Eithne, or Boann, or Fidelm, is goddess of Rivers, Wisdom, Prophesy, Motherhood, and perhaps Genderqueerness! With hints of a cosmogonic role, and several distinct husbands and lovers, she's omnipresent and subtle. She appears with various names and faces - but her myths tie her to famous and beloved goddesses of Greece and India.

There is a lot that I couldn't explore in this issue. Such as, the deep connections, internationally, as a forerunner and patron of the Fionn-types - even being in some way a key part of the Fionn-types. The Welsh parallels including Cerridwen, and other saintly parallels including Noyala of Brittany. Her connections to Ness, Findchoem, perhaps Dechtire, etc. The concepts that might underpin her destruction of Nechtan's well. But, room doesn't allow for it: I'll have to find another time for all that.

The Mother of Divinities

The most immediate lens to "see" Eithne through is as a "Mother Goddess". The most famous Eithne is she who's otherwise known as "Boann" - the mother of Lugh Lámhfhada with Cían mac Cáinte, and later the mother of Aengus Mac Óg with An Dagda.

Officially, these are her only two sons.. but if you've read some of my issues on the Divine Twins and the Fionn-cluster of gods, you know by now that I believe this goddess is also often mother (perhaps under different names) to the Fionn-types and other expressions of the Divine Twins (perhaps usually the Peaceable twin moreso than the Warrior type?).

However, other Eithnes abound, and many of these Eithnes are mother instead to characters named Coirpre or Cairbre - names of what I call the Summer King.

Finally, one Eithne in particular figures as mother to a character that I believe to be an incarnation of the Moon God: Furbaide Fer-bend, of the Ulster Cycle.

But, viewing Eithne as a "Mother Goddess" is only a thin part of what she represents. It's entirely possible that she was viewed as matron of Maternity itself, but in terms of her clear divine associations in narrative, she is far more supportable as a goddess of Wisdom and Foresight. But to see this more fully, let's first look at another name of hers - Fidelm.

A Dire Warning for Medb

At the outset of the Táin Bó Cuailnge, Medb assembles her armies and begins her march to Ulster to seize the Donn Cuailnge. But just as they set out, a goddess shows up on the road, and Medb and she talk.

Her name is Fedelm, a name implying knowledge or even precognition (1), and she says she is a poet with the ability to predict the future. At Medb's request, she predicts the outcome of the Táin - blood, ruin, awfulness. Medb carries on anyway, of course.

That she's a goddess is really not in question; she says she's come directly from her people in the Sidh Mound, and as good as tells Medb that she only came to give her warning. This is the most famous appearance of Fidelm, and if she were the only Fidelm she'd be mysterious: a goddess named (approx.) "Prophet" who comes to help Medb for unspecified reasons. What's she got to do with Boann, though?

I actually learned of the next pieces from the Wikipedia Article for Fidelm - a user named Cavila, since resigned, connected a number of other Fidelm appearances, and the gist of the article has expanded to paint an interesting picture. In brief, there are several other mentions of "Fidelms" in the Ulster Cycle:

One is a beautiful daughter of Conchobhar who has several lovers including Cúchulainn - some versions may even imply that she was distracting him at the outset of the Táin, permitting the initial theft to take place when he otherwise might have prevented it.

Another mention is in the Wooing of Emer, where Cúchulainn explains a poetic kenning he had used to Laeg:

"Over the Marrow of the Woman Fedelm I said, i.e., the Boyne..."

He goes on to relate the story of Boann approaching the well of Nechtan and blowing it up by walking around it tuathail (anti-clockwise) - in fact, as far as I'm aware, this recounting is the only one that explicitly says that she walked around the well in this disrespectful manner:

"She passed left-hand-wise round the well to deride its power".

Cúchulainn also gives a bunch of alternate names of the river that connect to Boann (2). Curiously, he never explains why "Fidelm" is in one of the names - it seems to be just an understood thing that Fidelm is AKA Boann.

Another myth makes the connection even clearer. In "Ces Ulaid", Cúchulainn and Laeg visit the river Boann, meet Elcmhar (AKA Nechtan) with his wife Fidelm, poach some of the salmon there, and when Elcmhar tries to stop them Cúchulainn maims his hands and feet (3). Fidelm then either promises or predicts, depending on the translation (apparently this fragment is very difficult), to be in Cúchulainn's company and to appear to the men of Ulster (naked?). This is then said, incongruously, to be the cause of the Debility of the Ulstermen (otherwise attributed to Macha) that lets Medb make off with the Bull so quickly.

