Brigid E-Book

Brian Wright

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

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.

Leseprobe

BRIGID

BRIGID

GODDESS, DRUIDESS AND SAINT

BRIAN WRIGHT

First published in 2009

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2011

All rights reserved

© Brian Wright, 2009, 2011

The right of Brian Wright, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 7202 7MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 7201 0

Original typesetting by The History Press

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

Acknowledgements

Clódhanna Teoranta of Dublin for permission to reproduce the drawings of Brigid’s crosses on pages 95–108; Mike Comer for all his help in checking the Gaelic used in this work and other advice; Lesley Delamont for permission to use the photograph of Brides Mound on page 45; Judith Dobie for permission to reproduce her drawing of the Anglo-Saxon chapel at Beckery on page 172; Clodagh Doyle of the National Museum of Ireland; Faber & Faber for permission to quote the extract from Seamus Heaney’s poem on page 124; Seamus Heaney for permission to use an extract from his poem A Brigid’s Girdle for Adele; Prof. Philip Rahtz and Lorna Watts for permission to use the photograph on page 173; Dr Carole Reeves of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine; Anne Ross for permission to use the photograph on page 33; and Valerie Wright for the drawings on pages 11, 16, 69 and 112. I would also like to thank the following who gave information or help: Shelagh Addis; Ralph Brocklebank; Tracy Cutting; Dominic Dowling; Peter Gorry; Cedric Lodge; Richard and Anne Porter; and Peter Thorburn.

Introduction

There has been a lot of confusion about Brigid, who is unique in still being venerated today in Ireland, Europe and the USA as a goddess, as a saint and a mixture of the two. As a goddess she is often confused with a British deity called Brigantia, but the two are only distantly related, and Brighid is a purely Irish goddess. This work includes original research which, for the first time and, probably uniquely, dates the ‘conception’ of a deity, explains why she was ‘created’ and by whom. It explains how this goddess ‘became’ a saint; and how events in first-century Britain were to lead to Ireland becoming unified into five provinces under a High King.

Some historians have dismissed the saint of the same name, the second most important Irish saint after St Patrick, as a fictitious character on the basis that she was merely a pagan goddess who was transmuted into a Christian saint. It was a Druidess who provided the link between the Goddess Brighid and St Brigid of Kildare, a real person, whose fame during her life was widespread, but whose reputation after her death grew over the next 1,400 years until her name was known throughout much of the western world and attracted many adherents to her cult.

Many of the characteristics of the goddess were later attributed to St Brigid, who is strongly connected with the fertility of crops, animals and humans, on the face of it an unlikely association for a virgin saint. Her special day, 1 February, the same as her goddess namesake, marks the beginning of spring in the Celtic calendar.

St Brigid probably has more traditional customs associated with her than any other saint, some of which date back to pre-Christian times. These were once practised in much of the western European Celtic world, and some, such as making Brigid’s crosses are still carried out today. There were strong links between Somerset and Ireland from the ninth century and there is an ancient tradition that St Brigid visited the county in 488 AD and left behind a number of relics, a story first recorded in 1120, and the origin of this belief is explained for the first time.

St Brigid had a strong connection with a large part of the natural world, ranging from cattle to carrots, which is covered in this work, as is the story of her relics, which were once widespread. Some still survive today, one being carried in procession at the Irish National Pilgrimage held each July to honour her.

Today Brigid is still venerated and celebrated by people throughout the world and continues to be a bridge between the pagan and Christian worlds as she was during her lifetime. This, one of the most comprehensive works on Brigid, combines early Celtic history, archaeology, tradition and folklore to give a truly fascinating insight into all aspects of this intriguing goddess-saint.

One

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.

