More on Morrigu

How fun! This morning was filled with discussion about the nature of Anand, Morrigu, Nuada, Nodens, and the woes of a time before standardised spelling. Any time I engage in discussion about these topics, I tend to assume a couple of things: 1.) That not everyone will agree with me. 2.) That people largely don't mean to insult me. 3.) Not everyone has had their morning coffee. This morning was great, because I was able to discuss topics that are very dear to me without feeling dismissed or discounted. Morgan Daimler shared two of her extremely well organized and researched blog entries with me, one regarding the nature of the Morrigu and the other regarding Nuada. This post is a reactionary post each to both of these blog entries, because responding in comments would have taken forever. So, here is my full response and thoughts regarding her blog entry about Morrigu, found here for those who wish to follow along: http://lairbhan.blogspot.com/2013/06/morrigu.html

First of all, I loved it. I may have some supplemental material to support these points. The main difference between the post and my own personal stance on these things is the areas that are tentative are areas that I have accepted and put into practice with excellent results.

" "Ernmas had other daughters, Badb, and Macha, and Morrigu, whose name was Anand" (MacAlister, 1941). This reinforces that Morrigan's name could actually be Anand or Danand, or Anu or Danu, and indeed both are given as her name in various portions of the Lebor Gabala Erenn (Gray, 1983)" (Daimler)

My thought is that it's not just reinforcement, it's actually a rare example of the lore being rather explicit and helpful so...

" Personally I favor viewing the three Morrignae as Badb, Macha, and Morrigu and I am tentatively willing to accept Anand as the name of the Morrigan. " (Daimler)

Because of the explicit nature of the descriptor from LGE, I have difficulty finding the argument for NOT accepting Anand/Anann as the given name of the Morrighan. Perhaps I'm too literal? Rosalind Clark also reinforces the argument of Ana/Anand/Anann being the personal name of Morrigu.

" The war goddess appears in triple form under many name-combinations: Badb, Macha, and Morrígan (as seen above), or Badb, Macha and Ana, as they are called in the prose passage accompanying the above verse. The names 'Morrígan' and 'Ana' therefore must refer to the same person." 

The Gods seemed to be really busy during this time because of how many ladies with the description "Morrighan/Morrigu/Morrigna" can be found in the lore. The best explanation for this is that the moniker is a title, or epithet. WM Hennessy states his belief of the differentiation as being:

"I have referred to Neman, Macha, and Morrigu, as the so called sisters of the Badb. Properly speaking, however, the name Badb seems to have been thee distinctive title of the mythological beings supposed to rule over battle and carnage. M. Pictet feels a difficulty in deciding whether there were three such beings, or whether Neman, Macha, and Morrigu are only three different names for the same goddess; but after a careful examination of the subject I am inclined to believe that these names represent three different characters, the attributes of Neman being like those of a being who confounded her victims with madness, whilst Morrigu incited to deeds of valour, or planned strife and battle, and Macha revelled amidst the bodies of the slain."

But what does it mean to have the title and why is it given? Good question, many possible answers from history. Whether or not they ring true today is another discussion. Let's look at a few of the possibilities. If we are going on the notion that Morrígan is a title, but also given as a personal name I think it makes the most sense to examine the qualities and attributes given to Ana/Anand/Anann (and in some cases, Ainé) and possibly those where only "Morrígan" is given as a name with no other qualifiers. During the Cath Maige Tuired, Morrígan herself never actually fights, unlike her sister Macha. She chooses the slain, incites warriors to battle, celebrates glorious victory with poetry, prophecies a dark future that is "not dear to" her (one of THE most telling things about her nature, I think. Many will presume to tell the masses what it is that she WANTS, being blood and slaughter and death, but her own words paint a different picture. She has no love for the future she sees in her own prophecy.), hefts around a great deal of magic, and is generally quite the team player. Due to her association with cattle, prophecy, the dead, fate, and sovereignty, there's a hell of a lot more to Anand/Morrígan than being a battle fury or queen of murder, which is more often attributed to Badb and Nemain. Not only is it all over the lore, but those who work closely with her can also attest to this (the modern day relevancy)

"The Great Queen" is probably a more modern day translation of the title, "Morrígan", which is interestingly also claimed as a cognate of Fo-marach, Fo-more, and Fo-moride by Whitley Stokes. According to Clark, Stokes and d'Arbois de Jubainville, more is cognate with the High German mara and the Anglo Saxon maere, which essentially refers to a sort of fearful female spirit or phantom. Phantom Queen, I feel, is every bit as fitting as Great Queen, in the true sense of the term. We are told in the tale of her tryst with Daghda (presumably Eochaid Ollathair), she is described as a Giantess (not unlike the Fomorians) with her hair in nine tresses, straddling the river with one foot on each bank. Any association with rivers in the lore (in this case, she birthed the river) is significant of not only a sovereign goddess, but also associates them with a fertility aspect. Her association with cattle (and the ability to change into animals of every realm: land, sea and sky) demonstrates at the very least that she is heavily associated with prosperity. Because of her large size, mother of at least one river (no wonder people confuse Danu with Anann), her essential belonging to the land (she is sometimes described as a she-farmer), and actual features of the land being named for her, I believe that she probably predated the Tuatha. She is part of the land itself; the decision maker in war, death, fate, prosperity, and victory. She is like a spirit or Phantom that inhabits a person or at least one who has some semblance of control or affinity with spirits. (Psychopomp if you wanna get Greek.)