So, from this little fragment, we get to see that Fidelm is wife of Elcmhar/Nechtan and has a concern for the salmon of the river Boann, and from the Courting of Emer we see that the Boann river is named for Fidelm also. It seems pretty clear that Fidelm and Boann are one and the same person.

A Prophetess Scorned

When we tie the preceding parts together, we see a picture that starts to make sense, to me at least:

1. Cúchulainn poaches sacred salmon from the Boann river, maiming her husband Elcmhar.
2. Fidelm/Boann either promises or predicts that she'll be with Cúchulainn (sexually?) and expose herself to the Ulstermen, in a year's time - and this is linked to the Debility of the Ulstermen.
3. When Medb sets off to raid Ulster, a (different?) Fidelm comes and warns her about the future, and specifically warns her about Cúchulainn.
4. Another Fidelm, or her handmaid, keeps Cúchulainn occupied when the raid begins, and the men of Ulster suffer the Debility.

Read like this, the various Fidelms seem to come together as a meta-character with a clear agenda of revenge, hindering the Ulstermen and trying to help Medb because of Cúchulainn's haughty behaviour. If this is so, then it's odd how the character has been broken up to remove her agency, making each Fidelm seem like a reactive or passive part of the greater narrative. If we instead consider them as part of the same deity, she becomes a key and active character in the Táin.

Whistler? Speller? Branch? Black One?

From the Banshenchus ("Woman-Lore") we get yet another name, deriving from the same stem as Fidelm:

"Feada was the real name of noble Ethne who was
wife of [..] Cian [,] mother of Lug [,]
daughter of [..] Balor."

That's very explicitly the same Ethne who's also Boann, and she's given this name "Feada". It may be a pun - it looks like the stem "Fead", meaning "Whistle", but also (in Mod.Irish at least) "stream" or "watercourse". But a more interesting possibility is "fid" (see again (1)), which means a twig/branch, but also means a "letter" in the ogham alphabet - "feada" probably being the plural. Ogham as a writing system is obviously connected to wisdom, and in Irish myth it also appears to have some magical power. Its divinatory use appears likely also - certainly an association of Fidelm/Boann's. And of course, Ogham was used for communication.

Interestingly, two of the god-tier parallels to Boann in Hinduism, Aditi and Saraswati, are both associated with wisdom (and Saraswati, like Boann, is literally also the River of wisdom). Both are also tightly associated with the goddess of speech, Vāc.

Here's another line from the Banshenchus just to confuse matters:

He [Cairpre?] is in truth Ethne's progeny, or the
womb of Feidel the Leinster handmaid [..] mothered
Cairpre. [..]
Or it was Ciarnait's womb overflowing with sorrow. [..]

This is hard to interpret, but at least it seems to be identifying Ethne and Feidel - backing up again the similar name "Feada". It could also be suggesting that "Ciarnait" is another name again; this name is a female form of the name "Cíar" ("Black"), which is one name for the Irish demiurge. Another name for Cíar seems to be Bíle ("Sacred Tree"), which, in turn, connects well with "Feada" (in one sense, "Branch"/"Twig"). One of the earliest Norse female cosmogonic gods, Bestla, has a name speculated to mean "Bark", or "Bast".

Both Saraswati and Aditi are also tightly associated with Prajapati/Brahma, the Hindu parallel of Cíar/Bíle. So, if this line is suggesting Cíarnait is another name of Eithne, that's appropriate, in my view.

The Divine Cow, Source of All Rivers

Anyway, as Boann, or "Bó fhinne", this goddess is "White Cow" - again with a name deriving from that PIE root "*weid-" that can mean seeing, knowing, whiteness, or predicting. But the "bó" bit unambiguously means "Cow".

There's this interesting ambiguity in the story of Lugh's conception, between Eithne and the wondrous cow Glas Gaibhnenn - I mentioned it in Nechtan's issue. Boann's ambiguous bovinity might be even deeper, if a certain tale of Lady Wilde's in "Concerning Cows" is old enough to come from the same era as "Manuscript" Boann (4).

In this tale, three wondrous cows come to Ireland from the sea, and the main cow is the heifer "Bó Finn" (so, Boann). She proceeds to the centre of Ireland and gives birth to twin cattle, one male and one female, and then departs to a secret cave. It's said that the best cattle are derived from Bó Finn's lineage. Also she might be a woman in cow form.

