'Boar' in Gaelic

[Kernos]

According to MacKillop the word 'boar' is torc in both Old and Modern rish.

Other sources indicate the Old Irish word for boar is callach, cullach.

In reconstructed Gaulish the word is calluâcos which is certainly related and to kalloc’h in Breton.

Modern Welsh is baedd

It appears the Celts had a variety of words for boar (wild male pig).

What is the relation between OIr torc and callach?

[LadyCelt]

From MacBain's:

cullach

a boar, Irish, Early Irish cullach, Old Irish callach, cullach, caullach, Breton kalloc'h, "entire", qellecq, epithet for stallions and boars, *kalluâko-s, from *kalljo-, testicle, Welsh caill, testiculus, Middle Breton quell; root kal, hard, as in clach, q.v., Norse hella, flat stone, etc. (Bezzenberger). Cf. Latin cuelleus, bag, scrotum, whence Old French couillon, English cullion, testicles, Scottish culls. Hence cullbhoc, wether-goat, Irish culbhoc.

[Kernos]

Thanks, LC - it certainly seems 'boar' was considered the domain of testosterone

From the same MacBains:

torc
a boar, Irish, Old Irish torc, Welsh twrch, cor. torch, Breton tourc'h, Old Breton turch: *t-orko-s, from *orko-, in uircean, q.v.: Indo-European porko-s, swine, Latin porcus, Lithuanian parsza-s, English farrow. Stokes gives Celtic as *torko-s, Jubainvill as *turco-s.

I wonder how 'torc' is related. Is one domesticated and the other not? The continental Celts were among the 1st to domesticate wild swine. Strabo says they had great herds which were large, swift and pugnacious.

[LadyCelt]

I wonder how 'torc' is related

Hmm. Well, MacBain's says this about "torc":

torc
a boar, Irish, Old Irish torc, Welsh twrch, cor. torch, Breton tourc'h, Old Breton turch: *t-orko-s, from *orko-, in uircean, q.v.: Indo-European porko-s, swine, Latin porcus, Lithuanian parsza-s, English farrow. Stokes gives Celtic as *torko-s, Jubainvill as *turco-s

Hey, don't we have a Twyrch on the "boar"d?  

[Abhaill]

In the DIL (Dictionary of the Irish Language), cullach is given as 'boar' as well as 'stallion'.  I'm not sure if the 'stallion' here has any connection to the OI word cul for 'chariot'.  Perhaps Beith or Megli could help out there?

And while OI torc means 'boar' as well, it can also refer to 'chieftan, hero'.  Two other torcs appear in the DIL as well: one meaning 'heart', and the other 'collar, torque'.  The OI word for porpoise seems to be torc tuinne or muc mara, literally 'boar of the waves' or 'sea pig' - which (if I remember correctly) was still a term used at the turn of the last century in the Blasket Islands.  All in all, torc may have had more to do with maleness and championship than with pigs, but that's merely a supposition on my part.

~ Abhaill

[Beith]

HI Kernos,

I'm not sure what the difference in aetiology of torc and cullach is, but I could hazard a few guesses:

Torc might have originated in reference to the act of raising (eg. of earth, which is what boars do when they root through the ground), from the verbal noun "turcbál" ("raising, lifting") which comes from the verb "do fócaib" (he lifts up, he raises) originally *to -uss-gaib but with perfective ro- augument (originally *to-ro-uss-gaib) from which turcaib (prototonic form) and turcbál (Verbal noun) are formed. Hence turc could be the contraction of that, denoting an animal that raises (ground), such as pigs/boars do when routing earth.

The vowel letters o/u often interchange in Irish because the sound may have been what is called a "schwah" (written like an upsidedown e)- ie. an indistinct vowel sound that can be written in various ways.

There's also a compound word "torcelta" which is a piece of a sword and maybe that implies that implies either a handleshaft for "raising" the sword or perhaps the compounded "torc" is just in reference to a "tusk" or pointed spear-like projection. I don't know.


The word "cullach" (or "collach") might be more related to o/a adjective "collach" meaning "portly, corpulent" often mentioned with "remur" meaning "fat, thick, stout"  and the feminine i-stem noun "Colainn" ~ meaning "flesh" or "body"; or there's also  "collud" which is the verbal noun of "collid" meaning ~"destroying", "violating", which by analogy and ancedote is also a description of what one could say a boar does to the ground and indeed is it's character in the myth tales (eg. the famous wild boar on Ben Bulben that killed Diarmuid in the story of Gráinne and Diarmuid).

I would think the words are just two different words to describe either the fleshy corpulent nature of the boar "Collach/cullach" or describing the animal by its action "torc" if indeed this comes from "turcbál".

All the best
Beith

ps. Abhaill, I would think (my speculation) that cul in the sense of a chariot is more to do with the noise of the chariot ie. wheels in motion. The more usual word for chariot is the m, o-stem noun: "Carpat" and where "cul" appears in text it is often glossed with .i.Carpat or .i. Cairptiu (chariots) (the .i. = ed(h)on "that is"). There is "culgaire" which is defined as the "rumbling" noise of chariots and "Culmaire" (masc io-stem like "techtaire") which is a crafts-person who makes chariots. Goodwishes, Beith.

[Twyrch]

I found this on Answers.com...

Twrch Trwyth
[Welsh twrch, male boar]

Magical but ferocious boar that Culhwch is required to hunt; the comb and razor lying between the ears of the beast are required to trim the hair of Ysbaddaden Bencawr. This arduous task requires the assistance of Mabon and Arthur himself. In speaking to Arthur, the boar explains that he was once a king and that he has been changed into his present shape for committing some unspecified evil. More likely is the explanation that Twrch Trwyth is yet another manifestation of the divine boar from earliest Celtic mythology; allusion to him exists also in other early texts.

