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Overview
Brigid of Kildare, Ireland, is uniquely venerated as both a goddess and a saint throughout Ireland, Europe and the USA. Often referred to as Mary of the Gael and considered the second most important saint in Ireland after St Patrick, her widespread popularity has led to the creation of more traditional activities than any other saint; some of which survive to this day. As a result of original historical and archaeological research Brian Wright provides a fascinating insight into this unique and mysterious figure. This book uncovers for the first time when and by whom the goddess was 'conceived' and evidence that St Brigid was a real person. It also explains how she 'became' a saint, her historical links with the unification of Ireland under a High King in the first century and discusses in depth her first documented visit to England in AD 488. Today, Brigid remains strongly connected with the fertility of crops, animals and humans and is celebrated throughout the world via the continuation of customs, ceremonies and relics with origins dating back to pre-Christian times. Using a combination of early Celtic history, archaeology, tradition and folklore from Ireland, Britain and other countries, this comprehensive study unravels the mystery of a goddess and saint previously complicated by the passage of time.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780752472027 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 10/21/2011 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Sales rank: | 938,224 |
| File size: | 616 KB |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Brigid
Goddess, Druidess and Saint
By Brian Wright
The History Press
Copyright © 2011 Brian WrightAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7524-7202-7
CHAPTER 1
Who was the Goddess Brigantia?
The People of Brigantia
The Goddess Brighid is mistakenly regarded by many people as being exactly the same as another goddess, usually referred to – at least in Britain – by the name Brigantia, the Latin form of the British name Briganti. Brig means 'High One', and she seems to have been worshipped in other parts of the Celtic world, sometimes under different names such as Brigindo and Brigandu. Brigantia was so important to one British tribe that they named themselves after her, being known collectively as the Brigantes, a name derived from the singular form Brigans, which comes from the Celtic root word Brig, in this case meaning 'The High Ones'. It was the political and military situation of this British kingdom in the first century AD that was to lead to the 'conception' of the Goddess Brighid.
Another Celtic tribe, the Brigantii, who lived near Bregenz in Austria, also took their name from Brigantia and, like their British counterparts, equated her during the Roman period, with the goddess Minerva. Celts quite often traced their tribal descent from a divine ancestor, and so it seems the British Brigantes were conforming to an accepted tradition, and it may be that their overall leader, whether a king or a queen, would also have claimed descent from this goddess.
The Brigantes were numerically the largest tribe in Britain, occupying what is now the modern six counties of northern England, stretching from coast to coast with their southern boundary probably running from the River Mersey to the River Humber, then curving southwards to include the Derbyshire Peak District, with their northern boundary probably extending beyond the line of Hadrian's Wall. Covering a huge area, this large tribe was divided into a number of sub-groups or minor kingdoms, which archaeology suggests probably numbered fifteen, occupying favourable valleys and areas of lighter soils but separated by areas of hill, mountain, moorland and bog.
The names of six of these sub-kingdoms are known from the Romano-British period: the Gabrantovices in North Yorkshire, the Setantii in Lancashire, the Textoverdi in the upper valley of the Tyne, the Lopocares around Corbridge, the Carvetii in the upper Eden Valley and the Latenses. While each sub-kingdom revered their own regional deities they were unified by the worship of one High Goddess, Brigantia, who took precedence over the local male gods, a system that was reflected in their social structure, having a High King or Queen over all their sub-kings. There is evidence that the concept of a Great Goddess or a Mother Goddess that was above all the lesser or regional deities was known in a large part of the Celtic world.
It is obvious from early literature that most of the Celts had this belief in a Mother Goddess who presided not only over mortals but over the gods themselves, and it was this High Goddess who nurtured the gods as well as the land, its crops and its animals, so affecting the fate of mankind. While the Mother Goddess was a more or less universal concept and a very ancient tradition, she was later credited with a variety of other roles which varied from region to region and tribe to tribe, giving her a very wide appeal as well as many names.
