Вестница смерти – хозяйка судьбы. Образ женщины в традиционной ирландской культуре - Татьяна Андреевна Михайлова

Other types of women are included in this list because of their bad behavior. Those were: ban birach ‘a woman of the sharp words’ (a mischief-maker); befoimrimme ‘a vagrant woman’ and confael conrechta ‘a werewolf’. A mediaeval gloss explains be foimrimme not only as a vagabond (prostitute), but also as a person who uses to visit sude, and her supernatural friends can bring bad luck upon a family she is staying with. Confael conrechta, in reality, perhaps, refers not to the shape-shifting, but defines a woman as a ‘wolfess’, a ‘bitch’ with uncontrolled sexual desires. The word conrechta in this context is to be translated as «a wolfish heat/desire».

As we can see, the explanations offered by the glossators, being not real, are not, in the same time, worthless. They reflect a renaissance of the folk belief after the Norman invasion and show that witches in Ireland, while not fully socially acceptable, at the same time could feel relatively safe. Even if they were not to be nourished because of their deviant behavior, they were entitled on a fine for injury.