Her action in handing over Caractacus also led to a split between the pro-Roman Queen and her anti-Roman consort, Venutius, who now began a resistance campaign against the Romans. Cartimandua then ‘astutely trapped’ all Venutius’s relatives and held them hostage. Roman auxiliary forces were sent to her aid and to oppose the resistance of Venutius. For a while this restored the situation, although some time later, around 54 AD, the ixth legion, under the Command of Caesius Nasica, had to intervene again in the continuing struggle between Cartimandua and her consort as, according to Tacitus, Venutius organised outside support to his cause from enemies of Cartimandua who ‘infuriated and goaded by fears of feminine rule, invaded her kingdom with a force of picked warriors.’

Venutius bided his time, but was not in a position to make further serious trouble even in 60 AD when the Icini, Trinovantes and other tribes, led by Queen Boudicca, began a rebellion in the south-east of England, presumably because Cartimandua was still strong enough to resist him and hold her kingdom together. However, in an effort to undermine him and win over his followers she divorced him and took a new consort, Vellocatus, a member of the aristocracy and formerly armour-bearer to Venutius. This tactic failed as Venutius gathered enough supporters to wage war on his wife who, no doubt once again called on the Goddess Brigantia to help her in her time of need. Her prayers were unanswered as Venutius captured her, but she managed to get a message to her Roman allies who once again had to come to her aid.

A force of auxiliary infantry and cavalry was dispatched into the Brigantian kingdom by order of the Governor, M. Vettius Bolanus and, after some indecisive battles, managed to rescue Cartimandua, but were unable to defeat Venutius who, for the time being, was left in power. In effect the Romans had lost the Brigantes as an ally and client kingdom and were now left with an actively hostile tribe on their northern boundary. This stalemate ended in 71 AD when Q. Petillius Cerialis arrived in Britain as Governor with a new legion, the ii Adiutrix, and ordered the xxth legion, with Agricola as its Legate, to concentrate on the subjugation of the Brigantes and, after a number of battles over a period of three years, their kingdom was conquered. The people of the Goddess Brigantia were now no longer members of an independent kingdom but had been absorbed into the Roman Empire by 74 AD.

Over a period of time, as the tribe became Romanised and no longer engaged in conflict, the perception of their goddess Brigantia began to change as her aspects as a warrior goddess became less relevant. She was still revered as a protective deity however, and retained her association with water and healing. The absorption of the Brigantes had far reaching and costly effects for Rome, since if the alliance could have been maintained the Romans would not have had to keep a strong military presence in the region of the Scottish lowlands and the strength of the Roman garrison in Britain could have been reduced once the conquest of Wales was completed.

It appears that a large number of the Brigantians left their kingdom around the time of its conquest by the Romans in the early 70s AD and settled in Ireland. The geographer Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy) compiled an eight-volume Geography around the middle of the second century AD. No original maps still exist, the information surviving as a series of latitudes, measurements and tables, and his Irish ‘map’ shows some fifty-five tribal and place names, with the south-east portion of Ireland being occupied by the Brigantes, who are also shown on the Verona List, c.312 AD.

On the island of Lambay, off the coast of Co Dublin, sometime before the 1860s, an iron sword and decorated gold band were discovered. The whereabouts of the sword is now unknown, but the gold band is in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. This measures 1.9cm in width and its present length is 21cm, but was originally longer. It bears two patterns, both incorporating wheeled crosses, and the few similar finds of such objects from Britain indicate a date in the second half of the first century AD and stylistically would suggest a Brigantian origin. Suggestions for its original use range from decoration for a wooden casket or a chariot, but most likely it was some form of headband or decoration on a head dress, perhaps worn by a Druid.

In 1927 a first-century bc/ad cemetery was uncovered on Lambay Island while work was being undertaken to construct a harbour. It is unfortunate that this was destroyed by workmen before a full archaeological examination could be carried out, but the skeletons were on their sides with their knees drawn up and seemed to have been laid in shallow pits cut into the clay and covered by clean silver sand. Crouched burials are rare in the Early Iron Age but a few are known from England, notably the warrior burials from Grimthorpe in Yorkshire – Brigantian territory.

