Pigs in Early Gaelic Culture by Dawn O'Laoghaire

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Domestic pigs

Pigs were valued in early Irish society for both their meat and their lard 1 and were a major part of the duties paid by clients to their lords.2 The wild pig was domesticated in Ireland by the Neolithic period and is mentioned prominently in the law-texts and wisdom-texts. The Irish domestic pig was a small, long-legged hairy animal which came in a variety of colors ('find' or white or light colored; 'liath' or grey; 'loch' or black; 'cron' or reddish brown; and 'forglas' or blue-black (?) ).3 As wild pigs often had sexual intimacy with domestic pigs and the "domesticated" Irish pig behaved much like its wild cousin, the rounding up of the domestic pigs resembled hunting much more than herding for many farmers. 4

Pigs were part of a generally balanced animal ecology of an Irish farm. A farmer of the rank of ocaire was supposed to own seven cows, seven pigs, and seven sheep; a farmer of the next rank up was supposed to own ten of each.5 A prosperous farmer of mruigfer rank would be expected to own two breeding sows. By balancing the types of animals on a farm, the farmer could limit the effects of disease would have on a the farm's economy and could vary the food available to the farm family.

Young pigs were kept near the farm until the beginning of August; in the late summer or early fall the piglets were strong enough to survive the rigors of the woods. Pigs from a variety of owners were often herded together and minded by a single swineherd or by a young slave. If the pigs foraged far from home, the swineherd camped with the pigs. Sometimes the farmer's wife raised the runt of the litter by hand in order to save it from dying. If she hand-raised a pig, the farmer's wife was entitled to two-thirds of its meat in the event of a divorce. Pigs raised in such a way sometimes became pets and were viewed as nuisances. One triad describes them thus: "The three worst pets: a pet priest, a pet beggar and a pet pig."6 While valuable contributors to the farming economy, pigs lacked the prestige of cows and may have been viewed as possessing an impure or beastly nature, not shared by the ritually purifying cow, whose product could be used to "heal" damages caused by the trespass of impure animals, such as dogs or pigs.. Pigs rooting on other people's fields was to be repaired by filling the holes with corn or butter.7

Wild Pigs

After deer-hunting, hunting the wild pig (Suss scrofa; Old Irish 'mucc allaid') 8 was the primary hunting activity in ancient Irish culture. Hunting wild pig was less a form of sport than deer hunting and was primarily motivated by the need to procure meat. Wild pigs were commonly pursued with dogs, but they might also be trapped or hunted with arrows. 9 The abundance of wild swine in Ireland is mentioned in twelfth century texts, but archeological evidence indicates that they did not survive long after the Norman invasion. Their extinction was probably caused by a combination of over-hunting and the destruction of oak-woods on which they largely depended for food. 10

Fian-rituals gave great prominence to the boar hunt. Slaying a wild pig single-handedly may have been a rite of passage for a gilla, , a young man in military apprenticeship. In the Instructions of Cormac, Cormac relates that as a gilla his first significant deed was to kill a pig by himself. Finn, the heroic mythological leader of the Fianna, was magically bound to complete an elaborately tabooed, single-handed slaying of a boar. In the "Feast of Conan's House," Finn relates that one of his 'deaths' (a positive taboo that he must perform to preserve his life) is to kill a wild boar without rousing it when no north wind was blowing, carry it without help, cook it himself, and to serve it alone to all of his company. The limitation on the direction of the wind suggests that Finn's act must be completed before winter, perhaps at Samhain, the time at which the Fianna were demobilized and housed about their lord's clients. Furthermore, as both wild deer and wild pigs breed in the early winter, Scottish legal tracts forbid hunting game animals, such as deer when snow is present on the ground. Thus Samhain represented the close of the open hunting season for both deer and pigs, perhaps giving the last hunt of the season some ritual or social importance. 11

