Tarb Feis

[jez]

I need to know more about Tarb Feis.

Anyone can help?

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Information required for friend who has obtained buffalo skin and is needing help in interpreting what she feels she is required to do with it...

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Jez

[potia]

If I remember correctly a bull was chosen (often white), sacrificed and skinned. A broth was made of the meat and the chosen druid who had prepared by fasting or being on a meat free diet for a period of time before (not sure how long) ate the broth. He was then wrapped tightly in the skin and visions were waited. In Irish myth it's linked to king choosing.

I think in some cases others would chant over him to anchor and guide his journeys (similar to some seid practices perhaps?). Four singers is a number I remember being mentioned with this.

Again I'm not positive on this but I think that sometimes he was placed in either a cave or building with little to no natural light reaching him and near a waterfall or loud river or stream (a kind of natural white noise generator perhaps.)

[yggwaldir]

Doesn't something similar happen in "the dream of Rhonabwy"? Messenger falls asleep under a bull skin and dreams of Arthur.

Don't know about the singing, but in germanic cultures it was often used to call the ancestors, who then gave answers to the person who was sleeping or in trance.

[maglowyllt]

This kind of rite would probably have had had variants depending on the area and time of its practice. The bull always has a strong link to sovereignity and strength. In the story I remember, he who saw the king to be would die if he attempted to lie I think. Clearly not something to be undertaken lightly.

[arth_frown]

I thought the meat was eaten raw?

[potia]

Couple of references for you now I'm at home with time to check.

P152 "The Mysteries of Druidry" by Brendan Cathbad Myers. He quotes from another source (p 157 O h-Ogain's "The Sacred Isle") giving the story of Cormac Mac Art with a white bull killed and one man eating his fill of meat and of it's soup and a charm of truth sung over him by four druids as he slept. In his sleep he would have visions of the king to be.

The same story is mentioned on p 245 of Rees and Rees "Celtic Heritage" but with less detail.

There's a Scottish version called the targairm (info on wikipedia at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taghairm) where the individual is wrapped in an ox hide and laid near a waterfall.

Both versions are also mentioned on p243 of Matthew's "Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom"

Hope that's of some help.

[Blackbird]

The Dream of Rhonabwy is a satire, so it would seem the 'going to sleep on a bull skin' was a common theme in folk tales.

The bull is generally the 'king' of tame beasts (as the stag is to wild), and symbolise prosperity and abundance, thus would be an appropriate beast for the occasion. Of course, size could matter too, on a purely practical note - unless you have a very small druid, you're not going to achieve the same effect with a sheep carcass ;D

[megli]

This is one of the few things that I think probably accurately reflect pagan Irish practice. (BTW I suspect the motif in the Dr. of Rhon. is, like the 'Iron House' a medieval borrowing from Irish literature rather than a relic of a shared Celtic custom.