- Chapter Twenty-Three -
goddess Brigid, who was adored by poets, smiths and medical practitioners and who
is clearly the goddess whom Caesar equated with Minerva. There are other claimants
to this role in the Celtic mythology, but hers must be the place of honour. She was
mother-goddess par excellence, a seasonal deity, and she presided over the important
purification feast of Imbolc. As a Christian saint, many elements of her cult legend
were taken over into Christianity, and her cultus is found widely over Europe.
In Wales she is venerated as Sant Ffraid. Her festival was clearly acceptable to the
church as, apart from anything else, it coincided with the Christian feast of the
purification of the Virgin.
In Scottish Gaelic tradition the saint is venerated as the midwife of Mary, and in
the Outer Hebrides her festival attracted a very ancient stratum of custom and belief.
Of great interest is the fact that the recitation of Brigid's ancestry (sloinntireachd)
was current in the Catholic islands until the nineteenth century, where it was believed
to have efficacious powers. Imbolc was (and is) known as Latha Feill Bhride, 'The
Day of the Festival of Bride', the Gaelic form of the name, and many legends and
archaic customs adhered to this special day. She is 'said to preside over fire'
(Carmichael 1928: 164), which is interesting in view of the fact that the Irish Brigid
had a perpetually burning fire at Kildare, guarded by nineteen virgins, and no man
might approach her shrine. Christ was known as Dalta Bride in the southern
Hebrides, 'the foster-son of Bride'. Images of the goddess-saint were fashioned
down to the twentieth century and adorned with greenery and early flowers, shells
and pretty stones. These images were carried in procession by the girls round every
house. A special bannock was made, known as bonnach Bride, and this was
consumed at a feast in her honour.
In Ireland the churn-staff was fashioned into the likeness of a woman, an inter-
esting association with milk and dairy produce for which the saint was renowned;
and this likeness was dressed as a woman called Brideog, 'Little Bride' (Danaher
1972: 13 ff.).
Perhaps the most interesting and archaic of the Brigid rituals is that in which a
serpent plays a central role (Carmichael 1928: 169). One is reminded of the Gaulish
goddesses who are portayed holding or accompanied by serpents (Green 1989: 62,
fig. 24, for example), and the relief of the goddess Verbeia, eponymous goddess of
the river Wharfe in Yorkshire, which was found at Ilkley. She holds a serpent in
either hand (Ross 1992: 279).
Brigid the saint was the daughter of a druid, Dubthach, and her future glory was
prophesied by a druid named Mathgen. In spite of her pagan background she was
welcomed into Christianity, and became one of the most popular and best loved of
all the Celtic saints.
Beltain
Cormac, in his ninth-century Irish glossary, has two explanations for the name of the
second great seasonal festival of Ireland, which is still called Beltain (Bealtain) in
Scotland and Ireland, and Calan Mai in Wales. The first connects the fire with good
luck (bil-tene) and says: 'that is, two fires which Druids used to make with great
incantations', a piece of information on actual druidic ritual. Furthermore Cormac