One of these burials was obviously of an important man, as it was accompanied by a rich range of grave goods, including a sword, shield and other ornaments. The sword is not like the short Irish weapon used at that period, but had a heavy, long parallel-sided blade and a leather or wood scabbard with three bronze mounts, two of which had open-work ornamentation of a Brigantian style datable to the second half of the first century AD. The shield, probably of wood or wood and leather, had only its bronze central boss surviving.

Other finds from the cemetery included a jet and bronze bracelet, five Roman brooches, a beaded bronze collar, an iron mirror of northern British origin and various bits of decorated bronze sheet. These finds are unique in Ireland and all the items are ‘foreign’ in character. The beaded collar is notable as it is of a distinctive pattern confined to the British Brigantian kingdom, and again a date in the second half of the first century is generally assigned to these. It consists of two main parts, a plain strip a little larger than a semicircle, the circle being completed by a smaller length strung with eight large bronze beads alternating with seven bronze discs.

Dating evidence puts the burials at some time in the second half of the first century, suggesting these people were Brigantians fleeing the Roman attack on their kingdom. Since the Brigantian kingdom was independent until 74 AD, it is almost certain that among the people who left it for Ireland around the time it came under attack by the Romans were Brigantian Druids. They would have taken their regional religious practices and deities with them, along with their experience of confronting the Romans, and their idea that the way to deal with the Roman threat was by uniting the Celtic people, a process that British Druids had been engaged in at the time of the initial invasion of Britain.

The Goddess Brigantia under the Romans

The Romans generally allowed, and indeed encouraged, the continued worship of native gods and the use of ancient shrines. They brought these local deities into the realm of the official Roman pantheon of gods by equating them with whichever of the Roman deities the native ones attributes and qualities most resembled, or even sometimes equated them with ‘local’ deities from other parts of the empire.

Following the conquest of the Brigantian kingdom during a series of campaigns between 71 and 74 AD, the people still continued to venerate their High Goddess, Brigantia, though human nature would suggest that some may have regarded her as failing them in their hour of need as they tried, unsuccessfully, to resist the Romans. However, she had many attributes besides being a protective warrior deity that made her popular and was to ensure her survival during the Roman occupation.

During the Romano-British period when Brigantia is mentioned on dedications or shown as a carving, she was often associated with Victoria, ‘Victory’ or, more commonly, with the Roman goddess Minerva, a protective goddess among several other attributes she was credited with. The seven inscriptions found so far that mention Brigantia all cluster on the northern or southern limits of the Brigantian kingdom. The four dedications from the north of their territory, in the Roman frontier zone (Birrens, Brampton, Corbridge and South Shields) were all given by members of the army or military personnel, while the three from the south (Adel, Castleford and Greetland) are dedications by civilians. Also from Yorkshire is a dedication to Deus Bregans (the god Bregans) who, it has been suggested, may have been the consort of Brigantia.

There are clear indications that Brigantia also had other roles such as healing and a connection with water, which was an element associated with healing in the Celtic world. For example, from Yorkshire come two dedications to Dea Nympha Brigantia (Brigantia, Goddess of the water), showing that she was, in these cases, regarded as a water goddess. Water in the form of rivers, springs, lakes and wells was regarded by the Celts as being sacred and a channel via which to communicate with the gods and the Otherworld.

Such water sources were also regarded as having strong links with fertility as water is a vital requirement of life and essential for growing good crops, so providing an obvious connection to the Mother Goddess. Huge numbers of offerings have been found deposited in rivers, lakes, wells and bogs. It seems that wells and rivers often formed part of tribal or district boundaries, so it is not unreasonable to link a territorial goddess such as Brigantia with water. This belief of the sacredness of water persisted into Christian times and the remnants of such beliefs can still be seen today in the rite of baptism and the existence of many holy wells all over Britain and Ireland.

