank, a devil, the Devil, EIr. rebrad, boys
at play, sport. Similar to the English rabble.
REABHACH, The Devil, mountebank, trickster, a devil, a
wicked fellow; reabhair, a crafty fellow.
REILIG, crypt, burying-ground, relic. From Lat. religuiæ,
relics.
RÉIM, dominion, power, course, order. See Ré, the moon-

goddess.
REITEACH, REITEACHADH, the eye-stone, from reidh, smooth,
well-ordered; reit, concord, conciliation, that which
smooths the way.
1. A device used to remove foreign matter from the
eye: "we have two eyestones in Cape Breton -an item so
rare and so long out of use it no longer seems to be
remembered in Scotland...John Tom Urquhart of Skir Dhu
first told us of the eyestone. Later, we met John A. Wilkie
of Sugar Loaf. He showed us his eyestone... The eyestone
was not originally found in Scotland. They all seem to have
come from the far east. They are the colour of flesh and
about the size of half a pea. They are said to be the tip of a
conch shell. The eyestone is alive, and has to eat - and both
men said they kept theirs in an inch and a half of sugar
(John A. uses brown). John Tom sometimes feeds his a
little rum and he changes the sugar every two or three
years. When the highland settlers came to Cape Breton, they
brought the eyestone with them. (It) is passed along from
father to son...the eyestone would be used to get a splinter
out of a man's eye...the eyestone could retrieve other things
as well. John A. said, "I was sawing wood at Bay St.
Lawrence. I got sawdust in my eye and in the evening it got
to be sore. And I said to me, "You better go where the
eyestone is tonight." I went and they put me to bed with it.
Put it in my eye. And you couldn't notice it. The size of it
you'd think it would bother - but it didn't. I woke up and my
eye was clear." Both eyestones we've seen have a tiny dot -
the centre of a perfect whorl - and when placed in vinegar
(for cleaning) one or two bubbles would come out that hole.
The patient must sit still or lie down while the eyestone
does its work. This is simply so that it will not get lost.
In the eye, the eyestone would move around the eyeball
searching for the speck. When it comes out it would have
the speck, and the eye would be clear." (Down North, pp. 50-
51).
Years ago it was a common insult to say that a person

was "two mean to feed an eyestone (see eyesheein)."
2. Espousal to marriage, a ceremony which was also a
kind of "smoothing over;" the taking of irritants from the
situation. It was formerly held before the banns of
marriage were posted and was considered as necessary as
the wedding feast. It was "ag obair reitach," working at
clearing, the correct way of asking a girls hand in marriage.
The last reitach in Cape Breton is believed to have
occurred in the 1920's. Reitachs were never held on Fridays
(originally in consideration of the fact that this was
Frigga's day, a preferred time for Norse invasions). The
bridegroom-to-be and an older friend would come to the
household of the intended. The father, if he possessed a
normal intellect would no what was about, but following
the rules of the rite would make no outright mention of
marriage. Instead the visitors would pretend that they had
come to buy a cow or a horse or a boat, and everything said
was double entendre. The prospective groom did very little
talking as the father and his representative got down to the
real business of the evening. As a matter of form the father
was obligated to offer the hand of other daughters,
particularly if they happened to be old and ugly. There was
always a chance that the swain's bargainer would
unwittingly ask for the wrong girl.
All but the intended sat at a table loaded with food;
she was kept from the room while the representative
described the prospects good characteristics and assured
the family of his love for the girl. When a bargain was
finally struck and the arrangements for a wedding had been
made, the girl was permitted to join them..Liquor was then
placed on the table and the feast begun. In many instances,
especially in pioneer communities, this was the first time
the couple had met, and often the contract was broken
before the wedding took place.
Some young men were too persistent to let their
looks prevent the union and often sent a reitach party to

