Items related to The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise Woman...
Synopsis
This volume presents an analysis of the "wise woman healer" from the oral traditions of Ireland's rural communities. Stories, told and retold, embedded in the texture of culture and community, collected and studied for many decades, are here translated and made available to the general reader. The figure of the "wise woman", the "hag", the Cailleach, or the "Red Woman" are part of an oral tradition which has its roots in pre-Christian Ireland. In the hands of Gearoid O'Crualaich these figures are subtly explored to reveal how they offered a complex understanding of the world, of human psychology and its predicaments. The thematic structure of the book brings to the fore universal themes such as death, marriage, childbirth and healing, and invites the reader to see the contemporary relevance of the stories for themselves.
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About the Author
Gearóid Ó Crualaoich is Professor Folklore and Ethnology in University College Cork and is regarded as one of the most original thinkers in these fields. He is the author of numerous academic articles and leading authority on the Cailleach.
Review
"The unearthing of a priceless spirit from forgotten, buried, misunderstood storytelling is like discovering Knowth or Newgrange and opening the doors to those otherworlds. Gearoid O Crualaoich's work on the wise-woman healer, the cailleach, is of immense importance, for we need access to the secrets of healing and orientation in life known well in the past but now neglected. Without that secret knowledge we are left with mere rationalism and secularism, which are inadequate for dealing with the challenges of a complex world. This book is highly professional, comprehensive, carefully interpretive, and respectful. It opens up many avenues toward the healing of our own personal lives and our world. It is of special importance to Ireland, but it also addresses the needs of people around the world, who can now look to Ireland for the rediscovery a special kind of spiritual knowledge connected to the natural world, to place, and to history. This book is so rich in detail and implication that it can be taken by the reader as a personal map to the otherworld and to the forgotten powers of nature and humanity now accessible to him. To women especially it offers an image of strength, wisdom, and healing power. We need this kind of excellent work, visionary as well as academic, all over the world to pull us out of the literalistic and materialistic vision that is limiting us and perhaps even killing us." Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul and The Soul's Religion
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- PublisherCork University Press
- Publication date2003
- ISBN 10 1859183727
- ISBN 13 9781859183724
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- Number of pages320
- Rating
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