So what kind of title is this? She is shown to have associations with both life and creation, but her children appear to be her chosen people more than any biological child as a prerequisite. She has shown proficiency with Seership, Magic, Destruction, and Victory. There is a great deal of other IE Creator/Destroyer Goddesses like Kali, who are to be respected (and feared by those who have violated divine laws). I have trouble pegging her as solely a war goddess for these reasons, and the fact that the culture of the time (and especially just about every last one of the Tuatha) were a warlike tribe. Big dramatic entrances, manifest destiny, and to the winner go the spoils. It's just that she gets to choose who the winners are because it is her divine right to do so. It is said that there is an incredible body of texts in Ireland alone that have not yet been translated, and I do wonder at what we might find in those pages. I also wonder at her lesser discussed associations with her cooking spit. Cooking, itself, is an action of destruction to creation. Lady Gregory writes about it a bit in Gods and Fighting Men, and it makes a reappearance in the Tain:

"As to the Morrigu, the Great Queen, the Crow of Battle, where she lived after the coming of the Gael is not known, but before that time it was in Teamhair she lived. And she had a great cooking-spit there, that held three sorts of food on it at the one time: a piece of raw meat, and a piece of dressed meat, and a piece of butter. And the raw was dressed, and the dressed was not burned, and the butter did not melt, and the three together on the spit." 

Maybe she's a good cook, who knows. Still, her association with transformation is so strong and relayed ad nauseum by numerous devotees of hers. She will run you through the ringer, put you over the fire, spin you there, and will turn you into something palatable. My personal gnosis involving the Daghda is that he is a great lover of food, so hey there cooking pit. A cooking pit which breaks down into nine convenient pieces. And is constantly replenished, much like the pig of Manannan macLir's in the tale of King Cormac's Cup, which is another great tale of lessons learned and transformation. The Triads of Ireland mention her in this context:

"Three things constitute a blacksmith, Nethin's spit, the cooking-hearth of the Morrigan, the Dagda's anvil." -Triad 120

This associates Morrígan with the all-important hearth, and with fire that many are so reluctant to grant her. A super interesting topic that I could write about, but fill pages with lots of beautiful suppositions signifying nothing to the academic world.

" I believe that she respects physical and martial skill and so am seeking to honor her in those ways as best I can; as part of this I am planning to attend a weekend retreat for pagan women that is focused on self defense training and basic martial arts. I created a small shrine to her that includes images of her animal forms and have been meditating on what each one represents, as well as the connection between her and war, death, battle, victory, strategy, magic, sex, and sovereignty. I think it is possible that Anand may be connected to some aspect of mothering but I see her as the defensive and protective aspects of mothering not the nurturing ones; she is the snarling wolf willing to rip the throat out of anything to protect her puppies. And as we can see from her stories she is a goddess who expects a price to be paid for her blessing. " (Daimler)

I think that she certainly does respect prowess of a martial variety, and would also put forward the possibility of prowess and proficiency in Seeing arts (aisling, geis, satire, and that incitement poetic form I can never freaking remember the name of.), of personal sovereignty, defense, etc. I trained in gumdo for a couple of semesters while attending Salisbury University, that is a Korean Sword art designed for efficacy rather than the prettiness of the Japanese kendo. I enjoy fencing, and perhaps love archery most of all. The far-seeing necessary of archery resonates with the far-seeing nature of the prophetic Morrígan. To me, walking a warrior path isn't the sole way in which to honor my Patron, as she is not only a goddess of war. I certainly agree with her defensive and protective nature; I've seen that very often firsthand. The mistake so many people make is trying to make her fit in the war goddess box alone.

Anyway, the blog article was fantastic and it's wonderful to find good research being done in this area. It bears more research and analysis. And since I did a fair deal of quoting, I'll list some resources in no particular format. Because formatting will be the absolute death of me.

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Clark, Rosalind The Great Queens: Irish Goddesses from the Morrígan to Cathleen ní Houlihan. Collin Smythe, 1991 (Irish Literary Studies 34)
Daimler, Morgan Morrigu Blog Post Here
Hennessy, WM The Ancient Irish Goddess of War On Sacred Texts.org
Gregory, Lady Gods and Fighting Men On Sacred Texts.org