OK, that's really weird. Some historical backround might be in order, though I don't know the particular work you're talking about, and nobody will make much headway for you without that.

Firstly, it was perfectly kosher for everybody to sleep around in ancient Gaelic culture. If this woman is referred to as a prostitute, it's because by the ninth century, Christianity's mores had taken firm root. The monks were writing all this stuff down, after all. Oh - and priests were still allowed to marry at this point in history - the ninth century, I mean. *Yes, my head's filled with arcane tidbits....*

The word whore is kinda distasteful. The Saxons started using the word the way we know it today when they conquered parts of Cornwall. In Cornish, the word means "sister," so you can see how they adopted it for the purpose of being derogatory. Nobody knows that, so it's not really un-PC (like I care about PC), but it's a tidbit to ponder. Once I found that out, I stopped using it. Now I only tease my close girlfriends with, "Hello, Whore!"

ciarili