At Samhain, clients may have sought to supplement their income by hunting pigs to supply as part of the render to the lord, rather than relying solely on domestic pigs which they raised. The quartering of the Fianna at Samhain represented the end of the season of warfare and most farming activity and the beginning of the season of guesting and feasting. Pigs, either, wild or domestic, were major components of the render due to lords by their clients at Samhain and at festivals held later in the year. During the time period just prior to Samhain, cattle, women and children returned from the upland pastures and the domestic pigs which had been turned loose to forage in the oak forests were rounded up. Both the wild pig and the domestic pig were at their best during the Samhain season having fattened themselves on the wild acorn crop and were slaughtered for storage and rendering to the lord during this season. 12 Some competition between the farming class and the warrior class in hunting wild pigs is suggested by a story about Finn, the leader of the Fianna. Finn had hunted a particular boar on many occasions to no avail; the boar was finally killed by a peasant who worked at a drying kiln. Finn was much dismayed by the peasant's success and his own failure, saying: "It is not well that we fed our hounds, it is not well that we rode our horses, since a little peasant from a kiln, has the killed the boar of Druimm Leithe." 13

Mythological Aspects of Pigs in Early Gaelic Society

Wild pigs, particularly boars, were exceptionally important symbols for early Gaels, because of their association with both hospitality and with the war-bands of the Fianna. Boars are natural war symbols, being clever, indomitable, and ferocious 14. Representations of boars across Celtic cultures emphasize the ferocious nature of the boar by portraying them with their dorsal bristles raised in the attacking position. The hunting activities of the Fianna war-bands furthered the association of pigs with war-like qualities of boars15 Many stories such as the Feast of Briucu or the story of Mac Da Tho's Pig center around disputes over which warrior deserves the "champion's portion," a cut of meat reserved for the best of the warriors present at a feast. 9 In the Feast of Briucu, CuChulain faces down a giant and wins the leadership over the heroes of Erin, the Champion's Portion undisputed, and the precedence of Emer, his wife, over all the ladies of Erin.16

Pigs, like dogs, were liminal creatures, associated with both the domestic tranquility of the farmyard and the wildness of the oak forests and like dogs, pigs assumed Otherworldly associations. In many instances, the lord of the Otherworld is portrayed as a man carrying a pig over his shoulder. 17 Every Otherworld hostel or 'bruidhen' was ruled by a god who presided over the supernatural feast. Pigs were slaughtered each day, eaten and magically reborn to be eaten again the next day. 8 Because of their association with liminal animals, the swine-herds who cared for domestic pigs often were viewed as possessing magical abilities. The Brown Bull of Ulster which was the center-piece of the war between Connaught and Ulster was a shape-changed swineherd who had a rivalry with another swine-herd. In order carry on their fight, the two swine-herds changed themselves into ravens for a year, and then into water-monsters for a year, and then into two rivers for a year, and then into two human champions for a year, and then two eels for a year and then into the Brown Bull of Ulster and the White-Horned Bull of Connaught.18

Both pigs and swineherds may have obtained some of their supernatural associations from their habits of eating acorns. Acorns are poisonous to other domestic animals and to humans, but Irish domestic pigs ate them with impunity, fattening themselves on a food-stuff that was otherwise inedible 'waste.' Furthermore, acorns were used by early humans as a hallucinogen and the eating of acorns by swineherds may have lead to tales of their magical abilities. In addition, swineherds, like the Fianna, occupied the liminal physical spaces of the woods, and both were widely associated with the ability to transverse the barrier between the physical world and the Otherworld. 19

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Sources:

1. Kelly, Fergus. Early Irish Farming. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1997. p. 84
2. Patterson, Nerys. Cattle-lords and Clansmen. London: University of Notre Dame, 1994. p. 127
3. Ibid, p. 125
4. Kelly, supra note 1, p. 82-83
5. Patterson, supra note 2, p. 72.
6. Kelly, supra note 1, p. 82-83
7. Patterson, supra note 2, p. 73
8. Kelly, supra note 1, p. 281.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Patterson, supra note 2, 123-125
12. Kelly, supra note 1, p. 281
13. Green, Miranda J. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. p. 44 - 45
14. Ibid, p. 138
15. Cross, Tom Peete and Clark Harris Slover.. Ancient Irish Tales. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1936.. p. 280.
16. Green, supra note 13, p. 138
17. Green, supra note 13, p. 45
18. Squire, Charles. Celtic Myths and Legends, New York: Gramercy Books: 1994. p. 164-165.
19. Patterson, supra note 2, p. 126.