Women in White Explained
Reprinted with Permission
This narrative was developed by Anubh and Etaine of Preachain to accompany these pictures. Many people ask about the origin and history of Women in White, so I am reprinting it here for your enjoyment!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Early in 1995 while doing some light reading on ancient celtic mysteries, I read an account of Gallic women preceding their warriors onto the field of battle. The women wore white dresses and copper belts, were barefoot with hair unbound, they brandished weapons and hurled curses at the enemy. The image really impressed me and I figured, except for the barefoot part,we could reenact it at Pennsic. I asked our founder and then-headwoman Aes to issue a call to Preachain’s women, saying, "Stitch up your old bedsheets!" --and I assured the feminists (okay mostly this was me reassuring myself) that it wouldn't be cheerleading.
Before the procession we paint each other with woad, an intimate act that serves to bless and beautify. We walk all the way from the lake to the battlefield, fighters and women singing together. We don’t take the straightest road to the battlefield; we wind through the marketplace so that our friends and kinfolk there can be a part of our celebration.
Wearing the same color creates the sense that we are there for the same purpose (and white at the end of a dirty week at Pennsic is pretty striking). Our dresses, the singing and the shouting build community and identity: a sense of tribe is fostered as we proclaim loudly to the world who we are, how mighty, noble and great.
Once on the field, the women circle the fighters and dance to lift the hearts and spirits of fighters, to get them ready for the big fight in the field battle. [The fighters are from Preachain, and from our allies—we hire other fighters to strengthen our numbers, and once we know them well, we offer them the chance to participate in this ritual with us. The dance is a Kore dance learned by some of Preachain’s northern Virginia contingent at a goddess workshop years ago—it links the dancers and encircles the fighters, pulses inward and outward, dips to earth and rises to the sky. It originally represented the goddess’s descent into the Underworld and subsequent rebirth.
A few years ago, we added a chant to the dance, invoking our tribal power, the strength of our blood, and calling to the Morrigan. It serves to unify, to raise and focus the women’s wishes for the fighters (protection and honor, glory and safety). Like any ritual, it also fixes us in our place and time, fixes in memory *this* battle, *this* Pennsic, *this* day. The dance and chant begin slowly, gathering energy, faster and faster; the chant becomes a shout, the fighters catch the energy and their excitement feeds ours, and the dance crests in a great blessing.
This whole process works to integrate the fighting with other aspects of the life of the clan. It links fighting to our spirituality and emphasizes the value we place on the women in our group. Traditions like this reinforce the sense that we have all chosen to come together in this place to support each other, to share goals. Every group has community-building traditions; this one just happens to be visible to the rest of the world (we even got photographed by NPR!).
Ten years later I can't really deny the cheerleading part any more, okay it sort of is cheerleading...but the postfeminist I have become realizes that if the honor, beauty, grace and strength of the women in the clan inspires our fighters to great deeds or adds to their experience of fighting, that's not oppressive, that's good for everybody! Any mixed feelings I had in the beginning were very quickly put to rest that very first year by the attitude of the fighters, whose respect and appreciation for the procession and for us are humbling. The fighters raise us up as much as we raise them.
Please don't ask where the account of this procession can be found, it's from a pan-cultural less-than-scholarly goddess book and no primary sources are cited. I knew that, at the time--I was finishing up an MA in Cultural Anthropology so it wasn't through ignorance that the research is slack. Maybe the serious student in me actually sort of liked the rebellion and romance of ignoring Tacitus and Pliny in favor of a half-baked feminist's fancy. Throughout history many glorious traditions have been based on dreams and half-truths. If the tradition is strong enough it gains a life of its own eventually, independent from the initial impetus. In retrospect, as I've learned more about Norse traditions I suspect the author of the book may have confused the Gauls with the Norse, whose white-robed Valkyrie showed up at battles to act as "choosers of the slain"...if anybody thinks I'm a Valkyrie instead of a Celt, I won't be offended. But we're Celts, and proud.
Anubh na Preachain
and Etaine na Preachain
This narrative was developed by Anubh and Etaine of Preachain to accompany these pictures. Many people ask about the origin and history of Women in White, so I am reprinting it here for your enjoyment!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Early in 1995 while doing some light reading on ancient celtic mysteries, I read an account of Gallic women preceding their warriors onto the field of battle. The women wore white dresses and copper belts, were barefoot with hair unbound, they brandished weapons and hurled curses at the enemy. The image really impressed me and I figured, except for the barefoot part,we could reenact it at Pennsic. I asked our founder and then-headwoman Aes to issue a call to Preachain’s women, saying, "Stitch up your old bedsheets!" --and I assured the feminists (okay mostly this was me reassuring myself) that it wouldn't be cheerleading.
Before the procession we paint each other with woad, an intimate act that serves to bless and beautify. We walk all the way from the lake to the battlefield, fighters and women singing together. We don’t take the straightest road to the battlefield; we wind through the marketplace so that our friends and kinfolk there can be a part of our celebration.