So what at first sight appears to be a number of individual goddesses are, in fact, variations or interpretations of one basic Mother Goddess. The importance of a High or Mother Goddess in Celtic society influenced its make up, giving women a role that was, in many cases, equal to or even superior to that of men. This concept was a novelty to the Romans, and the writer Tacitus (56–c. 120 AD) mentions that 'they make no distinction of sex in their appointment of commander'. For example, females could be members of any of the three categories of Druids and they were often employed as ambassadors, women would fight as warriors, and they could be monarchs in their own right or, like Queen Boudicca of the Icini, could succeed to the throne on their husbands death and, in her case, take command of a force of warriors estimated to have eventually numbered 230,000 to resist the Romans.
Celtic women worried the Romans! Dio Cassius described Queen Boudicca as being 'huge of frame, terrifying of aspect and with a harsh voice; a great mass of bright red hair fell to her knees'. While Ammianus Marcellinus made the comment that
a whole host of foreigners would not be able to withstand a single Gaul if he called to his aid his wife, who is usually very strong and has blue eyes; especially when swelling her neck, gnashing her teeth and brandishing her sallow arms of enormous size, she begins to strike blows mingled with kicks as if they were so many missiles from the string of catapults.
Following typical Celtic practices and the war-like nature of their society, tribes were not adverse to raiding each other, to 'acquire' cattle and horses as part of the heroic ideals that meant so much to the Celts. The Brigantes were mostly engaged in pastoral pursuits raising cattle, sheep and horses rather than the agricultural activities of tribes further to the south in Britain.
Julius Caeser said that the entire Celtic people were 'exceedingly given to religious superstition' but this simply indicates that they belonged to a very religious society. They saw many stones, streams, lakes, springs, groves and other features as being inhabited by a local deity or spirit, and were very aware of the existence of the Otherworld. They regarded some days as being 'lucky' and others 'unlucky', being guided in this matter by their priests, the Druids. Evidence from ancient Roman and Greek writers indicates that the Celts were very vain and restless, easily given to quarrelling, fond of boasting, and with a love of ornaments, especially the wearing of torcs, a distinctive type of neck ring, along with bracelets on their arms and wrists, all usually made of gold and of the finest workmanship. In 21 AD Strabo said that 'The whole race was war mad, both high spirited and quick for battle, although otherwise simple and not ill-mannered.'
The Brigantes were united under the protection of their powerful goddess, Brigantia, and even her name 'High One' suggests the important position she held in tribal tradition and beliefs. It is probable that in the early period, i.e in the centuries before the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD, their goddess may not have existed in representational form. At most there may have been crude wooden carvings that represented her 'spirit' rather than being a detailed carving of a human-like figure. Only a few such representations of pre-Roman Celtic deities carved in wood are known, and are rare survivors because of the perishable nature of the material. Detailed iconographic carving of deities was a Greek and Roman tradition that was alien to the Celts until the Roman conquest.
The Brigantes probably 'saw' their High Goddess and the evidence of her power in the landscape of their tribal territory, in the form of the great rivers, springs and the impressive, distinctive hills of the area. This does not mean that the rivers and hills themselves were worshipped, but that they represented the divinity of the goddess, especially in her most ancient role of a Mother or Earth Goddess. Such a view is not derived from modern fancy, but can be seen in the writings of ancient Irish mythology where rivers and hills are named after sacred beings whose legends they commemorate, and which preserve a very ancient tradition found all over the Celtic world. Two rivers, the Braint on the Island of Anglesey and the River Brent in Middlesex are said to derive their name from the Goddess Brigantia, although a similar word as a river name in British Celtic means to boil or froth, and is related to the Welsh brydio, which means the same. She was closely associated with water, and almost certainly such an important deity would have had other rivers named after her that have now been forgotten.
The Celts saw many deities as represented by woods, hills, streams and other natural features, before they were influenced by the Roman and Greek practice of making carved representations of their gods and goddesses. This explains the rarity of early representations of Celtic deities, and the reaction of the Gaulish King Brennus in the early fourth century bc, as described by Diodorus Siculus, when the king entered the temple at Delphi:
Brennus, the king of the Gauls, on entering a temple found no dedications of gold and silver, and when he came only upon images of stone and wood, he laughed at them [the Greeks], to think that men, believing that gods have human form, should set up their images in wood and stone.
