The Islands of the Blessed (48 page)

A comb and glass all in her hand
,

“Here's a health to you, my merry young men
,

For you'll not see dry land again!”

At which point the ship sank to the bottom of the sea.

Columba, according to his biographers, was the saint equivalent of a rock star. He was “a tall, striking figure of powerful build and impressive presence, who combined the skills of scholar, poet, and ruler”
(Oxford Dictionary of Saints
by David Farmer, Oxford University Press, 2003).

Columba was born into a royal Irish family and may well have had connections with druids. He certainly knew how to calm rough seas, dispel fog, and call up winds going in
opposite
directions at the same time. Even more interesting, Columba argued for the preservation of the bardic order. This was at a gathering of newly Christianized Irish kings who wanted to suppress the old religion. Columba convinced them that the future of Irish culture depended on preserving it.

Among his many achievements, Columba converted King Brude of the Picts to Christianity and scared the Loch Ness Monster away from an intended meal. But there is one disturbing story about him in connection with the building of a church on Iona. Whatever was built during the day was thrown down at night. Columba set guards to watch, but in the morning these men would be found dead. Columba, being the hero he was, stood watch himself.

And in the darkness he saw a creature come out of the
sea. It was half woman, half fish, and very old. When she shook herself, the whole island quaked and she emitted a tinkling sound like pots rattling together. She was terrifyingly ugly. From this we can tell that Columba had encountered a sea hag.

He asked why she was killing his guards, and she replied that she did nothing but that the sight of her gave them all heart attacks. Columba then asked her why she had knocked down his church. The sea hag said that it wasn't her fault but that the building could not stand unless someone agreed to be buried alive under it.

One of Columba's followers, Odhran, volunteered. Columba promised him that he would be taken into Heaven. Odhran was put into a deep pit with a roof over it, and after twenty days, Columba lifted the roof to see whether his friend was still alive. When Odhran tried to climb out, the saint ordered that he be covered up with clay.

Now this, however you look at it, was a human sacrifice. Such “foundation sacrifices” are found from earliest times in Britain and Ireland, although later a dog, horse, or cat was substituted.

Seafarer's species, the black-browed albatross, lives in the south Atlantic near Antarctica, but occasionally storms can blow one thousands of miles from its homeland. In 1967 a single male arrived in Scotland and has been there ever since. Bird-watchers have named him Albert.

Albert has been unable to find a mate, although he has tried to woo gannets less than half his size. Not surprisingly, they drove him away. Albert has a seven-foot wingspan, and some albatrosses can reach nine feet. Now he lives on a tiny rock between the Outer Hebrides and Shetland Islands. Albert is at least forty-nine years old and may live to be over seventy (BBC News, May 9, 2007).

Aebi, Ormond, and Harry Aebi,
The Art and Adventure of Beekeeping
(Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1983).

Brondsted, Johannes,
The Vikings
, Kallie Skov, trans. (Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1967).

Byock, Jesse L., trans.,
The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer
(London: Penguin Books, 1999).

Cummins, W. A.,
The Age of the Picts
(Gloucestershire, England: Allan Sutton Publishing, 1995).

Davidson, H. R. Ellis,
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe
(Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1964).

Fry, Timothy, ed.,
The Rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English with Notes and Thematic Index
(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1982).

Griffiths, Bill,
Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic
(Norfolk, England: Anglo-Saxon Books, 1996).

Guthrie, E. J.,
Old Scottish Customs
(Glasgow, Scotland: Thomas D. Morison, Co., 1885).

Hagen, Ann,
A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink: Production and Distribution
(Norfolk, England: Anglo-Saxon Books, 1995).

Kennedy, Charles W., trans.,
An Anthology of Old English Poetry
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1968).

Leahy, Kevin,
Anglo-Saxon Crafts
(Gloucestershire, England: Tempus Publishing, 2003).

Lindow, John,
Handbook of Norse Mythology
(Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001).

Matthews, Caitlín, and John Matthews,
The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom
(Dorset, England: Element Books, 1994).

Pollington, Stephen,
Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plantlore, and Healing
(Norfolk, England: Anglo-Saxon Books, 2000).

———,
The Mead-Hall: Feasting in Anglo-Saxon England
(Norfolk, England: Anglo-Saxon Books, 2003).

Pretor-Pinney, Gavin,
The Cloudspotter's Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds
(New York: Penguin Books, 2006).

Ross, Anne, and Don Robins,
The Life and Death of a Druid Prince
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989).

Serraillier, Ian, trans.,
Beowulf the Warrior
(New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1968).

Sturluson, Snorri,
The Prose Edda
, Jean I. Young, trans. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1964).

Sutherland, Elizabeth,
The Pictish Guide
(Edinburgh, Scotland: Birlinn, 1997).

———,
In Search of the Picts
(London: Constable, 1994).

Taylor, Paul B., and W. H. Auden, trans.,
The Elder Edda
(New York: Random House, 1970).

Whitlock, Ralph,
In Search of Lost Gods
(Oxford, England: Phaedon Press, 1979).

Wilson, David,
The Anglo-Saxons
(New York: Penguin Books, 1981).

NOTE: The complete text of the oldest book on this list,
Old Scottish Customs
by E. J. Guthrie, is available online.