Вестница смерти – хозяйка судьбы. Образ женщины в традиционной ирландской культуре

The Old Irish law-system was focused on person. Regarding penalties, the status of the victim was most important, and, even more interesting, some personal qualities could affect the status of a person. Some persons were not entitled even on a fine, e. g. prostitutes, thieves, witches (baislec aupta, lit. ‘a basilisk of sorcery’). Bretha crolige and the Heptads give a list of such persons. There were also certain categories of persons, who, being entitled to a fine, normally were not entitled to a sick-maintenance. According to E Kelly, those were: 1) people who could not be easily replaced: those, whose social standing was extremely high (king, bishop) or skilled craftsmen, and, 2) social deviants (madmen).

Among women, the Bretha Crolige discerns 12 types of person who are not entitled to the sick-maintenance. This list also includes different kinds of social deviants (idiots). But there are also women, whose well-being was in one or other way significant for the tribe as a whole: wise-woman, craftsperson, woman-satirist. The «woman, who turns the armies back», the «one who assigns hostages», the «expert in wonders» (?) and the «venerated by the people» – all could play a role in the warfare.

Other types of women are included in this list because of their bad behavior. Those were: ban birach

‘a woman of the sharp words’ (a mischief-maker); befoimrimme ‘a vagrant woman’ and

confael conrechta ‘a werewolf’. A mediaeval gloss explains be foimrimme

not only as a vagabond (prostitute), but also as a person who uses to visit sude, and her supernatural friends can bring bad luck upon a family she is staying with. Confael conrechta, in reality, perhaps, refers not to the shape-shifting, but defines a woman as a ‘wolfess’, a ‘bitch’ with uncontrolled sexual desires. The word conrechta in this context is to be translated as «a wolfish heat/desire».

As we can see, the explanations offered by the glossators, being not real, are not, in the same time, worthless. They reflect a renaissance of the folk belief after the Norman invasion and show that witches in Ireland, while not fully socially acceptable, at the same time could feel relatively safe. Even if they were not to be nourished because of their deviant behavior, they were entitled on a fine for injury.