Wearing the same color creates the sense that we are there for the same purpose (and white at the end of a dirty week at Pennsic is pretty striking). Our dresses, the singing and the shouting build community and identity: a sense of tribe is fostered as we proclaim loudly to the world who we are, how mighty, noble and great.
Once on the field, the women circle the fighters and dance to lift the hearts and spirits of fighters, to get them ready for the big fight in the field battle. [The fighters are from Preachain, and from our allies—we hire other fighters to strengthen our numbers, and once we know them well, we offer them the chance to participate in this ritual with us. The dance is a Kore dance learned by some of Preachain’s northern Virginia contingent at a goddess workshop years ago—it links the dancers and encircles the fighters, pulses inward and outward, dips to earth and rises to the sky. It originally represented the goddess’s descent into the Underworld and subsequent rebirth.
A few years ago, we added a chant to the dance, invoking our tribal power, the strength of our blood, and calling to the Morrigan. It serves to unify, to raise and focus the women’s wishes for the fighters (protection and honor, glory and safety). Like any ritual, it also fixes us in our place and time, fixes in memory *this* battle, *this* Pennsic, *this* day. The dance and chant begin slowly, gathering energy, faster and faster; the chant becomes a shout, the fighters catch the energy and their excitement feeds ours, and the dance crests in a great blessing.
This whole process works to integrate the fighting with other aspects of the life of the clan. It links fighting to our spirituality and emphasizes the value we place on the women in our group. Traditions like this reinforce the sense that we have all chosen to come together in this place to support each other, to share goals. Every group has community-building traditions; this one just happens to be visible to the rest of the world (we even got photographed by NPR!).
Ten years later I can't really deny the cheerleading part any more, okay it sort of is cheerleading...but the postfeminist I have become realizes that if the honor, beauty, grace and strength of the women in the clan inspires our fighters to great deeds or adds to their experience of fighting, that's not oppressive, that's good for everybody! Any mixed feelings I had in the beginning were very quickly put to rest that very first year by the attitude of the fighters, whose respect and appreciation for the procession and for us are humbling. The fighters raise us up as much as we raise them.
Please don't ask where the account of this procession can be found, it's from a pan-cultural less-than-scholarly goddess book and no primary sources are cited. I knew that, at the time--I was finishing up an MA in Cultural Anthropology so it wasn't through ignorance that the research is slack. Maybe the serious student in me actually sort of liked the rebellion and romance of ignoring Tacitus and Pliny in favor of a half-baked feminist's fancy. Throughout history many glorious traditions have been based on dreams and half-truths. If the tradition is strong enough it gains a life of its own eventually, independent from the initial impetus. In retrospect, as I've learned more about Norse traditions I suspect the author of the book may have confused the Gauls with the Norse, whose white-robed Valkyrie showed up at battles to act as "choosers of the slain"...if anybody thinks I'm a Valkyrie instead of a Celt, I won't be offended. But we're Celts, and proud.
Anubh na Preachain
and Etaine na Preachain
I'm sure that this is a lovely essay, but with that background, it's virtually impossible to read. :-(
ReplyDeleteI also had a really hard time reading it, I had to scroll everything up so that the sky part of the background photo was behind the print. Great article though!
DeleteMy apologies, Florentinescot, but on both of my computers it appears perfectly readable with a semi-opaque white background.
ReplyDeleteThank you for including the "disclaimer" paragraph at the end. It quickly and succinctly answered my only question and saved me lots of time looking for the original sources/references.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.celticclans.org/re-livinghistory
Nice, having stood in this circle with these women chanting around me, I can only say that who cares if there is no primary source... we are not the kind of people who learn history to repeat it, we are here to create it. Laager and Blood!!
ReplyDeleteStilicho, Hero of Preachain!
@Steve - I think you took my comment as being snarky; that wasn't the case. Nor was I devaluing your experience.
ReplyDeleteI care if there is no historical source for this because, for me, my goal with my re-enactment is to connect to my ancestors' via experiencing first hand the things that they experienced. I can best achieve this by researching and recreating (as precisely as possible) their daily activities, even the boring and mundane.
Therefore I am giving an honest "Thank You" to Anubh and Etaine for recognizing that not everyone does re-enactment for same reason. Some us need/want documentation for specifics because it enhances our experience of this hobby.
http://www.celticclans.org/re-livinghistory
Unfortunately for us Celtic reenactors, there just aren't as many "primary sources" out there as there are for other reenactors. I think that Anbuh and Etaine hit the nail on the head when they said "throughout history, many glorious traditions have been based on dreams and half-truths". While we do use research to try and connect to the past, sometimes a little imagination is necessary- and good. Furthermore, I would like to point out that though this particular account may have come from a less-than-scholarly source, what is says is not so far from scant information shared by other period historians such as Pliny, Tacitus, and Ptolemy. According to these historians, the Celts (and they are not gender specific) would go into battle woaded, shouting, sounding horns and singing songs to terrify their enemy. Given what we know from other sources about how women were viewed and their role in Celtic society, our Women in White is not a far stretch from historical accounts in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI see it sort of like Christmas traditions: every family has their own unique traditions, but just because they are different, doesn't make them any less valid or accurate. On the same token, each tribe and clanne likely had their own way of preparing for battle, and this is ours.
