In many of the holy wells of Scotland a pair of mystical fishes were said to have their abode. In such a well near the Church of Kilmore, in Lorne, two black fishes were still to be seen in the seventeenth century, and were said to have existed there for generations. The natives called them easg saint, or “holy fishes”. The superstition surrounding such mysterious fishes can perhaps be attributed to a Druidical origin. The wells they inhabited were usually situated beneath a hazel tree, the sacred red nuts of which were supposed to fall into the well and afford them sustenance, as they seem to have done in the case of the “salmon of knowledge”, the red spots on whose skin were thought to be due to the same cause. The fishes in question were believed to be the presiding spirits of the well, and seem to have had a certain oracular character, gained from the magical nuts on which they fed. To kill or eat them was regarded as a crime certain to bring down celestial punishment upon the perpetrator.
1. D’Arbois de Jubainville, The Irish Mythological Cycle, pp.201 ff.
2. Walter Map, Dist. 1, Chap. ii.
3. Sir Thomas Malory, Morte d’Arthur, III, p. 339.
4. R. Kirk, The Secret Commonwealth, p. 70.
5. R. Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, pp. 168 – 70.
6. E. Hull, Folklore of the British Isles, pp. 209 – 10.
7. T. T. Westropp, “A Folk-Lore Survey of County Clare”, in “Folk-Lore”, XXI, p. 191.
8. T. T. Westropp, “Folk-Lore”, XXIX, p. 309.
9. T. T. Westropp, “Folk-Lore”, XXI, p. 188.
10. T. Crofton Croker, Traditions of the South of Ireland, p. 102.
11. T. Crofton Croker, op. cit., p. 120.
12. T. T. .Westropp, in “Folk-Lore,” XXI, p. 188.
13. J. G. Campbell. The Fians, p. 45.
14. Wood-Martin, Pagan Ireland, p. 135.
15. T. T. Westropp, in “Folk-Lore”, XXI, p. 190.
16. D’Arbois de Jubainvilie, op. cit., p. 110.
17. The Dethe and False Murdure of James Stewards, Kyng of Scots. (Glasgow, 1818.)
18. R. Law, Memorialls, pp. 74 ff.
19. “Choice Notes”, from Notes and Queries, p. 69.
20. P. Fraser Tytler, History of Scotland, III, p. 417.
21. J. Rhys, Celtic Folk-Lore, II, p. 453.
22. Wirt Sikes, British Goblins, pp. 219 ff.
23. Wirt Sikes, op. cit., pp. 216 ff.
24. J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands, pp. 45, 191.
25. S. Grieve, The Book of Colonsay and Oronsay, pp. 176 – 9. For the glaistig, see J. G. Campbell, op. cit., Index; and A. A. MacGregor, The Peat Fire Flame, pp. 59 – 66.
26. A, A. MacGregor, op. cit., p. 298.
27. M. MacPhail, “Folk-Lore”, IX, p. 91.
28. E. Hull, The Cuchullin Saga, p. 247.
29. J. G. Campbell, The Fians, p. 33.
30. F. S. Copeland, “Folk-Lore”, XLII, pp. 405 ff.
31. E. Hull, quoted by Wentz in The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, p. 70.
32. A. H. Krappe, The Science of Folk-Lore, pp. 87 – 9.
33. L. C. Wimberley, Folk-lore of the English and Scottish Ballads, pp. 165, 22,5, 240 – 1, 280.
34. R. Kirk, op. cit., p. 79.
35. E. S. Hartland, Primitive Paternity, pp. 236 ff.; J. Frazer, The Belief in Immortality, I, pp.93 ff.
36. J. C. Daniels, “Notes on Welsh Folk-Lore”, “Folk-Lore”, XXX, p. 157.
37. L. F. A. Maury, Les Fées du Moyen Age, pp. 55, 62.
38. Wirt Sikes, op. cit., pp. 127 – 31.
39. R. Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England, p. 81
40. P. Graham, Sketches of Perthshire, p. 263.
41. J. W. Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland, I, p. 228.
42. W. Y. Evans Wentz, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, p. 432.
43. P. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 228.
44. J. F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands, I, pp. 86 ff.
45. J. F. Campbell, op. cit., II, pp. 101 ff.
46. M. Martin, A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, pp. 28 – 9.
47. K. W. Grant, Myth, Tradition and Story from Western Argyll, p. 13.
48. J. G. Campbell, op. cit., pp. 199 ff.
49. J. Rhys, Arthurian Legend
50. T. Crofton Croker, op. cit., pp. 278 ff.
51. Wirt Sikes, op. cit., pp. 30 ff.
52. W. Henderson, Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, p 129.
Dear Sir,
My grandmother, who was from Derry, Ireland saw the banshee just prior to her sister, Josephine’s, death many years ago. My grandmother lived in Florida and Josephine was living in Canada. My grandmother said she first heard the banshee wailing loudly and mournfully outside her door. Then she saw the old woman in white in a horse-driven carriage going by her house. She noted the date and time and later found out that her sister had died around the same time. My grandmother was a MacDonagh.
