This query is somehwat off the main area of this group, but the yew tree
discussion makes me think some of you can help. Namely, who is Mother
Carey in "Mother Carey's chickens"?
The name is an epithet for stormy petrels, apparently because they
appeared before storms and so gave sailors early warning. The author I'm
dealing with says "some sorceress," paraphrasing Harry Kirke Swann's (1913)
Dictionary of English and Folk-Names of British Birds (he says "hag").
Brewer's old list identifies Mother Carey with "Mater Cara" but also
gives "Mother Carey is making her bed" with "Hulda [goddess] is making
her bed", both meaning snow. Swann sensibly challenges the "Mater Cara"
identification; it sounds to me as if the borrowing would have gone the
other way.
My question is whether there is a goddess (of storms, north wind, etc.)
with which Mother Carey is more plausibly identified.
Thanks,
Alison Anderson
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