The religious observances of the Brigantes would have been conducted by Druids, and usually carried out in sacred groves of trees, particularly of oak, which they regarded as particularly sacred, but there were probably more conventional shrines, particularly near the sources of rivers as was the case in Gaul (France). There were three categories within the Order of Druids. The first were the Druids (Druaid) themselves who undertook training for twenty years and acted as priests and intercessors with the gods, as well as magicians, healers, herbalists, teachers, judges, lawyers and political advisors to the Celtic aristocracy.
The second category were the Bards (Bhaírds), who spent seven years practising composition before becoming a full Bard, and were poets and story tellers, keeping alive legends and folk stories, and formally praising their leaders and satirising their enemies. The third category were the Vates (or Velitas) who, after twelve years, were qualified as interpreters of sacrifices and foretellers of the future, and regarded as persons of general great learning. All members of the Order could marry and have children, and women could belong to the Order and be members of any of the three categories and, like the men, were taught the secret Druid language, known in Irish Gaelic as béala na bhfile (language of the poets).
The Isle of Anglesey, off the north Wales coast, was the centre of the Druid Order in Britain and a focus of resistance to the Roman invasion, harbouring many political refugees as well as being the 'grain store' of the Ordivici, a northern Welsh tribe that mounted very strong opposition to the Roman conquest of Wales. However, in 60 AD, Anglesey was attacked by the Romans under the command of Caius Suetonius Paulinus and the Druid headquarters was destroyed. This was graphically described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his Annals XIV.
Paulinus prepared a fleet of flat-bottomed boats to cross the Menai Straights, but as they approached the shore of Anglesey the Romans were confronted by an intimidating multitude on the shore. Black-clad Druidesses, long haired and brandishing torches, mingled with the warriors and the male Druids who, according to Tacitus, by 'lifting up their hands to heaven and pouring forth dreadful imprecations, so scared our soldiers by the unfamiliar sight, so that, as if their limbs were paralysed, they stood motionless and exposed to wounds'.
Then, 'urged by their generals and mutual encouragement's not to quail before a troop of frenzied women', they moved forward, cutting down all resistance. Tacitus then describes how 'a force was next set over the conquered and their groves, devoted to inhuman superstitions, were destroyed. They deemed it, indeed, a duty to cover their altars with the blood of captives and to consult their deities through human entrails.' The groves and shrines were destroyed and a fort for a Roman garrison was constructed.
While the Romans accepted many local religions all over their extensive empire they objected to Druidism not so much on religious grounds, as they were quite capable of equating their own gods with those of the Britons, and were to do so for more than 300 years, but for two main reasons. The first was because the Druids practised human sacrifice which the Romans abhorred, somewhat ironically given their acceptance of putting people in the amphitheatres to fight each other or wild animals and the practice of crucifying criminals. However, the second and more important reason why the Romans wanted to dismantle the Druid Order was because of their role as political advisors to the Celtic leaders, and its ability to unite the disparate Celtic tribes in opposition to the expansion of the Roman Empire. In an appeal to the gods for help before the attack on Anglesey the Druids consigned a great many valuable items to a lake on the island, today called Llyn Cerrig Bach (the Lake of Small Stones). Among the huge number of objects, such as swords, spears, daggers, shield and chariot fittings, horse harness, bronze cauldrons, a trumpet, iron currency bars and slave chains, were distinctively Brigantian items, suggesting that Druids from the Brigantian kingdom were present when the island was attacked.
Gaulish Druids were suppressed by the Emperor Tiberius in 21 AD and the whole Order was abolished in 54 AD, followed by the attack on their Anglesey headquarters in 60 AD. Druidry did survive, however, but was stripped of its political powers. Individual Druids and Druidesses continued to act as intercessors with the gods, now given a Roman overlay, at many temple sites throughout Britain, also continuing their role of foretelling the future and practising healing using herbs. Druidesses do not seem to have attracted the same hostility from the Romans as the male members of their Order. In Ireland female Druids played an active role in prophesying the outcomes of battles and other events and influencing the aristocracy, while also practising their traditional role as healers.
The arts of healing and prophesy continued to be practised by a small number of individuals, mostly female, for centuries after the end of Roman Britain. These 'descendants' of the Druids were eventually to evolve into the 'cunning folk' who performed a vital role in many villages, using herbs, often coupled with 'magical formulae', for curing ills and other problems. They often acted as midwives and fortune tellers, right down to the twentieth century in some places.
