“O, I wad like to ken ā to the beggar-wife says Iā
Why chops are guid to brander and nane sae guid to fry.
Anā siller, thatās sae braw to keep, is brawer still to
giāe.
āĀ Itās gey anā easy spierinā, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken ā to the beggar-wife says Iā
Hoo aā things come to be whaur we find them when we try,
The lasses in their claes anā the fishes in the sea.
āĀ Itās gey anā easy spierinā, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken ā to the beggar-wife says Iā
Why lads are aā to sell anā lasses aā to buy;
Anā naebody for dacency but barely twa or three
āĀ Itās gey anā easy spierinā, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken ā to the beggar-wife says Iā
Gin deathās as shure to men as killinā is to kye,
Why God has filled the yearth sae fuā oā tasty things to
pree.
āĀ Itās gey anā easy spierinā, says the beggar-wife to me.
O, I wad like to ken ā to the beggar wife says Iā
The reason oā the cause anā the wherefore oā the why,
Wiā mony anither riddle brings the tear into my eāe.
āĀ Itās gey anā easy spierinā, says the beggar-wife to me.
– The Spaewife, Robert Louis Stevenson
*It’s gey an’ easy spierin’ – meaning it’s an easy question to ask.
Spae (from Merriam-Webster online) –Ā chiefly Scottish, meaning foretell. OriginĀ Middle EnglishĀ span,Ā from Old NorseĀ spÄ;Ā akin to Old High GermanĀ spehÅnĀ to watch, spy.
From Dictionary.com: verbĀ (usedĀ withĀ object),Ā spaed,Ā spaeĀ·ing.Ā ChieflyĀ Scot.
toĀ prophesy;Ā foretell;Ā predict.
Ā Middle EnglishĀ span,Ā from Old NorseĀ spÄ;Ā akin to Old High GermanĀ spehÅnĀ to watch, spy.
A spaewife is a female prophetess, a seer, a diviner, one who sees. In Norse shamanism she was called aĀ Ā spĆ”konaĀ orĀ spƦkona – a seeress, and stories of such women are found throughout Norse mythology. The vƶlva’sĀ (Norse shamanic seeress) practice involvedĀ spĆ” and in an account calledĀ VƶluspĆ”Ā (Prophecy of the Vƶlva) the first poem of the Poetic Edda, Odin, the father of the gods consulted aĀ vƶlva to find out what was in store for all the gods.Ā
It must be made clear that in Scottish belief, a spaewife was vastly different to a witch. In the early modern period in Britain, witches were seen as practitioners of maleficium.
” In early modern Britain the term ‘witch’ generally denoted an individual who was seen by others, or perceived by themselves, as being able to employ magical powers to do harm. The type of harmful magic most feared by contemporary villagers was ‘maleficium’. Maleficium was witchcraft at it’s most basic – the manipulation of occult forces at a distance with malevolent intent.”
– Emma Wilby, “Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic”, p42, Sussex Academic Press.
Villagers would visit a cunning man or woman, or a spaewife for healing, to foretell the future or to counteract the harmful effects of a witch’s spell. Ā Walter Traill Dennison, a 19th century folklorist and Orkney native wrote of the folk tales of Orkney and the role of the spaewife there. The spaewife was said to possess:
ā..all the supernatural wisdom, some of the supernatural power, without any of the malevolent spirit of witches.”
He goes on:
“The women of this class were skilled in medicinal and surgery, in dreams, in foresight and second-sight, and in forestalling the evil influence of witchcraft. Such women were looked upon with a kind of holy respect.ā
I wrote a blog a little while back about Grissel Jaffray, a woman burned in Dundee as a witch. I’ve updated the photos as the one I used to show her plaque wasn’t clear to read. One thing I had never noticed about the plaque before is that Grissel is noted as being a spaewife, not a witch. Perhaps she could see things others could not and was sadly burned for it.
I’ve noticed the term spaewife hasn’t been completely disregarded in modern usage, there are those among the pagan and magickal communities claiming the title for themselves. It will be interesting to see if the definition changes over time, and if it will become another branch of the tree in terms of a separate practice. I would be interested in hearing from people who practice spae, so drop me a line if you do š
Mar sin leat an-drĆ sta!Ā
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Hag o' The Hills 