Crom Cruach Legends
Next Nature Folklore Sessions Live -
Sunday 8th August, at 2pm Irish Time
Watch here Live! ... or watch the archive later (click pic to set reminder)
Crom Cruach Legends
of the lesser known bringer of harvests
This, and the following 'Nature Folklore' sessions featuring Crom Dubh, are perhaps the most niche of all that I present. This Crom Cruach sessions is part one of a two part Nature Folklore sessions exploring the folklore and mythologies of Crom Cruach and Crom Dubh. It is a challenge to separate the two as similar tales are told about both. But it does seem that the Crom Dubh mythology arrived later than the reverence for Crom Cruach as a harvest god, very similar to Lugh and Tailtiu combined.
The tales of Crom Cruach and Crom Dubh are very intertwined these days. Though nobody really knows the origins and details of either I am going to approach this as Crom Cruach being symbolic as a bringer of harvests, and Crom Dubh as a metaphor mythology of what happens to the harvested crops after gathering. Crom Cruach being symbolic of the ending of summer, and Crom Dubh as a veil bringing on Autumn, the Fall. Together. they serve wonderful imagery of the break up of summer into Autumn through the Lunasa month of August.
As you can identify from the logo above, Crom Cruach is a symbol of the cereals ripening, especially Barley, and during later ancient years onto Spelt, Oats, and Rye. Cruach meaning head or heap. Crom meaning stooped over, but seems to fit nicely in describing the power of the sun on the crops. The imagery associated to Crom Cruach I feel is a figure similar to Buddha, due to the tradition that nobody must be equal or higher in stature.
I will not say much more as an introduction to Crom Cruach, and will leave you to be curious about the folklore and legends I have been told so far so you may tune in to find out more.
Of course this is storytelling. It is based on fragments of known discovered activity of this ancient time. With stories I will journey from tales of the Firbolgs of Magh Slecht to the attempted banishing of Crom Cruach by St. Patrick, and how that all went underground to become the tradition of Crom Dubh that I will present next Sunday. I will also include the Deeds of Crom Cruach around Limerick, around where the Grange Circles are by Lough Gur, a very popular megalithic site these days.
I trust you will discover this Nature Folklore sessions as being wonderful storytelling of this time of gathering and storing the annual harvests here in this part of the Northern Hemisphere. I feel this is all fitting for this Lunasa Month of August. Looking forward to you joining in.