From Greta Bridge in Yorkshire an inscription reads Deae numeriae Brig et Jan (To the deities Brigantia and Janus), while another dedication bears the inscription ‘Brigantiae s. [acrum] Armandus Architectus ex imperio, imp. I. (Armandus Architect, by Imperial command, [made] this sacred offering to Brigantia in the first year of the Emperor)’. She is also referred to as Victoria Brigantia (Victorious Brigantia) on an altar that also mentions Titus Aurelius Aurelianus, a Magister Sacrorum, the only Romano-British mention of a ‘Master of Sacred Ceremonies’. A centurion of the Second, Augusta Legion dedicated an altar to Jupiter Dolichenus, Caelestis Brigantia and Salus.

As the Romans stationed in Britain came from all over the Empire, so many overseas local gods were ‘imported’ and coupled with those of the official Roman pantheon, but could also be equated with a local god from another country, as is Brigantia in this case. Jupiter was the supreme ruler of heaven and earth and on the altar the inscription is coupled with Dolichenus, a Syrian god who was Lord of the Firmament; Caelestis was the daughter of Astarte, the mythical founder of Carthage, so may represent a protective deity which is why she is equated with Brigantia, but can also be equated with Juno, the consort of Jupiter and Queen of the gods; while Salus was a goddess of healing and so also linked to Brigantia.

What is interesting is the apparent equating of Brigantia with Juno in the form of Caelestis, which suggests the recognition that Brigantia, like Juno, was a goddess who presided over the other gods, a recognition that she was regarded as the ‘High One’, the meaning of her name. However, Brigantia is not put first on this inscription as in the official pantheon of Roman gods Jupiter was seen as the pre-eminent deity, with Juno second to him in importance.

There is a superb carving of Brigantia from Birrens (Blatobulgium), Dumfriesshire, the site of a Roman fort, which shows some of her complex attributes. In this she is depicted as the Roman goddess Minerva, holding a spear with a shield to her left and with the gorgoneion, the head of the Medusa (Latin) or Gorgon (Greek) worn round her neck. She is wearing a conical helmet which has a battlemented wall around its base indicating that she is a protective city goddess, presumably of the Brigantian tribal administrative capital of the Roman period, Isurium Brigantum (Aldborough, Yorkshire). She holds a globe, symbolic of victory, and behind her are the wings of Victory.

Below this figure is the inscription ‘Brigantia Samaadvs’ whose exact meaning is unclear. Could it be a Celtic word, Samhach (peaceful) ‘twisted’ into a Latin form? This is now in the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh. The Birrens representation shows Brigantia in the form of Minerva with whom she was often equated in the Roman period. However, without the inscription on the carving it would have been impossible to identify her as the Celtic goddess Brigantia. Minerva in the classical world does not have a water or healing connection, and only in her Celtic interpretation has she these associations.

Since Brigantia was equated in the British Celtic mind with Minerva, it is not unreasonable to suppose that many other Romano-British images of this Roman goddess actually represent Brigantia or whatever regional name this High Goddess was known by. In Celtic tradition, where deities are depicted in iconographic form, they are not usually named on an associated inscription. Inscriptions from East Gaul (France) indicate that Brigindo, the Gaulish name for Brigantia, was also a deity of healing, crafts and fertility. Since we know that Brigantia was closely associated with water and healing, it would seem that the equating of Brigantia with Minerva can be seen in a number of examples from Roman Britain. A silver gilt patera (a broad shallow dish used for pouring libations), from Capheaton, Northumberland, shows Minerva (Brigantia) presiding over springs and a temple.

Another example of linking a native goddess with a modified Minerva can be seen at Bath in Somerset, known in Roman times as Aquae Sulis, where there is an elaborate series of Roman baths and temple complexes. The natural hot spring there was a focus for the worship of the native goddess Sul or Sulis long before the Roman invasion, her name apparently meaning ‘opening’ or ‘orifice’, but she is also connected with the sun. From inscriptions it appears that Sulis was concerned with blessing, prophesying, healing and possibly childbirth.

