As we enter this year’s changing of the seasons, we present a series of stories from our storytellers, Tales From The Hearth. Between now and 2022 Beltane night, they will be telling tales and poems and singing songs connected to different aspects of our fire festival, sharing them with you online.

The Cailleach (which translates as old woman or crone) is a figure in Scottish, Irish and Manx folklore, sometimes referred to as the Veiled One. She is said to have created the mountains, and to have shaped the hills and valleys with her hammer.

She freezes the land and brings the winter storms. She rules the land from Samhuinn until Beltane. At Beltane she turns to stone and a gentler summer goddess rules instead.

Video Credits

Winter Crone: Nicky Saunders
Written and read by: Paula Nicholson McKay
Video: Ludwing Perez
Editing: Nicky Saunders

Video Transcript

Crone. Dark Mother. Weather Witch.
Her spells of storms and cold
Have locked our land in silver and still
And the wheel of change, it turns.

Cailleach, The Winter Queen
Her time is nearly over.
We feel her reign’s demise.
And the wheel of change, it turns.

Deathly, bleak and bare. The frozen months
Will lose their icy grip
It is the end of chill once more.
And the wheel of change, it turns.

Goddess of Samhuinn. Of wind and frost
The season of snow will pass.
For she will soon be gone.
And the wheel of change, it turns.

Thaw. Life is born. Buds appear.
Glimpses of the new emerge.
We feel the warmth and promise of Spring. Of Beltane.
And the wheel of change, it turns.