It is probable that Cartimandua, whose name means 'Sleek pony', was already High Queen of the Brigantes in 43 AD when the Roman invasion started, and was one of the eleven British rulers who submitted personally to the Roman Emperor Claudius, on his sixteen-day visit to Britain in August of that year. She may have negotiated a treaty to make the Brigantes allies of the Romans at that time, with herself retaining her throne as a Client Queen. However, this treaty was certainly in place in 47 AD and meant that the Romans would not attack or occupy her kingdom and, indeed, would offer her support as an ally of Rome. In exchange she would not hinder their conquest of Britain outside the Brigantian kingdom.
So at this date the northern extent of Roman Britain lay on the southern boundary of the Brigantian kingdom. While their territory lay beyond the Roman Empire it had the advantage of being able to acquire Roman pottery and other desirable goods and send cattle and other items to the markets over the border. In 48 AD the Romans began the difficult task of subduing the Welsh tribes who were led by a very able war leader called Caractacus who had fled to Wales from south eastern Britain. He was the son of a powerful king and had been fighting the Romans since the start of the invasion. He was a very charismatic person who roused the Welsh tribes to actively resist the Roman advance, and Tacitus says that 'his many undefeated battles, even victories, had made him pre-eminent among British chieftains.'
The Roman campaign against the Welsh was in full swing when some form of unrest broke out among the Brigantes, possibly fermented by Brigantian Druids who would have been in close contact with the Druid headquarters on Anglesey. These Druids would have been greatly concerned at the Roman advance towards North Wales. The Roman Governor of Britain, Aulus Didius Gallus, broke off the campaign and, as the support of Queen Cartimandua was so important to protect his northern flank, sent military support to her aid. The unrest was dealt with, after which the campaign against the Welsh tribes recommenced.
By 51 AD Caractacus had moved his base of resistance to the territory of the Welsh Ordivices, occupying a fortress which, archaeological evidence suggests, was on the limestone spur of Llanymynech overlooking the western edge of the north Shropshire plain. At the western foot of the massif is a Roman campaign base not far from a Roman fort, built in the early first century AD, at Llansantffraid (whose church is dedicated to St Ffraid – the Welsh name for Brigid). However, after a difficult battle the Romans took this fort and Caractacus' wife, children and brothers were captured. Caractacus himself escaped and fled to the Brigantian kingdom where he planned to rally anti-Roman elements to himself and launch an attack on the Romans.
This situation presented a great danger for the pro-Roman Cartimandua because, if Caractacus succeeded in his plan, the Romans would attack Brigantian territory and she would lose her kingdom and power. Despite the military strength of the Brigantes, she seems to have been aware from the first year of the invasion that they would not be able to resist the might of the Romans. So to maintain her alliance she had Caractacus arrested and handed over to the Roman authorities, who sent him to Rome.
Because of the scattered nature of the Brigantes it was difficult for Queen Cartimandua to keep close control over her people, especially the sub-kingdoms in the west which lay closest to the Welsh tribes that were resisting the Roman advance. In addition the Welsh tribes were harbouring warriors who had fled from areas of the south of England that had been conquered by the Romans. Objections to Cartimandua's alliance with the Romans may also have been fanned by the Druids on Anglesey who must have been aware of the danger of being isolated from their sources of support in both the Brigantian kingdom and elsewhere, as well as seeing the danger to the Brigantian Druids.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Brigid by Brian Wright. Copyright © 2011 Brian Wright. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements,Introduction,
One Who Was the Goddess Brigantia?,
Two The Conception of the Goddess Brighid,
Three The Goddess Brighid becomes a Saint,
Four The Temple of the Goddess Brighid: the Church of Saint Brigid,
Five Her name and the many Brigids,
Six Goddess of fire and fertility, Saint of hearth and midwifery,
Seven Celebrating the Goddess-Saint in Ireland,
Eight Celebrating the Goddess-Saint in Scotland and the Hebrides,
Nine Celebrating the Goddess-Saint elsewhere in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man,
Ten Saint Brigid visits Glastonbury!,
Eleven Saint Brigid's Holy wells,
Twelve Saint Brigid and the natural world,
Thirteen The relics of Saint Brigid,
Fourteen Stories of the Goddess-Saint,
Fifteen Venerating the Goddess-Saint,
Further Reading,