abduct the girl, often with the connivance of her family. In
one of these cases, where a young Cape Bretoner was "taken
by surprise" she "cried her eyes out that night. But I heard
her relating the story after to the women, and she said,
after all that discontent we had eight children together, and
do you know I never let one of them sleep between my
husband and myself." (Down North, pp. 59-60).
RELIG, grave, burying-place, church, crypt. Stone chest for
bones of the dead.
REUL. star, reul na madra, 0r reul an iuchar, the dog=star.
REUL-GHRIGLEACHAN, constellation, a group of stars, often
the Pleiades. "...on the third level of Cosmic event, the
rising of Pleiades, the winter stars, heralds the supremacy
of night over day, the dark half ruled by the realms of the
moon. In the three days preceding the Samhain month the
Sun God Lugh, who was maimed at Lughnassadh, dies by the
hand of his Tanist (his other self) who is the Lord of misrule.
Lugh passes through the
boundaries of the worlds on the first day of Samhain. His
Tanist is a niggardly King and though he shines brightly in
the winter skies he gives nothing of his warmth to the land.
He cannot warm the north wind which is the breath of the
Crone, Cailleach Bheare. In this we see the ageless battle
between the light and dark, the forces of growth and decay,
life and death,
but never good and evil. Between these two great balanced
realms of Sun and Moon lies the ordered universe which
sustains all life in this realm. The cyclic harmony of
seasonal dominance of these realms means on our level that
neither Life nor Death can everhold permanent sway.”
(S.McSkimming Dalriada Magazine, 1992.)
REULTAIR. REULADAIR, an astrologer. Reultaras, astrology;
sometimes astronomy.
RIADA, RIATA, riad, obs., hang, crucify, currently a crack or
split in wood, suggesting divisions of land. The ancestor to

the Dal Riada of Ulster and Alba, the progenitor of the
present-day Scots.
In the fourth century there was famine in Munster and
its ruler Conaire took his people north into Ulster. He first
settled County Antrim where the kingdom of Dal Riada was
established. Later he and his followers quarrelled and he
crossed the Irish Sea into Scotland forming a second
kingdom in Airer Ghaidheal or “Argyll.” The first colonies in
this new place received military help from Tara in order to
put down the neighbouring Picts. In the following century, a
Munsterman, Lugaid mac Conn, fleeing from enemies, made
himself the chief power in this new land. From his son
came the ancestors of the lords of Argyle; the MacAllens,
Campbells and the MacCallums. A hundred years further on
Cabri Riata established kingdoms in both Ireland and
Scotland. The Picts were not enamoured of any of this and
would have driven the Scots from their land, except for the
efforts of the high-king Niall of the Nine Hostages. The
effect of all this was the establishment of a huge military
presence in Alba by the sixth century, when it became an
independent kingdom under Aedh ard-righ. For a time it was
powerful enough to hold Antrim, in Ireland proper, as an
appanage.
RIADH, a snare, hang, crucify; riadh-mhortair, a hired
assassin; raidrananach, cast-off mistresss, an old maid.
RIAGH, obs., religious, this is the same as riadh, above. obs.
, cross, gallows; riaghail, rule, govern, reign, regulate,
settle, order, direct, arrange. Riaghaire, the hangman, a
scape-gallows, rogue.
RIAGHLACH, obs., old maid, old woman. cast-off mistress.
RIANBIND. A piper out of Sidh Breg, reputed to be one of the
nine best in the world. The others musicians of note were:
Bind, Robind, Nibe, Dibe, Dechrind, Umal, Cumal and
Cialgrind.

