Bos primigenius in Britain: or, why do fairy cows have red ears? - Research Article - Critical Essay

Folklore, April, 2002 by Jessica Hemming

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One interesting thing about the real red-eared white cattle is that they still retain something of their magical, mysterious aura. The public literature distributed by the Chillingham Wild Cattle Association deliberately fosters this sense of mystery, as does the Association's reluctance to accept the findings of recent zoological studies which indicate that the animals are the feral descendants of ordinary domestic stock. Nobody claims that they come from the fairy mounds any longer, but arguing that they are the direct descendants of "the gigantic wild white bull of Caesar's time, and of the monstrous bovine wonders of the Palaeolithic and neolithic ages" (Wallace 1907, 29) seems thematically similar. Where the origin is obscure, it is easy to imagine it to be remarkable.

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And if to this day we still cannot determine exactly where the red-eared white cattle came from, how much more extraordinary must they have seemed in the early Middle Ages?

Acknowledgements

This article could not have been written without the cooperation of the following people: Dr Umberto Albarella of the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Birmingham; the late Hon. Ian Bennet, President of the Chillingham Wild Cattle Association; Dr Caroline Grigson, Principal Curator of the Odontological Museum, Royal College of Surgeons; Dr Finbar McCormick of the School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University of Belfast; Mr David Noble-Rollin, Secretary of the Natural History Society of Northumbria; Dr Caroline Oates of the Folklore Society; Mr Austen Widdows, Warden of the Chillingham Wild Cattle Park; and the library staff at the Hancock Museum of Natural History, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Notes

[1] In the light of the current controversy over whether the term "Celtic" has any real ethnic or cultural (as opposed to purely linguistic) validity, I should explain that I am using it as a shorthand adjective to refer to shared motifs found in the written sources of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany.

[2] "di bae dec do assint sid, it e finda oiderga." The tale may be as early as the eighth century, although the earliest manuscript dates from the twelfth (Meid 1974, vii and xvii).

[3] These references may be found in Bergin 1946, 170 (in the original) and in Lucas 1989, 239-45 (in translation). The relevant version of the Vita Brigitae is in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B.512, edited in Fraser, Grosjean and O'Keeffe, fasc. 1 (1931). See also Cross 1952, s.v. "F241.2.1.2 Fairy cows have red ears."

[4] "can muw vrth pob kantref a uo ydav, a tharv gvyn eskyuarllennyc vrth pob muv onadunt" (Wiliam 1960, 2). Note that the "white" omitted in Jenkins's translation does occur in the original Welsh.

[5] This reference appears opposite the marginal date 1210 in the 1807-8 edition which is based on the 1586 edition that Storer probably used, but which I have not been able to consult (Holinshed 1807-08, 2:301). Thanks are due to Dr Caroline Oates who spent much time combing through editions of the Chronicle trying to locate the source of Storer's quote for me.

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Bos primigenius in Britain: or, why do fairy cows have red ears? - Research Article - Critical Essay

Folklore, April, 2002 by Jessica Hemming

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