This story reads a bit like a cosmogonic story, to me - the main character is a goddess who seems to embody freshwater and rivers, who arises from the brine of the sea, and produces what might be the first cows. But, a Cosmogonic Cow sounds a bit silly, right?

Wrong!

Both Norse and Hindu mythology have Cosmogonic Cows right there at the scene of Creation, both of whom are associated with Waters.

The Norse cosmogony involves Ymir, the cosmogonic giant, and a Cow, named Auðumbla. Auðumbla and Ymir both arise (siblings?) from the oddly venomous waters of Niflheim interacting with the heat of Muspelheim. Auðumbla's teats produce four "rivers" of milk, which feed Ymir. Auðumbla then licks free Búri from the rime of Ginnungagap, and Búri's grandsons (Borr and Bestla's sons: Óðinn, Vili, Vé) slay Ymir and create the universe from his corpse.

In the Hindu Cosmogony, the Cosmogonic Fiery Giant Purusha is paired with a Cosmogonic Cow-Goddess Viraja. The two in some sense give rise to one another - a sibling-like interdependency. Viraja is declared equal to or as underlying many things, among them Water and Intellect. These two things are also strongly associated with Aditi (who can be considered a sort of female version of Creator-God Brahma) and also Saraswati (the consort of Brahma). Saraswati's River-form and Viraja's bovine form seem to converge on Boann, who is also fairly clearly associated with Wisdom like Aditi and Saraswati.

Many cultures' cosmogonies feature a feminine Cosmogonic Ocean paired with a more-concretely-human-shaped Cosmic Person or Demiurge - often Airy or Fiery. Even the Christian myth has God starting out over the surface of "the waters" - how'd they get there? It seems as if these "Waters" can be simultaneously a Cow, who may be the source of the waters - as with Viraja.

Taliesin's Map speculates that in the Norse case, the Airy/Fiery character has been reduced to the heat of Muspelheim, which meets the watery flows from Niflheim at Ginnungagap to create Ymir and Auðumbla. These two 'active' characters themselves seem to line up with other attributes of the expected characters from other religions, but somewhat reduced: Primordial Cow Auðumbla feeds Ymir through her "rivers" of Milk (representing creative waters) and Cosmic-Giant Ymir is killed by another to become the universe - whereas Purusha/Viraja create the universe of themselves. (NB: Taliesin's Map rejects the model of Ymir as paralleling Purusha, and instead models him as a union of Sky and Earth - I think both models are true and that the Norse Cosmogony has compressed these roles uniquely into Ymir).

The Greek Milk-Goddesses

Greco-Roman sources have two possible reflexes of this Goddess-who-is-also-a-cow, except that one of them is actually a goat. I don't think that mythic transpositions from one animal to another are very common, and normally I'd reject this idea, but.. Amalthea, the goat-or-nymph who nurses Zeus, has a lot of mythemes that line up interestingly with the roles of the Cosmic-Cow Goddess and her close associates. So, I'll make an exception here and say that I believe Amalthea to be one of them.

The clearer parallel, Io, is literally sometimes a cow and sometimes a woman - it's not ambiguous, it's narratively played out. She has some other myths that tie her to Boann and to Renuka (who I deal with below), such as identity with a body of water and patronage of an intersexed/transgender youth.

The Greek Cosmogony doesn't have a clear Cosmogonic Cow, but it might have the shadow of one. The Greek Cosmogonic Waters-goddess is "Chaos". In most Greek versions her consorts are "Dark" themed (though, hmm.. like Cíar?) - no Aerial-Fire cosmogonic Giants. But in the Orphic cosmogony (5), her consort is Aether - a heavenly-airy deity with strong associations and even possible identifications with Zeus (who's not born yet). Well, if Aether is like a cosmogonic proto-Zeus (akin to how Lugaid is perhaps a cosmogonic proto-Lugh), then Aether's consort, Chaos, may be like a Cosmogonic proto-Hera.

It seems a stretch - but "Cow-Eyed" Hera is the goddess most strongly associated with Cows. Curiously, one of Hera's symbols, the Pomegranate, represents Immortality - and Immortality is also an association of Chaos'. Her milk creating the Milky Way seems to parallel the way that the Milky Way in Ireland is "Bealach na Bó Finne": "The Path of Boann", and it's speculated that the Saraswati river was also the Milky Way. In many respects though, Hera's myths more resemble the Mórrígan - roles that she often shares with a clearer Mórrígan/Badb parallel, Athena.

