The Morrígan
This contribution concerns gruesome tales of cruelty and the intersection of fact and fiction. The case study is the image of some dangerous mythological women: Lilith, Lamia, Alecto, and the Morrígain. Late-antique and early-medieval authors have clustered (some of) them by identifying them with each other. This contribution tries to explain the etymological association of Furies in general or Alecto in particular as being ‘unstoppable/incessant’ within a narrative context. While the characteristic of ‘unstoppable’ appeared to make sense for Lilith/Lamia/Alecto, the Morrígain suddenly seemed to fall outside the equation. She is not a strangler of babies and we have no textual witnesses of her lacerating a male partner after sex. In order to understand Eriugena’s equation of the Morrígain with Lilith/Lamia, we need to read the whole chapter of the Book of Isaiah to which he added his glosses. This contribution ends with the intersection of human and superhuman when discussing the fifth/sixth-century rule to exclude from the Christian community those who accused their fellow human beings of being such a destructive supernatural female.
The Morrígain is one of the most fascinating deities in Irish medieval literature. She is generally viewed as a goddess of war and death who appears alone or in triple form on the battlefield, is endowed with potent supernatural powers and symbolises the death of warriors. As the wife of the Dagda, the father god, she also possesses important sexual and agrarian attributes. She is thus a complex, polymorphic and multifunctional goddess. This study will examine a new aspect of her personality. As a goddess of fertility, she is closely related to water ; a characteristic which is reflected in her role as a washer of corpses at river fords. The numerous references to her long mane and sinister laugh, her role as a messenger of death and her connection with water all lend credence to the view that she is the fair-haired sea-goddess who drowns Conaing, son of Aedán Mac Gabráin, king of Alba, in the early 7th-century poem in the Annals of Tigernach.
- AaronAarts (Joris)Abalain (Hervé)Abbán of Adamstown Abbán of Moyarney (Adamstown)Abbán of Moyarney (Adamstown)Abbeville [Bibliothèque municipale]Abbott (T. K.)Abcán úa hEbriccAbelAbeozen Abeozen (Fañch Eliès)
- The Morrígan The MátaThe three FothaidTheclaThédenat (Henri) Thédenat (Henry)Thédenat (Henry)