Name:
Morrigan / Morrighan / Morrigu /
Morgan / 'Great Queen' / 'Phantom Queen'
Father:
Aed Ernmas
Associated
Deities: Fea (Hateful),
Badbh (Fury), Nemon (Venomous),
Macha
(Battle)
Properties:
Goddess of War, Life & Death
Totem Bird:
The Carrion Crow
Element:
Earth
Associated
Sites: Battle-Fields
Plain of
Muirthemne (near Dundalk, Co. Louth)
River Unshin
near Corann (she created the river by urinating)
Realm:
The North (Land of the Dead)
Trees:
Yew
: Willow
Crystals:
Clear Quartz
The Morrigan was the Goddess of War, Life and
Death, she therefore had a habit of appearing to the great heroes when their
life was in danger. Cúchulainn's divine grandfather the Dagda
made love to the Morrigan in a story of creation and conflict. Cúchulainn
himself encountered the Morrigan in a variety of forms, she appeared as a woman
with streaming long red hair, red eyebrows, wearing a long red cloak and
carrying a grey spear riding in a chariot.
She could change her shape at
will. Cúchulainn did not recognize her as a goddess and spurned her
amorous intentions she then harassed him in battle in the form of a
heifer, and then an eel, and then as a wolf. She also appeared as an old
crone. Her most well recognized form was that of a black crow who was her
totem bird.
She resided to the North, which was the realm
of the dead, justice and the element of Earth. She often appeared to a
hero on the day he was to die, thus she appeared to Cúchulainn before he went
to the battle of Muirthemne as an apparition of three crones who were roasting a
hound on a rowan spit. There was a geas on Cúchulainn not to eat
the meat of his namesake the hound or that would be the day he died, the
crones shamed him into eating the taboo food and thus he was killed in battle
later that day. When he was dead a black crow the symbol of Morrigan
perched on his shoulders and hence his enemies knew for certain he was dead.
She appeared to Diarmuid O'Duibne
as an old crone who was trying to cross a stream, he was the only one of his
company who took pity on the crone and carried her across the water on his back.
At that she turned into a shining tall woman and he knew that she was of the sidhe
of
Tír na nÓg.
She granted him a gift whereby no woman would ever refuse him or be able to
resist his look. Which turned out to be a mixed blessing for Diarmuid
especially when a woman named Gráinne
fell in love with him, and he earned the wrath of fellow suitor Fionn mac
Cumhaill.
The Morrigan was a Triple Goddess and was
the Crone aspect of the Great Goddess, Macha being the Fertile Woman
aspect and Anu being the Young Maiden. There were hills called the Paps of
Morrigan in the North of the Country.
With the Furies - the other Goddesses of
War: Fea, Nemon, Badbh (the three aspects of the Morrigan) and Macha she
roused the warriors to riastradh or
battle fury.
The name Morrigan comes from the Gaelic Mór Rígan
which means Great Queen.
Image: Detail from The Ravens by Arthur Rackham.
Myths, Stories
and Legends associated with Morrigan:
The
Táin Bó Cuailgne
The
Morrigan and Cúchulainn
The
Battle of Muirthemne
Bres
Mac Elatha and the Tuatha Dé Danann
The
Hostel of the Quicken Trees
The
Exploits of the Dagda
The
Awakening of the Men of Ulster
The
Morrigu
Cruachan
Dagda
The
Courting of Emer by Lady Gregory
The
Story of the Tuatha De Danann
Donn
Son of Midhir
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