The Rivers, the Brine, the Soil

I've mentioned it before, starting with my first issue on Saint Íta, the main Saint of the Mórrígan: it's hard to miss connections between the Mórrígan and Eithne/Boann. It seems, at times, that they might be sisters - at others, mother/daughter to one another, possibly in alternating roles. And sometimes it just looks like Eithne is Danu in disguise.

They seem to favour similar men with their love, and many kings and heroes marry multiple women whose names suggest they belong to either group. Eithne/Boann's watery associations are much clearer, but (again, as discussed for Íta) there are water-myths for several Mórrígna too, and clues suggesting a generally maritime nature.

"Mórrígan" herself (as opposed to the trinity Goddess) is understood to be Ana/Danu, the titular mother of the Tuatha Dé Danann, but only has one child we know of: Meichi. Danu is probably mother to many of An Dagda's offspring such as Aed, Cermait, and Brighid - and based on the relationship of "Saints" Íta, Erc, and Bréanainn, it seems clear to me that she's the mother of Midir. Indeed, Saint Íta preserves an impression of the strong maternity of this goddess towards several god-saints. But, it's Eithne/Boann who's mother to at least three others: Aengus, Cormac/Cairbre, and Lugh..as well as being great-grandmother and sort-of foster-mother to Fionn.

Additionally, it's said of Anu/Danu in Sanas Chormaic: "It was well she nursed the gods" - a link again to feeding and milk that would seem better-aligned with the cluster of milk-animal Goddesses Auðumbla, Viraja, Amalthea, and Boann. Danu is even linked to the paired mountains the "Dá Chich Anann": the "Paps of Anu", which have large stone cairns atop them to resemble nipples.

This tie to a physical and fertile location for Danu raises another confusion and complication: there are other linkages between these two goddesses and the "Earth Goddess" cluster: Tailtiú, Ériú, Banba, Fódla. Although they are less fully identified, the Earth Goddesses seem rather subordinated to the Mórrígna in particular. The Tutelary role of the Mórrígna and what that means for the Earth Goddesses has been speculated about - the Earth Goddesses seem to be the land, but don't seem to always be the arbiters of kingship like the Mórrígna. Though, Danu and Macha do seem to have identity with their respective lands. It's not clear.

Looking at our nearest-neighbours in Wales, Macha's clearest parallel there is Rhiannon.. but Rhiannon seems to be a mother to a Divine Twin, Pryderi, who might parallel Aengus.. and in Irish myth, Aengus is son of Boann. But Macha's not Boann, right?

These ambiguities between the Mother, War, Earth, Water Goddess are not limited to Ireland. In fact, goddesses generally in the PIE religion were more prone than male gods to drift into one anothers' identities and divine dominions, so comparisons can be messy in places. However, I think it might be fair to say that the Earth and Water goddesses are more prone than most to being conflated with one another than either is with, say, the Fire or Celestial goddesses.

This has bearings on my project, because I had been modelling "Moninne"/"Darerca" as possible Saintly reflexes of Tailtiú, and I found a number of mythemes to support that theory.. but I also found mythemes that made them resemble Mórrígna. Worse, there's also a Moninne celebrated on the same day as today's Saint Eithne: July 6th. And the Moninnas and Darercas have alternate names like "Sárbhile" and "Derbhile" that seem to link them to Bíle, again - which might be a connection of Eithne's.

So, are the Freshwater Goddesses literally also the Earth Goddesses? Are they literally also the Mórrígna, some of whom seem more maritime in nature? I would say "no more than Hera is Athena", or "No more than Saraswati is Aditi". We can see the lines connecting them, and the adherents of the religions in the past could probably see them too. But they're still viewed distinctly.

Patron of the Queer?

The Generally-accepted Pride Month may be over in Ireland, but it's celebrated in July here in Cork (or, August this year?). I joked in Nechtan's issue that I'd put some Queerness into this issue in homage - there's not much, but here you go.

In Nechtan's issue, I deferred examining Jamadagni's wife Renuka, because she has parallels with Boann better suited to this issue: She has a transgression against her husband that's linked to a body of water; She has a conflict with a Warrior Twin, as Fidelm does; In some traditions, she dies in a body of water that becomes identified with her. She's an incarnation of Mahadevi, the supreme goddess who's composed of all other key goddesses, including Aditi and Saraswati.

One thing Renuka is missing is a Cow-Nature, but that's probably because there's another Cow Goddess right there: the White Cow Goddess Kamadhenu. In her own way, Kamadhenu looks awfully like Viraja in incarnate form: an effortlessly abundant cow-goddess whose body is interpreted to be composed of other cosmic entities or objects. So, Renuka doesn't have those bits - they're taken.

