Mapping the Old Wife

For many years I’ve have a deep fascination with sites prefixed with the name ‘Old Wife’. With plenty of time on my hands, I decided to have a go at something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, create a map. The sites that I’ve select are all physical places and are named on maps. The map covers the three main linguistic elements of my researches, Old Wife, Carling/Carlin, Cailleach.

The word Wife means woman, it has only been used to signify a woman’s marital status relatively recently, therefore the Old Wife means, Old Woman. The second main element is Cailleach, a Scots and Irish Gaellic word which is still in use today and means, Old Woman/Hag/Witch. The Final element is the word Carling, which is the the Scots equivalent of Cailleach. For completeness, I have also included a few sites with a Witch element in their names as these are relatively rare, I’m still not sure if they are relevant but have included them anyway for interest.

The word Carling has been a little problematic as the element Carl means a free peasant in Old English and Old Scandinavian e.g. the etymology of the word Carlton would be a settlement of free peasants. Whereas the etymology of Carling Howe, which was originally called Kerlinghou, means the hill of the old woman or hag. I have tried my best to filter-out these name elements and have hopefully only added relevant sites on the map.

Key – Blue = Cailleach, Green = Carling, Red = Old Wife, Orange = Witch

When looking at the distribution map, I cannot think of any other mythological or folkloric figure who is so well represented in our landscape and yet, as my friend Graeme points out, remains so anonymous . I suppose, given a millennia and a half of an interlinked church and state, which in the past has actively suppressed to any whiff of witchcraft or the supernatural, especially when practiced by women, the fact that her name has survived and remains embedded in our landscape is quite remarkable. The distribution of sites may also say something regarding certain commonalities between the cultures of the early inhabitants of the northern and western parts our islands.

The Hag/Crone/Old Wife/Witch

Cailleach – Gaellic, Carlin/Gyre, Carling – Scots, Kerling – Icelandic, Kelling – Faroese, Kjerring – Norwegian, Karring – Swedish, Kaelling – Danish

The map is a work in progress, I will continue to work on it and hopefully add the interactive version to this site.

Thanks to Graeme Chappell for his encouragement, comments and providing me with a few sites that I didn’t know about.

Goad Fire Insurance Maps

These maps from the British Library have been made available via Wikimedia Commons they were produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to assist in the calculation of fire risk insurance

Link

The Major Becks and Culverts of Middlesbrough

Maps drawn for studies – Brown Hills

Brown Hill. One of the most numerous and most remakable of our British survivals. I had long suspected that it was Celtic but until I examined the hills so designated I obtained no clue to its origin…I concluded therefore that it was derived from the Welsh bron, a breast or pap. We still speak of the breast of the hill.

Early Man in North East Yorkshire. Frank Elgee. 1930

I drew these maps whilst investigating Frank Elgee’s theory regarding the origins of the name Brown on the moorland hills. I selected four (out of eighteen) due to their location and ease of access.

Having looked at these hills from many angles I am not convinced of Elgee’s theory. The location, association with prehistoric monuments and inter-visibility of these hills leads me to think that there is some other significance in the name but as yet I am unable to say what.