Just because we cannot pinpoint a specific source for exactly what we are doing does not make the experience any less valid as a reenactment experience- it DOES enhance our experience of this hobby, and as Anubh and Etaine mentioned, it serves to integrate the fighting side of our reenactment with the other aspects of our Clanne, and it is always a very powerful experience for all involved.
Another thing to point out is that during reenactment, very few groups have 100% accuracy. For example, I know very few reenactors who go to events or cook at events without a cooler. Is a cooler period? No, but based on what we know now about food safety, we generally take these along. For me, not getting food poisoning enhances the experience far more.
ReplyDeleteWho among us at reenactments goes out to hunt and kill our dinner? Even when cooking "period" recipes, I'm pretty sure that most of us use modern ingredients from the grocery store.
Unless you have hand-woven the material that all of your reenactment clothes are made from and woven them from period materials, you cannot claim 100% accuracy in your garb!
Even though we all strive to become as historically accurate as possible, due to availability of items and information, in my opinion it is extremely difficult for any group or person to claim 100% accuracy.
@Mrs J - Very true, 100% accuracy is impossible to reach; there are just some things we will never know, and therefore need to infer. That said, I had an "ironic chuckle" when I read your examples of non-period exceptions.
ReplyDeleteYou see, we actually DO go hunting at our events, and when that's not possible we use home grown/slaughtered foods (less than 10% of our event food is from grocery stores at this point). Over the past few years we've dug mini root cellars to replace modern coolers. But in the near future we'll be attempting to head to an "in season" diet for the events. Along with using period preservation techniques this should totally eliminate any need for a "cooler".
As far weaving cloth for clothes, we've already set up a warp weighted loom and have made a couple of blankets. Our spinning isn't up to snuff yet to make enough fine thread for better cloth. But, quite frankly, we too have limits, and will probably only be making special items on the loom. Another area that's only for special gifts are items made from the wrought iron we smelted from bog ore.
Next year, at the request of (and based on the research of) one of our 14 year old members, we'll be planting spelt-wheat and grinding it into grain and baking it into bread in the stone oven.
Is all of this work 100% accurate? No. Because even with all this work there are still gaps in the research and things that we have no archaeological record for. And there are some things (bog iron, and 100% hand woven cloth for instance) that do take too long. But having done these things we now more intrinsically and viscerally understand the how, why, and value our ancestors put on various things.
@infy - It seems like your post is (in part) trying to justify and defend your choice for doing the ritual.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to. Your group is quite clearly pleased with it and it has become a tradition.
I am very pleased about the clarity regarding the research and sources. Everyone has to make suppositions and theories in re-enacting, but so few take the time to clearly state what is fact and what is guesswork. Which is why I'm very happy the writers did so!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@Gobae,
ReplyDeleteYour group then is very lucky that you all have places to go hunting or to grow your own food. Many of our members live in the DC area in apartments, and growing food for events or going hunting is not an option for everyone. Does that mean that what our group does is any less valuable? I think not.
Just because we don't always hunt or food or weave our clothes does not mean that we don't understand the time and effort it took our ancestors and the value that was then placed on the finished product. We have plenty of fiber artists in our Clanne who are talented with weaving and dying and spinning, so I'm well aware of the time and effort involved in these projects. I've been deer hunting many times, and understand the time required to track, kill and butcher one's food. When I lived down south, I had my own vegetable garden each year, so I know how time consuming of a task that is as well.
As far as digging root cellars...you have fun with that. I'll continue to store my meat in a cooler because as I said, not getting food poisoning really enhances my experience far more than getting ill. I don't see how any root cellar is going to keep meat fresh in 100+ degree weather, and I'm not taking my chances.
My point was not made so that you could come back and tell me how you're better than us; my point was that not every reenactor has the time or the resources in the areas mentioned to reach 100% accuracy.
@Mrs J - First, I never said our group was "better" nor that what your group does is "less valuable".
ReplyDeleteSecond, I agreed with you that it's impossible to reach 100% accuracy. Additionally I said that even with the amount of work we're doing (hunting, smelting, weaving, etc, etc) we too have practical limits and that's in addition to all the limits placed on us by surviving artifacts.
Beautiful write up! And remember...some of those fighters in there are women, too, so it's not a pure gender-role situation. Your post-feminist angst can be somewhat alleviated. And fighting just wouldn't be the same for me if there weren't this one ritual. I do kind of wish it were still at the end of the War Week. I don't really mind that the field battle has been early in War Week for the last few years...but this year I noticed how truly exhausted I was by Friday, and I could really have used a Women in White ritual to power me up for that one, last push. Love you, crazy celts.
ReplyDeleteThank you to Anubh and Etaine for putting this together, and to Red Branch for sharing it on a wider level. This is one of my most memorable traditions at Pennsic. Although I am not a fighter, I have been fortunate enough to have participated in this from both sides. The energy is very different depending on where you stand/dance.
ReplyDelete