Bibliography

John Rhy^s, Celtic Folklore (Oxford, 1901), 509–15, 519–30, et passim
Rachel Bromwich and D. Simon Evans's annotations in Culhwch ac Olwen (Cardiff, 1992)
John Carey, “‘A Tuatha Dé Miscellany’”, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 39 (1992), 41 ff

It would seem the name Twrch, also means Boar.

[Kernos]

Another Welsh word for boar is baedd

[Twyrch]

Another Welsh word for boar is baedd

Well... "ae" is a long vowel and "dd" says "th", so would that be pronounced, Bay-th?

[Kernos]

Sorta reminds one of Beith

[Twyrch]

Sorta reminds one of Beith

Heh... I wondered if that's where you were going with that.  :-)

I've always assumed Beith was pronounced, "Beth" with the slender "e" sound.  ;)

[June Ward]

Hello everyone

I have just found this forum and it's exactly what I needed!  I am representing the wild boar at a ritual on Sunday and have been putting some thoughts together this afternoon.  Great timing.
Thanks
June
 :witchy:

[Beith]

LOL - just saw the above from Twyrch and Kernos.
Firstly I am not a boar (or bore, I hope!)

and yes Twyrch you're right - in Old Irish pronunciation, Beith is pronounced just like "beth" in English. In modern Irish, there is no 'th' sound so it would be like "beh".

I use the Old Irish for my name.

Greetings from boardom! or maybe..."birchdom"!
Beith

[Kernos]

And in Labarion (Gaulish):

betuâ  –iâs  fa: birch [W. bedw, B. bezuenn, OIr. bethe] [plt].

From Merriam-Webster unabridged for 'birch':

Etymology: Middle English birche, birk, from Old English birce, beorc; akin to Old High German birka birch, Old Norse björk birch, Latin fraxinus ash tree, Sanskrit bhūrja birch, Old English beorht bright -- more at BRIGHT

And I've been calling you Beyeth or R... - must be the German in me

[Beith]

Kernos..I've been called much worse in a lifetime, believe me! grin!

There's a good book on Proto Indo European treenames by Professor Paul Friedrich (it's an old book now but I'm not sure if anyone's followed up his research) - he used comparative linguistics to follow the stem words (no pun intended!) for tree names in celtic languages and in slavonic, Germanic/old norse, Russian, etc. It's very interesting to see the how the roots occur across the different IE family languages.

A snippet from something I did using his reference work...

Proto-Indo-European name: *bherH-ģ-o 1

Old Norse bjork and bjartr meaning “bright”
Slavic-Russian berëza
Vedic bhūrjá, Classical Sanskrit "Bhräjate" - “it shines” and "bhurja" for birch
Old English berc / birce,
Old high German birihha and beraht
Albanian bardhë: “white”.

Old Irish beith/beithe "birch tree", "birch wood" and the letter B in Irish alphabet

General meanings:  “brightness”, “white”, “shining”, “gleaming”


best wishes!
Beith [rhymes with Death....but we're not related!]

[Kernos]

Interesting, Beith

Can we assume these refer to the white or paper birch which shine in the sun? I wonder if they occur in Vedic regions - perhaps in the mountains.

Paper birches do not do well where I live and our native birch is the river birch which has brown rather than white paperish bark.

[Beith]

Hi Kernos, yes, silver birch is what is referred to (Betula pendula) in Ireland and it is also found in western Himalayan regions of India in the upper 'alpine' zone. The other species here is Betula pubescens - the downy birch.

In ogham it's beautifully glossed with poetic kennings which describe it well

"Feochos foltchaín" - withered foot, fine hair
"Glaisem cnis" - greyest of skin

and in folk-appellation as "Finnbhean na coille" - The White lady of the woods.

Its white bark shines in moonlight and varies from a silver-grey to palest white (which I guess is the meaning inferred in kenning2 above). I know the brown-barked species you refer to also - we call it "red-birch" (betula nigra). In fact one of these trees was a Bile tree (a sacred tree) at an ancient inauguration site of chieftains in Galway. It gave its name to the place : Roevehagh (Irish: Ruadh bheitheach - red birch)

Here's a link to a "How to Grow" website that has excellent info on tree propagation and potential problems with (such as insect damage to white birches - maybe this is why yours doesn't do well? or perhaps soil acidity/alkanity problems?)

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/howto ... _birch.htm

cheers
Beith

[Kernos]

Our 'River Birches" are B. nigrans. Not sure why there is nothing 'nigrans' about it.

River birch is the only birch native to Missouri. It is found throughout Missouri in lowlands and along streambanks. Its ability to thrive on wet sites makes it useful for streambank stabilization. The attractive bark and its resistance to borers make river birch the preferred birch for landscaping. Height 60 ft, spread 40 ft

Leaves - alternate, simple, 1 l/2" - 3" long, oval to triangular with a sharp point at tip; edges doubly toothed, dark green above, pale yellow-green below

Flowers - flowers in catkins

Fruit - 1" long cone-like clusters of small winged seeds

Bark - light reddish-brown to cinnamon colored; peels off in thin papery layers

The problems with silver birches here are the heat I think. We have at least weeks every summer when the temps range between 30 and 38 °C and there is little rain. They also have a couple of fungi which get them during the drought. We have one about 15 years old which is managing to survive. But there are no forests of white birches which are so emotive at day and night.