The Washer At The Ford

 The Washer at the Ford is a Bean Si (that's the Irish) who washes the bloody clothes of those about to die. Bean Si gets anglicised as Banshee and translated as Fairy Woman. In the Scottish Highlands she's called Bean Nighe which translates as Washerwoman- and in Brittany she appears as a trinity known as Les Lavandieres. All the Celtic nations recognise her in some form or other.  She is a harbinger of death but also, if approached and dealt with cannily, a granter of wishes.

Cheese

 There was a time when I took to eating cheese for breakfast (like a Dutchman) because I thought it gave me energy. 

And because I'm a generous soul I used to break bits off and give them to the cat.

I stopped when I became a vegan but the cat didn't become a vegan and continues to demand his cheese,

And we, like fools, continue to buy it for him.

Not any old cheese, mind you, because he has refined tastes, but the finest matured cheddar....

Herne The Hunter

 Herne the Hunter is the presiding spirit of Windsor Great Park and leader of the wild hunt. In The Merry Wives of Windsor he is spoken of as a malevolent ghost, in Ainsworth's Victorian novel, Windsor Castle, he features as a tricky demon,who interferes in the affairs of Henry VIII, and in the 1980s TV series Robin of Sherwood he inspires awe and dispenses wisdom. He has affinities with Pan, Cernunnos, Odin, the Horned God of the Witches and the Christian Devil. 

The Horned God

I've just remembered I have a poem about the horned god. It was written in the early nineties...

The Horned God

Herne, Cernunnos, Pan, the Devil,
Only the Earth herself is older,
But when the first heroic egos
Came bouncing out of the steppes on their ponies,
Taking charge of mortality
With edged bronze and Homeric verse,
He avoided them. He became an outlaw.
As Robin Hood or the Pied Piper
He makes his strikes against government
From a green castle behind the trees.