Celts had and continue to hold a great respect for the environment. Nature, the elements and the other creatures which share their land and sea held a sacred significance. Animals and birds were vital to everyday life and well-being and they feature in art, literature, rituals and religious beliefs. Our landscape, geographic location and wildlife has played a pivotal role in our history, beliefs and recognition of ourselves.

Red deer have become something of an icon of the Scottish Highlands. It is an impressive animal, and it’s hardly surprising that it features in so much folklore. Other deer species also make a regular appearance in the world’s myths. 

Deer in Celtic Culture

For our culture tells us that we are part of and completely tied to the lands in which we live or from where we came. Pre-Christian Celtic beliefs perceived the presence of the supernatural in every mountain, river, coastal feature, spring, loch, marsh, tree and rock formation. All had their own spirit and life force that were integral to, and interwoven with, the material world. Humans formed just one part of this understanding of an interlinked world. Given this strong link with nature, it is not difficult to see why the idea of shapeshifting, the ability of a being or creature to transform its physical form or shape was also widespread in Celtic mythology and folklore.

Our relationship with many animals, including deer, goes back a long way. At Star Carr in Yorkshire archaeologists discovered head-dresses made from red deer skulls. These 11,000 year old artefacts were perhaps used to help in hunting, for shamanic rituals, or both.

The Gaelic for red deer is fiadh ruadh. In the Highlands people once called them ‘fairy cattle’ and people believed fairies milked them on mountain tops.

The ‘fairy cattle’

In many European mythologies the deer was associated with woodland deities. Tales of Artemis, the Greek goddess of wilderness, tell of her wrath and retribution visited upon those who trespassed into her domain. By controlling the weather she kept King Agamemnon’s fleet bound for Troy confined to port, to avenge the killing of a stag sacred to her. Another hunter, Acteon, used a stag’s pelt to sneak up on Artemis whilst she was bathing in the forest. As punishment for seeing her naked, she changed him into a stag and sent him back into the woods. He was then hunted down and killed by his own hounds. Diana was another woodland goddess and the Roman version of Artemis. She was also associated with deer and this animal’s perceived qualities of gracefulness and swiftness.

In northern Siberia, the heavenly reindeer, symbolised by the big dipper, steals the sun, and that is why there is no sun for half a year in the arctic. When the mythical hunter, who is often symbolised by a bear, kills the female reindeer, it starts the new days.This is an important key to the stories, for the chase after the stag is a hunt for the return of the sun, which during winter is taken away by the stag. The hunters are searching for its light and heat. The recapturing of Stag then brings back summer. The girls of the legend are the does, the daughters of light (Leukepius in Greek), who return the light and fertility of the sun. For that reason they have names which indicate ‘light, white, burning..’: Dula=Gyula,Gyul…, Sar=gold,light, stag. Bular or Bugur=stag in Turkic.

The heavenly reindeer

The connection between Animals and Souls is through God and Goddess. One of a number of such animals which can change form is the deer. In Celtic mythology there are many stories involving those associated with a legendary figure, and spirits or deities who may take the form of deer.

Flidais

Flidais is the beautiful goddess of deer, also known as “Fairy cattle.” She is a goddess of the forest, wild nature, and rampant, joyful sexuality. Flidais may go through thirty men a day–unless she has Fergus, who alone is able to satisfy her. (The feeling is mutual; allegedly Fergus needs seven women to replace Flidais. The only other one who can fulfill him is Maeve.)

Flidais is a spirit of abundance. She also owns a herd of magical cows: her prize cow gives enough milk daily to feed three hundred families. Flidais is the guardian of the forest, its trees and animals. She also allegedly has a soft spot for human outcasts; those marginalized by society; people who, once upon a time, would have been inclined to take shelter in the forest.

Flidais Painting by Tammy Mae Moon

Cernunnos

In Celtic religion the stag was a symbol for the god Cernunnos, “The Horned One”. Cernunnos was often portrayed with antlers himself, and was a god of the forest and wild animals. The magnificent Gundestrup Cauldron, for example, shows an antlered man alongside a deer and other wildlife. Though this is often regarded as a representation of Cernunnos, his pose in a half lotus position suggests he could also be a Celtic shaman.

Cernunnos, Celtic Horned God

In Celtic mythology, the deer is a magical creature, able to move between the worlds. As in Eire many tales have humans transformed into deer. For example, St. Patrick was said to have transformed himself and his companions into deer in order to escape a trap laid by a pagan king. In the Welsh tale of Culhwch and Olwen, the stag is one of the oldest animals in the world, along with the blackbird, the owl, the eagle and the salmon.

The antlers of the stag are compared to tree-branches and thus may represent fertility. Since they are shed and re-grown every year, they may also symbolise rejuvenation and rebirth. Cernunnos, the Celtic Horned God, was depicted with the antlers of a stag; he is said to be a god of fertility and plenty, and to be the Lord of the Beasts. According to some, his antlers symbolise a radiation of heavenly light. Images of stags were supposedly used to symbolise Cernunnos in non-human form.

The stag is also a symbol of male fertility, the fertility of the forest and the renewal of nature. As such it played an important role in Celtic society and culture representing the Celtic relationship with nature and the animal kingdom.