RIASTARTHAE. RIASTRADH, battle fury. Inspired by drinking
crógan. Riastadh, welt; reaistair, becoming turbulent or
ungovernable, confuse, disturb, disorder, wander without
purpose. See Cuchullain and crogan.
RIATACH, wanton, illegitimate, immodest mirth,
illegitimacy, bastardy, cf. Eng. riot.
RIBHINN. RIGHIANN, rib, ensnare, involve, steal one’s guest,
a nymph, young lady, queen. Ir. rioghan, queen. EIr, rigan, a
form of the masculine righ, king Properly righ-bhean,
“woman-ruler.” Mhor-rigan is based upon this word.
RIBEACH, rough, hairy, entangling, ensnaring, ragged, torn,
cold.
RIBEAG, hair, a hair-rope used for rock face lowering (after
bird’s eggs). These were so valuable they often formed part
of a bride’s dowry.
RIBHEID, reed, a chanter,music, barb of a hook, herring-net,
a magical entrapment. See next.
RIBBINN, RIBBINNE, RIBBINNEABN, a nymph, one of the
ribbinn-shith, a fairy; a maid, beautiful, a female, a young
lady, Queen, serpent. Ribleach, an entaglement of the mind
or body, knottiness. See next.
RICHEAD. kingdom, richlean, a dwarf, richasan, carbunculus,
having a knotty surface.
RIDIR, RIGHDIERE, a knight, EIr. ritire, a rider from AS.
ridere, a horseman, ridda, a knight. Germ. ritter. In a
manuscript history of Clan Campbell (1828) it is said that
the word is derived from righ + dei , god-king, but the word
came to be applied to all virtuous warriors. This was the
name used by Highlanders in mentioning the chiefs of
Campbell, and the ruins of their castle, Eredin, was named
Larach tai nan Righderin, the “ruins of the house of the

knights.” In folklore the word is reserved to kings having
small power.
RIDIRE RUADH, the “Red Riders,” seen by Conaire Mor as he
approached Da Derga’s Hostel. This was the last of a number
of geise broken just before the king met his final doom. The
colour of their gear marked these men as visitors from the
Otherworld.
RIGH, a king, dress or enshroud a corpse, as an interjection:
strange! OIr. ri; Cy. rhi; Gaul. rix; Lat. rex; Goth. reiks; Eng.
rich; Skr. raj, our rajah. Appears in combined forms, and is
feminized; thus Mhorrigan, mhor+rigan, “Great Queen.” This
is the Gothic reika, “prince” and reiki, “kingdom” are
similar to the Gaulish rix and rigon, It would seem difficult
to prove which of these came first, and thus conclude as
Padraic Colum has done that the Celtic people had “more
advanced social and political forms.” Nevertheless, this
was a widely held prejudice in Victorian-Edwardian Britain,
and other words “of unquestioned Celtic origin” include the
modern German reich, empire; amt, office; bann, an order;
frei, free; geisel, hostage; erbe, inheritance; werth, worth;
weih, sacred; magus, slave; hathu, battle; helith, hero (said
to correspond with Celt); heer, army; sieg, victory; beute,
booty, and so on.
Where men, such as Hu Gardarn, became mortal-gods a
different relationship was seen to exist between them and
men. While the immortal gods were insensitive to flattery,
sometimes called propitiation or worship, the priest-godking
was open to all kinds of cajoling, threats, patronage
and promises. Fraser has noted that our ancestors,
"imagined that men may attain to godhood, not merely after
their death, but in their lifetime, through the temporary
possession of their whole nature by a great and powerful
spirit. No class of the community benefited so much as
kings by this belief in the possible incarnation of a god in
human form."
While this allowed the king a lot of leeway in bullying

his subjects, he was always in mortal peril when his
powers were perceived to fail. An inaccurate weather
prediction, inability to pursue a successful war, or obvious
failings in health, might lead to a suspicion that the godpower
had seeped away. Throughout northern Europe this
led to instances of ritual murder, thus Iain Moncrieffe
speaks of the Gaelic "sacrificial cult of the divine-king",
which he explains "venerated the continuity of the embodied
life force." More simply, members of the community took it
upon themselves to kill kings who were seen to be in failing
spirit. This was done benevolently since it was supposed
that the god-spirit should be returned to the earth to be
reborn in a more appropriate body.
In those times, the mechanics of human reproduction
were not well understood, and it was guessed that women
were impregnated through the food that entered their
bellies. If an entrapped god-spirit could be reduced to
"earth" and the earth used to grow crops it was reasoned
that the spirit might then be transferred through a grain
into the womb of a woman, so that a god like Hu of Aod
might be reborn. This belief led to the business of
consigning bodies to funeral pyres, afterwards scattering
the ashes on the fields where "corn" was grown. Collin de
Plancey has noted that, "It was held, during the seventeenth
century, that corpses, the ashes of animals and even the
ashes of burned plants contained reproductive seeds; that a
frog for example could engender other frogs even as it
decayed and that ashes of roses produced new roses..."
Among the Scots, even less spirited men were expected to
undergo periodic reincarnations, and mothers-to-be looked
for dreams so that they might correctly name the baby after
its appropriate ancestor. Where dreams failed, the mothers
consulted baobhs, or witches, whose hindsight was expected
to reveal the necessary information. Until very recently,
my own family has included a member known as Hugh in
each generation.
Within some tribes, the incarnate human gods served a
specified period of years as king, it being thought canny to