The appeals to Sulis found on the so-called ‘curse tablets’ from Bath, lead sheets on which are inscribed appeals to the goddess for help, give a further insight into how her devotees viewed her. They show that she was also seen as a deity that could help in the recovery of lost property, particularly money. For example, one reads ‘I have given the Goddess Sulis six silver pieces which I have lost. It is for the Goddess to extract it from the debtors Senicianus, Saturninus and Anniola…’ while another tablet reads ‘Whether pagan or Christian, whosoever man or woman, boy or girl, slave or free has stolen from me, Annianus, six argenti [silver coins] from my purse. You, lady Goddess, are to exact them from him…’ On the other side of the tablet are eighteen names, presumably a list of the suspects which Annianus drew up to assist the goddess!

The Roman baths are dedicated to Sulis Minerva in her aspect of a deity responsible for healing and therapeutic treatments, and it is possible that Sulis is a south-west England version of Brigantia. The baths and surroundings became a centre for the veneration of a mixture of native, imported native and Roman gods and goddesses, but note that Sulis is given precedence in the coupling with Minerva. Sulis is also known from archaeological finds from Cirencester and Colchester, as well as from Rome, Hungary, France and Germany. While organised Druidism in Britain was destroyed in the first century AD, worship of the gods was still conducted by British priests similar to Druids but without the political influence they formerly had, and an inscription from Bath shows that ‘priests of Sulis’ were present at the temple.

Another example from Bath that links underlying Celtic beliefs with a Romanised expression of religion, as well as the importance of Minerva, can be seen in one of the most famous carvings from the Roman baths, the Gorgon head that once adorned the pediment of the temple of Sulis Minerva. The inspiration for this carving comes from an ancient Greek story that was also popular with the Romans and concerned the Gorgon’s, three monstrous sisters with huge teeth like those of swine, claws for hands, and hair of writhing serpents. Their mere glance would turn people to stone.

One day King Polydectes sent Perseus, the son of Zeus (Jupiter), to cut off the head of one of the Gorgon sisters named Medusa who had lain waste the king’s country. Perseus was a favourite of Athene (Minerva) who lent him her shield in his quest, while Mercury (Hermes) lent him his winged shoes giving Perseus the power of flight. Perseus approached Medusa as she slept and, taking care not to look directly at her, but guided by her image reflected in Athene’s bright shield, cut off her head. He later gave it to Athene who fixed it in the middle of her shield.

Based on this story the carving at Bath should depict a female head; however, it clearly shows a male with flowing beard, hair and moustache. There is also a pair of wings on each side of the head, perhaps symbolic of victory, while the carved figures that support the head appear to be Victories depicted in the classical style. Other male ‘Medusa’ heads are known from Roman Britain, many of which are associated with healing springs.

There was a very strong cult of the head in the Celtic world, both in the pre-Roman period and throughout it. Classical writers described how Celts took the heads of enemies. Livy (59 bc–17 AD) wrote of Celtic warriors ‘with heads hanging at their horses breasts, or fixed on their lances, and singing their customary songs of triumph’. While Strabo (c.60 bc–20 AD) says the heads were preserved and treated with great respect, and that sometimes the skulls were decorated with gold, and that the ‘heads of enemies of high repute were then preserved in cedar oil and exhibited to strangers’. Heads were displayed in temples and houses.

There are many references to this custom of ‘taking heads’, which is backed up by archaeological evidence from Britain and Europe. A great many carved stone heads have been found, ranging from pebble size to boulders, along with a few wooden heads that by luck have survived. Heads are also very common as decoration on weapons, buckets, jewellery and other items during the Iron Age. The ‘taking of heads’ not only indicated military prowess in Celtic society, but was a way of venerating the head which was seen as a symbol of divinity and Otherworld powers, as well as being the part of the body in which they believed the ‘spirit’ of the person dwelt.