What she does have is an interesting correspondence with Greek Io, a Cow Goddess who's also associated with a body of water named for her (again, like Boann). As Renuka becomes patroness of a class of (to a Westernised understanding) Trans Women after the revival of her castrated sons (7), Io (in her syncretism with Isis) becomes patron to a trans man.

Reinforcing this identification, Io also has a myth that connects her directly to Boann (besides being a Cow goddess): when as a Cow, she is captured from Hera's control by Hermes, who maims or kills the guardian Argus. This resembles the way that Cúchulainn in Ces Ulaid maims Nechtan to claim salmon from the river Boann, possibly claiming Fidelm in the process. Of course, Hermes is a peaceable twin, so he succeeds through trickery, whereas Cúchulainn is a warrior twin and just assaults Nechan outright. In some versions of the Hermes/Io/Argus myth, Hermes throws a stone at Argus - curiously, Nechtan throws a stone at Cúchulainn.

So, while we don't have a queer nuturing myth for Eithne or Boann that I'm aware of, we have a triune cross-identification that links Boann to two other goddesses, Renuka and Io, who do have patronage over genderqueerness in some way. Happy (Cork) Pride!

Wrap-Up

Eithne and Fidelm(a) are both names in use, although the latter is less used these days. I'm unaware of any Boanns, though.

If we consider the similarities of Boann and Sionnann's myths, then Sionann is a name in use too, though generally in anglicised form as "Shannon".

Obviously, the river Boann itself, and possibly the Shannon, would be sacred waters to the goddesses of same. But the whole point of this goddess' associations is that she is probably all freshwater. When people attend a holy well, in addition to the patron of that well there are at least two common symbolic representations of the cosmogonic gods: the holy tree can be seen as representing Bile, the Creator-Demiurge, while the waters represent the land and water - Eithne/Boann.

As to animal associations, Cows are obviously key. But looking at Hera and Saraswati and Kamadhenu, one can also observe a connection to white birds and to peacocks, curiously enough. Even Io's myths bring Peacocks in - when Argus dies, his eyes are placed in the plumage of the Peacock.

Footnotes

1. "Fedelm" and the male form "Fidlimid" share a word particle, "Fid" that probably derives from PIE "*weid-", thought to be the common origin connecting Celtic words like "Druid", "Gwynn", "Fionn" to English "Wise" to the Hindu "Rig Veda". The main meanings of these words generally connect them to "Knowing" and "Seeing", but with an odd Celtic side-order of "White".
2. Including: Segais, River Segsa, The Arm of the Wife of Nuadu, The Thigh of the Wife of Nuadu, The Boyne, Manchuing Arcait, The Marrow of the Woman Fedelm. Note; I'm unaware of any other primary source that makes it this explicit that Elcmar/Nechtan may be the same as Nuada/Nuadu, through the stated marriage to Boann.
3. Nuada's hands or arms getting maimed is obviously a thing of his, but inflicting or treating maimed feet and hands seem also to be a trait of the Divine Twin. In Taliesin's Map's model he considers Typhon to belong to the "Vishnu" type (in my view, Warrior Twin) and considers Typhon's removal of Zeus' sinews to be part of the comparative case. In some versions Hermes restores them - making it so a demonic-warrior Twin removes them, and a peaceable Twin restores them.
4. Note for ex. the ~faithful preservation of Lugh's conception and youth story in the Oral Tradition alone until the 19thC collections, a story that appears congruent with Saint-Myths of Lugh.
5. Officially, the Orphic religion and mythology was a later development in Greece, but many details of Orphism appear more comparable to wider PIE mythologies than the "stock" Greek myths - I think the cause for this is still a mystery.
6. Indeed, perhaps the original form of the war by Nuada upon the Fir Bolg was one of succession from An Dagda himself, resembling the war of Cronus upon the sky-god Uranos. The later arrival of Lugh who smoothly succeeds from Nuada could then resemble the succession of Zeus over Cronus, with Lugh defeating a demonised form of Nuada (a sort of Kingly-Fionn) instead: Balor.
7. Yes, it seems odd to see castrated men as being "trans" - but Renuka's nevertheless come to be understood as a patron of this distinct genderqueer group.

Coming Up

• 24th July: Déclán: (One) Saintly form of An Dagda, the cosmic wind who reveals land from the ocean, kindler and supporter of Lugaid.
• 11th Aug: Athracht, another complex female deity blurring the lines this time between the waters and the heavens.