Thank you, gentlemen. The Cailleach is most often represented as a one-eyed, blue-faced giantess -- she is not cruel, but she doesn't accept weakness in her people or her land as she cleanses and culls with the winter. I expect Shakespeare had a bit of her as the threefold spinner of fate in mind when he wrote the witches, but they're tainted by that Christian viewpoint of crones as evil or contemptible. In Celtic lore, she is both creator and destroyer -- and her other aspect, during the summer months, is the Bride. Not surprisingly, the Christians decided that they could appropriate this beautiful young goddess, who fit in with their ideas of womanhood, and turn her into a placid saint. The old woman they ignored, silly buggers.
David, you're right about the concrete. You can put whatever veneer you like across a living surface, but in time it will crack and fall away.
An dà shealladh roughly translates as "the two sights", the ability to see through the veil to the world of spirits and gods. And Alba means Scotland
Billy, duly noted on the enjambment but as you've surmised, it's purely deliberate and I'd rather the meter stayed intact.
Many thanks to you both.
David, you're right about the concrete. You can put whatever veneer you like across a living surface, but in time it will crack and fall away.
An dà shealladh roughly translates as "the two sights", the ability to see through the veil to the world of spirits and gods. And Alba means Scotland
Billy, duly noted on the enjambment but as you've surmised, it's purely deliberate and I'd rather the meter stayed intact.
Many thanks to you both.
It could be worse