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Henwrach
A Cymric Folkloric Entity: Old Crone
Henwrach is a Cymric (Welsh) folkloric figure known from the Mabinogi of Culhwch ac Olwen where she is an augur. In terms of her name she corresponds to the Goidelic Cailleach, embodiment of winter and may once have been the Cymric winter goddess, now reducet to a folkloric faery. |
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Cym: Old Crone
Though the modern Cymric interpretation of Gwrach is 'witch' in Medieval parlance the term was more generally applied to a crone. Thus the Henwrach is the Cymric equivalent of the Gaelic Cailleach. The name is derived from the Old Irish caillech literally meaning 'veiled one' though the modrern interpretation of the name is 'old one', often used in the perjorative sense of 'hag'. Cailleach is the personification of Winter. Indeed, the blue-faced Scottish Cailleach Bheur is born as a crone on Novenber 1st and ages backwards to become a young woman by May 1st. In the Gaelic lands cailleach also denotes the final sheaf of the harvest. This sheaf had siignificance in all the Celtic lands and was often guraded throughout the winter when, on the first day of plouging, it would be given to the lead plough horse for good luck. It was also considered tabu for farm girls to touch this sheaf as this would mean they would never marry.
Though little of the folklore of the Henwrach has survived, her name is preserved in Nant yr Henwrach, Dyffryn Elan, Powys. However, one element of the Henwrach's nature is revealed in the Mabinogi of Culhwch ac Olwen. Cilydd fab Kelyddon Wledig Culhwch's father gains a new wife by dint of conquest and oned day, as the Lady was making her way through the land she encountered a crone (henwrach) and came to ask her why her new husband had no children, for she was anxious to secure her own dynsaty. She was informed that Cilydd did, indeed, have a son. Returning home, she asked her husband why he had concealed his son from her, whereupon Culhwch was summoned back to court. Thus the Henwrach is an augur and a knower of the fates of men. Thus the henwrach is seen as a seer, one who can foretell the future. Perhaps this is a combination of an elderly woman's wisdom because of her age and her closeness to death. Though there are a number of figures like the Gwrach-y-Rhibyn that fit into the same mould as the Henwrach her original mythos has, for the most part been lost, and the best we can achieve is analogy with the Gaelic Cailleach in her various guises.
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