kill him while he remained vigorous and capable of
protecting his people and land. The Greek kings were
limited to a tenure of eight years and certain of the Old
Norse kings to nine, in order to reinvigorate the spirit of
the land. Fraser has suggested that the ancient nine-year
festivals at Upsala in Sweden included rites of human
sacrifice, which at first may have included the king and his
closest adherents. Olaf the Tree-Hewer, a King of Norway
was sacrificed as a proxy for Odin during a famine in 710.
Halfdan the Black, another king of this realm, was luckier
until he fell through the ice in 863. The Old Norse historian
Snorri Sturleson noted that "he had been the most
prosperous of all kings. So greatly did men value him that
all requested his body for burial in their various provinces.
Eventually it was settled that the body be distributed in
four places...and each party took away their own share and
buried it. Being a subtle people, the Scots made no public
display of their regicide, but simply arranged that their
chief should be done in by a kinsman while his back was
turned, sometimes in the heat of battle.
Kings were not always willing partners to their own
death and Aun, King of Sweden hit on the idea of offering his
sons as substitutes. If the king was divine, it was
considered that his offspring could be no less so, and should
prove equally useful at returning some of the spirit of the
god to the soil. Aun claimed he was led to this procedure
through the divine inspiration of Odin, and afterwards put
down one of his sons every nine years, and would have
sacrificed his tenth heir, except that Swedes could not help
noticing his diminished powers and selected him instead.
Afterwards it was discovered that less important kin-folk
or even unrelated deputies might serve as "kings for a day".
In the last years of the fires, a condemned prisoner was
substituted for the king's advisor and multiple sacrifices
were made, perhaps on the basis of the idea that all men
contained at least a spark of the "divine-flame" and that
quantity might make up for a lack of quality. In the most
benign clans, the place of the king was filled by a "mogaire"
or mock king, who was given a short but happy reign

followed by a mock execution, the authority and the godspirit
afterwards being reincarnated in the old king.
Pretend deaths of a monarch survive in the activities
of the English whitsuntide mummers, and in the Scottish
goloshans or galatians. Also known as gysarts, guisers, or
disguisers, the goloshans wore masks, since recognition
"broke the luck". Each of the five or six travelling
companions appeared on Samhainn eve wearing white
sheets and a dunces caps, "casques of brown paper shaped
like a mitre. They journeyed from house to house and put on
a playlet couched in expressionless doggerel. In an 1815
version a character who identified himself as "The Admiral"
used a wooden sword to cut down "King Galatians". In every
version, the hero is revived by some equivalent of the
mummer referred to as the "Doctor", who appears to be a
latter-day druid. Once a fee has been set, the Doctor goes
to work applying "Inky Pinkey, a little to his nose, a little
to his toes." In Falkirk the elixir of life was called hoxycroxy,
and in some places the resurrection occurred with
the passes of a magic wand. To show that Galatians is a
new-born monarch, the resurrected hero was afterwards
called "jack". If these plays are based, as we suspect, on
actual incidents of king-killing, the need for disguises is
obvious!
We have already mentioned the schizophrenic nature
of divine kings, which is most clearly seen in the Old Norse
God Tyr, Tiu, or Tue, who is also called Deo, Deu or the
Deuce. This alter-ego, or second personality is still
reflected in our own minor devils and the English Devil, who
is the Anglo-Saxon Deoful, literally one full of the spirit of
Tyr, the god of war. In his benign role Tyr was a god of the
sky and martial courage but his berserker side was greatly
feared. Odin and Uller present a similar ying-yang situation
as do the Celtic boon-companions, Lugh and Ogma, the
former a god of free love, horse-racing, gaming and war, the
latter a straight- laced supporter of world-order, rather
than chaos, the inventor of ogham, a cryptic "puzzlelanguage"
favoured by Gaelic orators.

