Macha is like Epona of Gaul and Rhiannon of Wales. She is goddess of horses and a foundation deity, the sovereign and chthonic goddess of place. Macha means a plain. She also appears in the stories of the Tuatha De Danann as a crow-goddess feeding on the heads of fallen men. To go against the power of the feminine as it manifests in horses, land, and battle is the invite a curse that will make you weakest in the time of your greatest need.
Manannan Mac Lir--(mahn-uh-nawn moc leer): Sea god of the Tuatha De Danann. In the 'Voyage of Bran', he appears in his chariot upon the waves and points the way to the Land of Women. This suggests he is a psychopomp, a guide to the Otherworlds, and a helper of humankind. In the land of the 'Sidhe' he presides over the 'Feast of Age'. He also has a sense of humor.
Maeve or Medb--(me'v): "Intoxicating". Queen of Connacht. In the 'Tain Bo Cuailnge' the character of Maeve is established immediately: she is the equal of all, though in her own mind she is better than anyone. She has more wealth, better judgement, is more open-handed, and can beat anyone in a fight. She rules in her own right; she sleeps with whomever she pleases--and her husband had better not be jealous!
Maeve's court if Cruachan of the Enchantments of the Plain of Ai. It was as important a center in Celtic Ireland as Emain Mach or Tara. Today the remains of Cruachan, or Rath Croaghan, cover an extensive area. Ring forts, mounds, and linear earthworks (ceremonial chariot ways?) extend for four square miles near Tulsk in Co. Roscommon. The greatest mound measures eight yards high, ninety-six yards in diameter, and was surrounded by a perimeter fence with a diameter of almost 800 yards, twice the size of Tara or Emain Macha. It was clearly for ceremonial purposes. Cruachan belongs to the great age of the Irish Celts, 600BCE to 400CE, and ws the seat of the sovereignty of the province of Connacht. Maeve herself is said to be buried on the damatic hill Knocknarea, just west of the city of Sligo. On a summit of the hill is a colossal mound that bears her name, Queen Maeve's Grave. Her spirit does seem to dwell around the place even though the mound of stones belongs to the Neolithic age of passage-mound building, the fourth millennium BCE. Clues like this tell us that Maeve is older than when the action of the 'Tain' traditionally takes place. There are in fact, several Maeves. We have a 'Good Queen Meb' or 'Meb' of Irish and British folklore, a somwhat ludicrous figure for children's bedtime stories or for bawdy tavern jokes. We have a Maeve of the Christian transcribers: shrewish, possessive, envious, vain, shameless, lascivious, immoral, arrogant, bribing her followers, using her daughter, taken over by the weaknesses of women. We have a Maeve of the Celts: a great queen, generous, open-handed, giver of feasts, giver of good-judgements, beautiful, sexy, a warrior, noble, proud, fierce and a great leader. And we have Maive who was a figure of myth even to the Celts: a tutelary goddess of the land, a goddess of sovereignty, an ancestral deity, a chthonic figure of fertility, of plenty in the herds, the soil and the wombs of women, the spirit of the tribal mother, the larger-than-life embodiment of the divine feminine.
Midhir--(mee-hir): Son of the Dagda, Midhir the Proud dwells in the 'sidhe' of Bri Lieth, Slieve Callory, County Longford.
Morrigan--(mor ri-gawn): "phantom queen". A goddess with many names: Macha, Nemain, Dea, and the Badb; and many aspects: battle, victory, sexuality, fertility, sovereignty, and destruction. Lover of the early kings, she helps the Tuatha De Danann win the battles at Moy Tura. Later she brings misery to both sides in the 'Tain Bo Cuailnge', especially after Cuchulainn scorns her love. She finally secures his death and settles on him in her form of the raven. She is a shapeshifter and appears as a young and beautiful woman, as a hag, as a raven, or a creature of any kind. She appears beside a stream washing the shroud of those who are about to die. The Morrigan is the manifestation of the extremes of sexual desire and viciousness. She epotomizes the lust that verges on the wish to kill, and she delights in mayhem, panic, terror, and overwhelming fear. It may be that the only reason why she originally helps and offers her love to Cuchulainn is because he is the ultimate bringer of carnage in war; in that sense they are a match for each other.
Moy Tura or Magh Tuireadh--(moy turra): The "Plain of Towers", site of battles between the Tuatha De Danann and the Fir Bolg, and later against the Fomorians. It lies in central southern County Sligo.
Muirthemne--(mur-tev-nuh): The Plain of Muirthemne is the home of Cuchulainn. His fortress, Dun Dealgan, is said to be outside Dundalk.
Murna of the White or Fair Neck: A descendent of Nuada and Ethlinn, and mother of Fionn Mac Cumhail |
