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The Five Wits and Seven Senses of Celtic Folklore

© Virginia Marin

Folklore Table of Contents

Stories of the mysterious abound in Celtic literature as tales of their beneficent gods, goddesses, spirits and other unusual creatures sojourn through the elemental kingdoms of Tir-fo-Thonn, Tir-na-Bea, Tir-tain-giri, Tir-nan-Og and Tir-na-mae. During these journeys, the travelers are dependent upon their wits and senses to guide and protect them from the many malevolent creatures and events which they encounter along the way. What are these wits and senses on which they so heavily depend?

The Five Wits

One-Two-Three-Four-Five

There are five wits which play an important part in the lives of these heroes and heroines. They are common sense, imagination, fantasy, estimation and memory. In general, the wits are the faculties of the mind but also serve as an alternative expression for the seven senses.

That wits play an important part in literature is seen in this example from Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet:

If thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done;
For thou has more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits
Than I am sure I have in my whole five.

The Five Wits Individually Defined

1. Common sense is good, sound pratical judgment--a general sagacity. It sometimes denotes a supposed internal sense held to be common to all of the senses.

2. Imagination is the power of forming mental images of what is not present. Using this, new ideas are created by combining previous experiences.

3. Fantasy is so closely related to imagination that they are sometimes difficult to separate. Simply stated, fantasy is an illusion--an unreal image.

4. Estimation being an opinion or judgment may or may not be held in regard by another. When given by a peer it is often refuted; by an authority it is more readily accepted.

5. Memory is the power or act of storing information in the brain for short or long-term recall. One so named gentleman, Memory Woodfall, who died in 1803 may have enjoyed the greatest memory ever recorded. He could attend a debate, and, without notes repeat it accurately!

The Seven Senses

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

Today we know the five senses as--taste, smell, sight, touch and hearing, but in ancient times a belief was held in seven senses: animation, feeling, speech, taste, sight, hearing and smell. They believed these to be under the influence of the seven planets, while the wits were individually controlled.

Five of the seven--speech, taste, sight, hearing and smell, need no clarification. Of course, one could delve quite deeply into each of the well-known five on a medical level. That leaves feeling and animation which could take one into the unknowns of psychology.