Mortal-gods who went "to earth" were expected to
take the evil aspects of their personality with them. In
Scotland this was managed through a rite formerly known
as "burning, shooting" or "beating out the witches"; the
baobhs or witches being personifications of the evil
implicit in the divine spirit. On Samhainn eve, the devils of
Scotland were smoked from the air by the "samhnagan",
fires lit to reduce the "king" to ashes. In some places sharp
objects, such as sycthes, sickles and swords were placed
upright in the fields to impale falling witch-spirits. When
firearms became available, they were shot off into the air
with similar effect. Once the errant spirits which caused
disease and ill-luck were down, they were herded together
by disguised humans, who used switches to reunite them
with god-representative. He was chased through the village
on a spiritual clean-up, and made to round the communal
fire three times, before being burned.
Until he was actually put down, the god-king was the
centre of festival rites which are still remembered. He was
expected to draw all evil from the community before his
death, and used to parade the countryside on that account.
On what was formerly the last day of the year, Fraser says
that, "it used to be customary, in the Highlands of Scotland,
for a man to dress himself up in a cow's hide and thus
attired go from house to house, attended by young fellows,
each of them armed with a staff, to which a bit of raw hide
was tied. Round each house the hide-clad man used to run
thrice "deisal", that is according to the course of the sun, so
as to keep the house on his right hand; while the others
pursued him, beating the hide with their staves and thereby
making a loud noise like the beating of a drum. In this
disorderly procession they also struck the walls of the
house. On being admitted, one of the party, standing within
the threshold, pronounced a blessing on the family in these
words: "May God bless the house and all that belongs to it,
cattle, stones, and timbers! In plenty of meat, of bed and
body clothes and health of men may it ever abound!" Then
each of the party singed in the fire a little bit of the hide

which was tied to his staff; and having done so he applied
the singed hide to the nose of every person and of every
domestic animal belonging to the house. This was imagined
to secure them from diseases and other misfortunes,
particularly from witchcraft, throughout the ensuing year.
The whole ceremony was called "calluinn" because of the
great noise made in beating the hide. It was observed in the
Hebrides, including St. Kilda, down to the second half of the
eighteenth century at least, and it seems to have survived
well into the nineteenth century."
Moncrieffe identifies the old religion with medieval
Scottish witchcraft and says that witchcraft and the dawn
religion had a horned deities as their central figures. This
is understandable when it is recalled that all clansmen
thought of themselves as possessing totem animals, into
which their souls could pass under certain conditions.
These creatures continue to be represented in the heraldry
and on the arms of Scots. The Anglo-Saxons sometimes
thought of Woden as Herne the Hunter, the pursuer of the
souls of dead men, who is represented as antlered deity.
His personality is exactly that of the Celtic earth-god
known as Cernu, either name being defined by the English
words horn and corn.
RIGHAIRLED. The fourteenth king of Ireland in the Milesian
line of Eber and Eremeon. He is credited with introducing
the war-chariot into Gaeldom.
RIGH FHAIDH, royal prophet. A king who is a prophet.
RIGH-NA-COILLE, “king of the forest,” the oak tree.
RIGHINNEACHD, craftiness, artificiality, court-talk, righ,
kingly; neach. something.
RIGH NA GEASAN MOR, the “King of the Great Enchantments,”
the Quarter-Day “king.” Also, a king of the Daoine sidh at
the time of the Milesian invasion of Ireland. See Baldar, etc.

