The Witch On The Wall by Jorgen Andersen

For similar reasons, the poet earlier compares his bride to Medusa (“Epithalamion” 190) who “astonisht” onlookers at her wedding (with a pun in astonisht on turning to “stone”). According to Hugh MacLean and Anne Lake Prescott, “Spenser’s strategy” at this “liminal moment of sexuality,” a time of “transition and initiation,” is “to evoke and then shoo away grotesque fantasy figures” (641). When night falls over the newlywed couple in Spenser’s wedding poem, “Epithalamion”, the speaker calls out on various demons of the night (including the Irish “Pouke”) not to disturb them in the comfort of their castle, as they make love (“Epithalamion” 334-52). Spenser’s second wife, Elizabeth, had a son with the poet and could also have appreciated any association of the sculpture with the pains of childbirth. We imagine that Spenser or the previous occupants of the castle, such as Sir John of Desmond, intended the sculpture to ward off evil, including enemies. This sheela-na-gig greets a visitor entering the main gate of the bawn, or outer-wall enclosure of the castle complex. The Fantstown specimen is located in the north-eastern corner of the tower house and is evident as one approaches the main doorway. Another sheela-na-gig figure is known from Castletownroche, and one has been found in the wall of the tower house at Fantstown, near Kilmallock, Co. The date and ultimate provenance of the Glanworth specimen is unknown. Glanworth was the second-most-important center of the Roche family, after Castletownroche, Co.

Our sheela-na-gig at Kilcolman is modeled on a sandstone carving found buried in a dungeon (in the seventeenth century or before) at Glanworth Castle, Co. Their purpose and symbolism is unknown, although various theories include warnings against the sin of lust warding off of evil (hence functioning like a gargoyle on a church) fertility symbols and charms to assist with childbirth (Manning).

They typically show grimacing old women holding their vulvas.

Over one hundred are known to exist in Ireland, roughly twice the number as in Britain. The sheela-na-gig is a “female exhibitionist figure” carved in stone and found most often in the walls of medieval Irish and British buildings, usually castles or churches.

The Witch On The Wall by Jorgen Andersen