The Silver Bough Quotes

“...[A] legend shows the Cailleach and Bride not as two contending personalities but as one and the same. On the Eve of Bride, the Cailleach repairs to the Isle of Youth, in whose woods lies the miraculous Well of Youth. There, at the first glimmer of dawn, before any bird has sung, or any dog has barked, she drinks of the water that bubbles in a crevice of rock, and having renewed her youth, emerges as Bride, the fair young goddess, at the touch of whose wand the dun grass turns a vivid green starred with the white and yellow flowers of spring.”
― F. Marian McNeill, The Silver Bough

“Bride is kept prisoner all winter in Ben Nevis, where she awaits her rescuer, Aengus of the White Steed, Aengus the Ever-young, who has his home in the green island of perpetual summer that drifts about on the silver tide of the Atlantic. Aengus beholds Bride in a dream and sets out to succour her, riding on his milk-white steed with flowing mane, over the Isles and over the Minch. The Cailleach strives in vain to keep them apart, and the Day of Bride celebrates their union.”
― F. Marian McNeill, The Silver Bough