RIGH-RATH, the Royal fortress or seat.
RINNEL, from which rinn, ro+ind, having a “fore-point,” or
sharpened end. A king whose reign saw the introduction of
pointed weapons into the Gaeldom.
ROANE, ron, pl. roin, seal. Perhaps from Teutonic models
although the Anglo-Saxon hron indicates a whale. A member
of the Daoine mara travelling in the form of the Lager seal.
The highland version of the selkie of the northern islands
and the morrigan of southern lands. The equivalent of the
English merman and mermaid. "The Irish name is merrow
and the legends told of them are similar to those of other
countries." Descendants of the Fomorian sea-giants. The
largest colonies of seal are found on the north shore of
Sutherlandshire and sightings of the roane are still made in
that region. The silkies commonly took the form of mermen
or woman, but Nancy Arrowsmith says the roane always
appeared as seals. Like others of the sea race, they came
ashore in human form and even attended local festivals and
markets without being noticed. Fishermen were not usually
troubled by the sight of a male of this species, but the
females were thought to be omens of changeable weather.
Some said that her appearance indicated bad luck with the
sea or the fishery. People who were thought to have
drowned, but whose bodies were never found, were assumed
to have been abducted to the undersea world where they
lived in perpetual bondage. The Gaelic sea-people were
under the command of Ler, the immortal god of the sea.
Little is known of this elemental, but he seems to have been
the Anglo-Saxon Aegir, a gaunt old man, with claw-like
fingers, that grasped after the ships of men. His avocation
was shared by his mate, the goddess Rann, who actually
spread her magic net near dangerous rocks, enticing
mariners there with promises of sexual or other favours.
ROC. RUIC. Anything that causes entaglement, a fish-hook,
entanglement, curl, wrinkle, pleat,, the species of seaweed
sometimes called tangle, a skate (the fish), sunken, a
seaweed covered rock, hollow impotent cough made by a

person with something stuck in the throat, hoarse cry or
voice, a rook, a retching sound.
Also, the steward of the love-god Aonghas Og who had
a son by the wife of Donn. The infuriated god crushed the
child’s head between his legs but Roc used druidic arts to
revive it as a huge boar (lacking ears and a tail). Roc
charged the boar with following the career of Donn’s own
son Diarmuid and it eventually gored and killed the hero.
ROCABARRA, a largely invisible rock seen off the Hebrides
of Scotland. It has been seen twice and its third appearance
is expected to herald the end of the worlds of men and the
gods.
ROCAS, the rook, a crow, roc, the voice of a crow, from N.
hrokr, AS. hróc, the English rook. Confers with G. ròc, a
hoarse voice., Bry. roc’ha, to snore. After the steward of
Aonghas Og. Roc had a illegitimate son by the wife of Don,
the father of Diarmuid ua Duibhne. The angered husband
broke the child over his knee, but Rocas touched it with his
magic wand and it was reincarnated as an earless tailless
boar. This was the boar that destroyed Diarmuid. A totem
of all the sea-people. See snaithean.
ROIN, ROINEAG, RIOINN, RIONNEAG, Ir. roine, a hair,
especially the hair from a horse, Cy. rhawn, long coarse
black hair, Bry. reun, a hair or bristle, Skr. roman, hair, cf.
Ir. ruain, the hair from the tail of a horse or cow. Based on
Rhiannon the dark-haired Welsh goddess who the Gaels
called Samh or Mhorrigan. These hairs were considered to
have magical properties. See snaithean. See romhan. In
Romano-Gaul the goddess Epona, “divine Horse,” became the
favourite with the Roman horse-legions. Her worship may
have been introduced into Britain at the time of the
invasions. At the least, her attributes became fused with
those of Rhiannon and the Irish goddess Macha. Another
Irish “goddess” who may be connected was Etain Echraide,
“The Horse-ride,” the wife of Midir and of the king Eochaid
Airem. There is a single enigmatic Gaelic verse that alludes