The veneration of the head was not unique to the Celts but was widespread among many different peoples and something that archaeological evidence shows goes far back into prehistory. The practice of ‘taking heads’ was generally viewed by the Romans with disgust and once Britain was settled after the conquest it was a practice that died out. However, the carving of male ‘Medusa’ heads in Roman Britain was a way of retaining the symbolism of the traditional divine head, although now thinly disguised as classical art. This devotion to the cult of the head may well be another reason why Minerva particularly appealed to the Romano-British who still venerated Brigantia in one of her forms.

Minerva was a protective warrior deity, often depicted with spear and shield, so in the Celtic mind her acceptance and display of a severed head from the brave warrior Perseus would have further endeared her to them as a worthy equivalent of the Goddess Brigantia. The classic story of Persius and Minerva says that the goddess fixed the head of Medusa to her shield, but carvings often show it either on her breastplate or, as appears to be in the case of the Birrens carving, worn round her neck.

As Minerva was equated with the native goddess, it suggests that most of Brigantia’s attributes would be very similar, which gives some idea of the full range of attributes that she might have been credited with. Besides being a protective warrior deity, Minerva was regarded as a goddess of wisdom, who presided over both the ornamental arts and household crafts such as spinning and weaving, but was also concerned with agricultural matters. Brigantia was also a protective warrior deity and her distant origin as a Mother Goddess would link her to fertility, while her water association linked her to the healing arts. She was also probably connected to agriculture, particularly that involving cattle, derived from her veneration by a pastoral people, and which also links her to prosperity as cattle were an indicator of wealth in the Celtic world, hence the connection with money and its recovery at Bath where Brigantia/Minerva seems to be equated with Sulis.

As Britain became settled in the first forty years following the Roman invasion of 43 AD there was less need for a warrior deity, unless you were a member of the army, so Brigantia’s other attributes, protection of a personal nature and particularly healing, became more emphasised among the civilian population. This appears to be the case through the whole of the Roman period in Britain until the official withdrawal of the Roman’s from Britain in 410 AD. However, a new religion was beginning to spread and become more popular from the sixth century onwards. Christianity was actively being promoted by missionaries, many from Ireland and Wales, although a few Christians had certainly been present in Britain from the third century and possibly earlier.

Over the next three centuries there were major changes in Britain as various areas became settled by Saxons, Angles and Jutes. While they brought their own deities with them, the native population would have continued the veneration of their own gods and goddesses, although it may have been ‘diplomatic’ to equate them now to the deities of the new settlers! Christians would have continued the worship of their one God, and rapidly managed to convert many of the pagan settlers to their own religion. The Christians regarded the old gods and goddesses as ‘demons’, and discouraged their worship, although many pagan practices and customs, notably the time of year that ceremonial gatherings occurred and even the form they took, were adopted by the Christians, so making it easier for pagans to convert to the new religion.

So Brigantia, in her persona of the British Minerva, along with Sulis, disappeared, along with all the other traditional deities and many other aspects of Roman life by the end of the fifth century in Britain. She did not even survive in some altered and debased form such as a fairy, as was the case with a few of the other Celtic deities, for example Gwynn ap Nudd who, in medieval stories, is described as ‘king of the fairies’, but was originally a pre-Christian Celtic god of the Otherworld. So it is to Ireland that we have to look for the Goddess Brighid.

Two

The Conception of the Goddess Brighid

In Britain the Order of Druids was destroyed after the attack on their headquarters on Anglesey (Mon Insulae in Latin) in 60 AD. While Druids and Druidesses still survived as individuals, acting as intercessors with the gods, using herbs for healing, practising magic, foretelling the future and keeping alive stories, poems and songs, they no longer had the organisation or wielded the political influence they once had. However, Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire and the Order of Druids remained strong there until the coming of Christianity in the fifth century and they continued to play an important role in Irish society considerably later. There is also evidence that quite large numbers of Celts from the kingdom of the Brigantes, including Brigantian Druids, migrated to Ireland in the second half of the first century.

