Folklore: White hart in Scottish and Irish tales

Subject: Folklore: White hart in Scottish and Irish tales
From: Anne Lister
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 03:55 PM

This is a query raised by someone in another forum and I'm sufficiently curious about it to find out if Mudcat can help - there are numerous tales in Welsh, Breton and English folklore of a white hart or stag appearing and leading people into an otherworldly adventure. Are there similar tales in Ireland and Scotland? I know that Fionn Mac Cumhaill is closely associated with deer, but are there any tales specifically about white deer?

Anne

Subject: RE: Folklore: White hart in Scottish and Irish tales
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 07:22 PM

Some versions of the story in which King David I of Scotland was attacked by a stag which desisted after a cross appeared between its antlers would have it that the stag was white. I'm not sure what the earliest sources say.

Subject: RE: Folklore: White hart in Scottish and Irish tal
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 08:19 PM

I did a quick check in Lysaght (The Banshee), Wentz (The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries) and Squire (Celtic Mythology) and found only a reference to a stag in Squire, in a retelling of Mabonogian.

There were references to beetles, salmon, cattle, horses, seals, butterflies, crows, and lots of other animals as "faery guides", but no harts or deer of any color.

Could these have been 19th Century additions to traditional tales when the tales were put into print and "corrected" so that children and Victorian morals wouldn't be offended?

Subject: RE: Folklore: White hart in Scottish and Irish tal
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 08:20 PM

It reminds me of the legend of St. Hubert, patron saint of hunters.

Subject: RE: Folklore: White hart in Scottish and Irish tales
From: Anne Lister
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 02:54 AM

There's a reference I've found to the isle of Arran being called the Isle of Stags, and an even vaguer reference to the mysterious white stag there, but no full story so I'm not much wiser.

Anne

Subject: RE: Folklore: White hart in Scottish and Irish tales
From: Megan L
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 03:26 AM

Not Mythology but there is at the moment a white stag running with a herd in Scotland.

The White Stag

Subject: RE: Folklore: White hart in Scottish and Irish tal
From: Bearheart
Date: 06 Mar 08 - 07:23 PM

I would be interested in any references you find, Anne, since I have come across the white stag in other contexts-- not so far afield. Hungarian tales and Sami legends of the great white reindeer.

I would guess that if it's in the folklore it's actually quite old. The Druid Animal Oracle, based on Celtic sources entirely, refers to the white hind (female but still a deer), associated with the fairy folk and with the Otherworld.

Bekki