to the sacrifice of horses in ancient times. More recently
we have record of the ritual killing of white mares in
twelfth century Ireland. According to Giraldus Cambrensis,
a white mare was then essential to inauguration of the
chief of one clan in Ulster. This king appeared before his
people on his hands and knees (like a stallion) and declared
himself to be a horse. He then had ritual sex with the mare
after which it was slaughtered and cooked. The king sat in a
bath made of broth from the animal, and there ate the flesh
and drank its body liquids. In this rite the mare represents
fertility, a necessary virtue supposedly transferred to the
king by this peculiar act.
ROITHEACHTAIGH. The inventor of the wheel and the
chariot. Literally, “the possessor of wheels.” Note that the
sun was imagined to be a wheel that rolled daily across the
heavens. The Gaullis god Taranis, who is the Gaelic Tar and
the Old Norse Thor is sometimes pictured as a “wheel-god.
An altar at Tullie House, Carlisle is decorated with a wheel
on the left lateral face. Rice says that the presence of this
wheel suggests dedication to “a native sky-god” rather than
a Roman deity. In Chester this god is mentioned as Tanarus.
Numerous votive wheels have been recovered throughout
Britain and in the Welsh mabinogi mention is made of a god
named Taran. In the Irish Tain one of the heroes is described
as wearing a wheel-shaped broooch. When Elathu came to
Ireland to mate with Eriu it is recorded that he had coic
roith oir, “three wheels of gold” at his back. Thunder gods
were smiths and tinkers and the movement of their carts in
the upper air was equated with the roll of thunder.
ROMHAN, wild talk, raving, the Eng. row and Roman (from
their dark hair and evil dispositions?) See roin. Cf. Cy.
rhamant, romance and the Ir. ramas from which the G.
imrama, a sea-quest.
RONAG, ROINAG, a hair, especially a horse hair, Cymric,
rhawn, long coarse hair. Confers with ruain, hair of the tail
of a cow, the English rowan. At the quarter-days saining
rites were required. Old women gave special care to cattle

at these witching times, tying red or blue ribbons into their
tails and saying their “words” over the udders. In order
that cattle might retain their “virtues” a ball of cow’s hair,
termed the ronag was put into the milk pail on the day in
question , or at least by the following Thursday (Thor’s
Day). See roin, above.
RONG, the vital force, the spark of life, also a joining spar,
a ladder; rongair, a lean person worn out from sexual
activity. The passing of the sea-spirit to the land was to
the detriment of the elder kingdoms. It is a tenant of magic
that sexual activity bleeds away the spirit of the weaker
partner, a fact noted when men cohabited with the sidh or
the Fomors. After a single night “under the hill” or “west
of the sun” it was noted that men and women invariably
returned to their families drained of spirit so that they
almost always weakened and died. The purloining of the
kettle of life may represent the loss of the western gene
pool of the “giants.” In the latter days, the magic peoples
stole humans into their kingdom for it was said that they
could not reproduce among their own kind.
ROPAIN GORM, the little blue-green rope; the “blue clue” of
witchcraft. “Into a kiln-pot throw a clue of blue wool.
teased, carded and spun by yourself from the fleece of a
male lamb. Keeping hold of one end of the thread begin to
wind it off onto a fresh clue (bobbin). As you come near the
end you will find an invisible hand has grasped the thread
lying in the kiln. “Wha’ hands?” you must ask. Your lover
will thereupon disclose his name.” Magic-makers kept these
same blue clues, “balls of winded thread,” on their person
at all times. On witch who went to the stake at Barhill
supposedly called out not to be burned without her threadcharm,
which she had left at home. She promised the crowd
that if they would bring it to her she would reveal the
secrets of her art. The clue was produced. She took one end
of it and threw it in the air and after a few words “vanished
in a moment.”
ROSAI. An alternate name for the ollamh, or “professor” of

