teine-eigin

Updated: May 7, 2025

So the wise men put their heads together and resolved to light a teine-eigin or need-fire as the best way of stopping the plague. They cut a branch from a tree in a neighbouring wood, stripped it of bark, and carried it to a small island in the Houstry Burn.

Sir James George Frazer - Balder the Beautiful, Volume I.: A Study in Magic and Religion: the Golden Bough, Part VII., The: Fire-Festivals of Europe and the Doctrine of the External Soul