No one else in our family has seen the banshee.
i was wondering where you got the name chapel of st. malvey i can trace my family name back to 1734 in ireland county cork
It’s not me that got that name, this article is The Celtic Spirit World
by Lewis Spence
from ‘The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain’
(chapter VII)
i dont want to be a pest but do you have any idea about the origin of the chapel of st malvey?
You’re not being a pest. And, no, I don’t know the origin of the chapel of St. Malvey. Sounds like a good topic for you to research, though (considering your last name).
Dear Sir,
my grandparents lived in Croatia. They have been born in a little village by the name Seona.
It´s an unusually name for a croatic village.
I can remember that ma granny teach me then I was a child a lot of fairys.
She believed in them and the other older pupil in the village , too.
I have heard stories about fairies in this village.
My granny says they always lived there with the people helped them or punished them.
She tells me, if I don´t lost the faith in them, one day I would see the fairies, too.
In the wood of this village is a spring and there was an old man living. The people called him brother John.
He lives like an eremit allone and he was praying for the ill people. He was healing the humans.
My grandmother shaws me the place there the fairies were dancing in the ring.
She gives me so lot my granny and I beginn to understand now.
Three months ago I became the idea to search about the name Seona in Slavonia (Croatia).
This is a name from scotish gaellic and comes from the name Seonaid (God is great).
I´m sure that in Seona the celts build one of them first villages, then they come to Croatia.
All this I tell a Dr. of archeollogy in Zagreb and he writes me back, that he has found some celtic graves and this story from me can be a way to find something more about our history.
Today,if you ask me if I believe in fairiey, yes do.
Why?
So I am catholic, but my grandmother tells me that god is great, he lives everythere and I can talk with him also in the nature.
I grove up with the belive in god and the fairies.
I loved them and talked to them, too. I see them as my sisters in soul.
Sometimes I can here them singing in the wood or crying on places there bads thing happening.
They are real the fairies. My granny says if the humans lost the faith they can´T never see the fairies again.
One day I was so tired, I hear voices from the door like children laughing. I think my children are coming home with my husband, but it was a litle green ghost.
He was small ,like a child from 6 years.
I can´t see a face only circle on his head with symbols like celtic art. He talks somthing to me, but I don´t understand. It was a language warm and deep. The louds sounds like drrhh, krch, shhr, chaarhh,,, somthing like this.
On the top of the wall from my room something litle flyes. They looked like small white princes and they laughed all time. The voice of them sounds like children laughing.
I have open my ices and I was thinking I´m dreaming, but in the next second I feel how thr little green ghost take my plaid from the bed and takes it over me. I was falling in a deep sleep.
Then I awaked I have feel so good. I never sleeped better.
It was a good feeling. This I will never forgett.
Bye, from Germany, yours Mirela
It’s been quite a while but I found out some info about St. Malvey the real name of the church is St Moluag’s church (locally known by its gaidhlig name of Teampull Mholuaidh) is a 13th Century temple in the village of Eoropie in Ness in the Isle of Lewis
Ed I located documentation including a reference from Charles Dickens. The church is still there and active. St Malvey was born in 590 AD and went with St Columba to bring Christianity to Scotland. Are you Molly’s son, brother Jimmy now Father Seamus , my cousin – email for me nihildat@yahoo.com Slainte
I have documentation on the church from a journal written by Charles Dickens in 1887. He calls it the church of St Malvey. I traced him back to 590 AD. He and St Columba et al were called the disciples of Ireland. I think you might be Molly’s son, brother Jimmy now Father Seamus, and my cousin.
i am indeed mollies son please reply cous
Ed
Hiya. Donald Trump’s mother was born on Lewis Island. It’s the largest island in the Outer Hebrides.
Does you know the Gaelic equivalent of the surname “Malvey”?
I had a dream about a year ago that seems to fit with your description of the ‘banshee.’ The dream showed an old woman in a white cloak who was sitting on this throne in a grove of trees. I entered and there was a large hewn stump with three “tree branch fairies” sticking out of it. They started singing a whimsical and melodious song. I didn’t get the feeling that the song was for me. since then there have been several deaths that may have been suggested by the banshee and other dream indicators. I’ve had numerous encounters with spirits, mostly in dreams, over the years who have taken the form of mythical figures. Please share any insights. Is there something I can do to intercede? I get the message that these dreams are to prepare, initiate or to avoid pitfalls. Thanks!