arts and crafts. Related to ros, knowledge.
ROS GNATHSAIL, natural laws, ros, seed, flowing from
knowledge; gnath, custom. Particularly those having to do
with mechanics: the lever, the wheel and axle, the inclined
plane, etc. The source of many magical effects.
ROSAD, an evil spell, "standing before obstruction."
ROSUALT, proud horse. A mighty sea monster cast ashore on
the plain of Murrish in County Mayo. The sea-serpent is said
to have lived for three years in its exposed position and its
vomit killed fish and swamped the curraghs which happened
to be at sea at these times. The third spasm ended with a
pestilence that spread from four-footed creatures to many
of the men in that place.
ROTACH, rough weather, a hand rattle used to frighten
cattle and men. This device was sometimes mounted on the
nether end of a short spear, and was referred to as a “dart.”
RUADÅN. A son of Breas and the goddess Bridd. At the time
of the second battle of Magh Tuireadh, he was sent to spy on
the smith of the gods. He wounded the metal-worker but
was himself killed in combat. The goddess Mhorrigan, who
is a form of the Bride, appeared as a keener after death for
the first time on this occasion. Also the name given a
Christian saint, one of the twelve “Apostles of Ireland,”
who sheltered a kinsman against King Diarmuid. The High
King violated sanctuary and for this he and Tara were
cursed. As a result Tara was “desolate forever,” as Ruadan
had promised.
RUADH, red, Red,ruddy, brown or tanned, deer, hind, roe,
strength, virtue, Saint Anthony’s fire. EIr. ruad, Cy. rhudd,
Bry. ruz, Lat. rufus, AS. read, Scot reid from which the
family name Reid. The prime colour of the gods, a hue
suggesting war-like activities. Also, the son of Rigdon, and
therefore probably the sun-god Lugh. He voyages with three
ships into the waters northwest of Ireland. Some say he

was becalmed. With his crew getting weaker he was
approached by three Fomorian goddesses, who took him to
the seabed for rest and recreation. For nine months he slept
and caroused with them, “without fearful hurt, under the
sea, free from waves, on nine beds of bronze.” Collectively
they bore him a son. When Ruadh refused to stay with them
they cut off the boy’s head and threw it after the retreating
landsman. see next.
RUADH ROSESSA, ROSEISG, ROFHESSA, “Red of the Evil
Spells,” the “Knowledgeable Satirit.” The Dagda in his guise
as the god of druidism. Ross has noted that one of the gods
of Gaul is Rudiobus, “whose name also contains the word
“red.” (and) is equated with Mars. See also Rudraidhe and
entries immediately below.
RUAMHAIR, to dig, delve, EIr. ruamor, root up, from rou, the
Eng. root, note the Lat. rata, minerals. The craft of miners.
RUDHA, a blush, a form of ruadh. Also rugha, a reddening of
the face due to excitement or embarassment. Related is
ruicean, a “little redness,” a pimple, and ruitach, ruddy.
RUDRAIDHE. On of the sons of Partholón, a survivor who
returned to found the northern royal house of Ulster,
Ireland. The men of Ulster were alternately called the
Rudraidhe or Rudricans.
RUITH NA H-AOINE, ruith, fast speech; “Friday’s count.” Note
the goddess Aoine or Anu? A wish for bad luck!
RUITHEANNA, ruith, run. The quasi-rhymthmical form of the
oldest tales. He poetical form used by the Gael before he
formalized verse, metre and rhyme. Notice the nest!
RUITHIL, a reel or wheel dance. In honour of the sun-god
Lugh who “wheeled” daily through the sky in his fiery
chariot.
RUN, mystery, secrecy, an intention, love, a secret, Cy. rhin,

ON. runr, Eng. runes. The root is revo, to search out. See rann.
RUTHADH NA SIRACH, the “Fairie’s Point,” near Gaolin
Castle, Kerrera, near Oban, Scotland. In years go by a
changeling was deposited here. The family noticed that the
girl did not grow and was always “delicate.” A visitor from
Ireland eventually came to the castle and identified the
little girl as a little woman: Tha thusa sin a shirach bheag
lennan brian mac braodh, “So there thou art, the little fairy
sweetheart of Brian MacBroadh.” Totally offended at being
identified, she rasn fromn the castle and threw herself off
this headland; hence the name.