Early Irish writings often mention Druids, and many of the Irish legal tracts, known as the Brehon Laws, were based on those devised by the Druids. A number of folktales have come down to us that pre-date Christianity, although in some cases these have been given a Christian veneer. It is therefore fortunate that there exists in Ireland a considerable body of knowledge about the Celtic gods, goddesses and heroes which gives some idea of the beliefs of the British Celts up to the time of the Roman invasion.

In pagan Celtic Ireland there was a goddess called Brighid, daughter of the god Daghdha. However, she is often described as three goddesses or sisters all called Brighid. These three Brighids each had a specific sphere of influence, one for learning, poetry and protection, one for healing and one for metal working. As was common in Celtic beliefs, one goddess could be visualised as three, so the three sister goddesses called Brighid would also represent one goddess with three main aspects or spheres of influence. There is no direct mention of any warrior traits in Brighid or the Brighids, and at first sight this is surprising considering her parentage, since it is clear that her main attributes are derived from both her parents, but Brighid seems to have been conceived to represent a particular set of values that did not emphasise those of a war-like nature, neither aggressive or protective war, and her mother, Mór-Ríoghain, already existed as the war goddess of the Irish Celts.

Brighid was a goddess whose characteristics clearly represent those held in high regard by the Druids, so she can be regarded as the patron goddess of this priestly caste. Many of Brighid’s attributes are also those that would appeal to women, and in Ireland Druidesses played an active role in influencing the Celtic nobility and prophesying the outcome of battles, and she is also connected with agricultural activities. The spur for the creation of the Goddess Brighid in Ireland was the arrival of Brigantian Druids between 71–74 AD, following the attacks on the Brigantian kingdom in Britain by Roman forces.

Brigantian Druids would have brought the veneration of Brigantia with them and, as they merged with Irish Druidry, may have also wanted to merge their High Goddess with the Irish equivalent, probably as part of a policy to unite the disparate Irish Druidry. Introducing Brigantia in the form that she was venerated in Britain would have been difficult as she was an ‘alien’ deity as far as the Irish were concerned, and she did not possess the range of attributes that was required to bring about the unification of all the Irish Druids and, with their encouragement and influence, the Irish tribes.

The influence of these Brigantians, and their numbers, must have been substantial since the geographer Ptolemy, in his Geographia Claudii Ptolemai, compiled in the second quarter of the second century AD, shows a number of Irish tribes and that an area of the south east of Ireland was occupied by Brigantes. However, the Mother Goddess of the Irish, Anu (sometimes called Danu), was primarily a fertility goddess. Anu is commemorated in the geographical feature known as the Paps (breasts) of Anu (Dá chích Annan), two distinctive mountains at Killarney in Co Kerry, that were regarded as the breasts of this Earth Mother, confirmation of the fertility with which Anu is connected. She is probably very ancient in origin going far back into prehistory when the main deity of the Celts and their ancestors was a female.

So, rather than try to modify this ancient Irish Mother deity who was already widely venerated, it seems that a new goddess was ‘conceived’ by some of the Irish Druids, under the influence of the Brigantian Druids. They were able to do this as the Celts did not regard their gods as their creators but their ancestors, so it would not have been too difficult to ‘find’ a lost deity, and Pomponius Mela stated, c. 43 AD, that the Druids ‘profess to know the will of the gods’, so it would have been relatively easy for them to inform the other Druids and the people of this newly discovered or conceived goddess’s desire to unite the tribes of the country.

This new deity also had a strong appeal to the Druidesses (ban Druaid) who, in Irish Celtic society were very influential, particularly in the art of foretelling the future, and many leaders would not do anything without consulting their seer. The Druids had immense power and influence with the tribal leaders, as is clearly shown by Dio Chrysostom (c.40–111 AD) who wrote: ‘the kings were not permitted to adopt or plan any course, so that in fact it was these [Druids] who ruled and the kings became their subordinates and instruments of their judgement.’

Brighid (the High One) was the name of this new goddess, but see pages 44 and 66 for more information on her ‘real’ name. While she had a few characteristics in common with Brigantia, she had many more taken from two powerful and important existing Irish deities, the Daghdha and Mór-Ríoghain who, between them, combined the attributes most valued by the Druids. Brighid was also credited with fertility aspects, particularly those concerning livestock, something that would also have given this ‘newly revealed’ goddess a wide appeal to the ordinary people, most of whose lives were closely bound up with agriculture and its natural concern about the fertility of animals and crops. One of the few surviving stories about Brighid as goddess mentions three places, all of which are in the area of Ireland occupied by the Brigantes (see page 232).

While Brighid can be considered to be distantly related to Brigantia, she is primarily a new goddess conceived between 71–74 AD by the Druids, incorporating the attributes of two existing Irish deities who, the Druids felt, would be suitable ‘parents’ for Brighid, so making her acceptable to the Irish people. Further evidence for Brighid’s relatively late ‘conception’ and that she was an imposed deity is suggested by the fact that there was already an older Irish deity, Goibhniú, whose name means ‘smith’, and was a smith god, while another, Dian Cécht, whose name translates as ‘he who travels swiftly’, was a god of medicine, both characteristics attributed to Brighid. See page 232–33 for an ancient story to account for her taking on the role of the smith god.

Lugh was a sun god but remained widely revered during Brighid’s time as a goddess, unlike Goibhniú and Dian Cécht who rapidly faded away, suggesting that she was not primarily a sun deity as some writers have maintained, but probably had some responsibility for crop fertility, in which the sun plays a part. Further evidence for her late appearance is suggested by the fact that her main symbol, the St Brigid’s cross (Crois Bhríde), see page 96, is not found on any Bronze Age pottery or stone monuments, or any of the ancient megalithic monuments associated with other Irish goddesses such as Bóann or Macha. Being able to date Brighid’s ‘conception’ accurately makes her unique among ancient deities in being able to say when she came into existence.

Until the Order was destroyed in Britain by the Romans, the Druids were the most important of the three categories within the Order, although the Bards (Bhaírds, the poets and singers), and Vates (foretellers of the future), also played a major part in their religion and culture. Until the Roman invasion the Britons were divided into twenty-one large kingdoms, but in Ireland at that time the Celts consisted of many smaller independent tribes or petty kingdoms, one estimate putting these at as many as 150. Their tribal Chieftains would each have had Druids, Bards and Vates in their ‘courts’, but generally only serving the needs of that tribe (tuath) and venerating their particular chosen deities. In the fourth century the name for an Irish diviner, Vates, changed to Filidh and, as Christianity began to take hold in Ireland, the Filidh began to take on many of the roles of both the Druids and the Bards.

The influx of Brigantian Druids, with their policy of uniting both the Irish Druids and the Irish Celts, seems to have started the process of unifying these many different Irish tribes into larger groupings, and so a goddess to initially unite the Irish Druids would have made a good start. This policy would have been seen as essential by these Druids in the light of their experience of Roman expansion and invasion when they were in Britain. What the British Celts who had fled to Ireland could not have been sure of, is where the Roman expansion would stop, as the legions had already conquered all of France and Spain, part of Germany and most of Britain, and there must have been a real fear that Rome would turn its attention to Ireland, so a united people would be much more capable of repelling a Roman invasion.

Archaeology suggests that the intention in the 70s AD was indeed for the Romans to invade Ireland in a campaign to be launched from the city of Chester (Roman Deva). Troops would sail up the River Dee and across the Irish Sea for a landing on the east coast of Ireland. Chester would have become the capital of a Roman province consisting of northern Britain and Ireland, which explains the grand Roman buildings found at Chester that date to this early period. The Romans traded with Ireland and were in contact with Irish leaders, so undoubtedly rumours about an intended invasion would have been circulating in Ireland at that time.