{"id":316,"date":"2014-11-13T19:23:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T19:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/2014\/11\/13\/excerpt-from-muimme-nafiann-foster-mother-of-heroes\/"},"modified":"2022-03-25T16:21:29","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T20:21:29","slug":"excerpt-from-muimme-nafiann-foster-mother-of-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/2014\/11\/13\/excerpt-from-muimme-nafiann-foster-mother-of-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt from “Muimme naFiann: Foster-mother of heroes”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0I’ve not blogged for awhile and am not sure when I will again. My writing focus was on getting a new submission for the next Air n-Aithesc<\/i><\/a> and since submitting it we’re trying to catch up on winterizing here, the flu had floored me during the time I had \"AnA<\/a>hoped to be doing most of this.\u00a0 As I have my submission for the summer issue done (for the most part, current reading<\/a> may make for a few alterations), I am hoping to focus on cobbling some of this stuff I’ve been putting into articles back into Teh Project<\/i> which, you know, it was all stolen from to begin with. ~;p (ETA: also need to get in some CEUs and will probably rewrite some fitness stuff specifically focused on the training program<\/a>) So….I figured I’d copy fellow AnA writer Morgan Daimler and post an excerpt from my article “Muimme naFiann<\/i>: Foster-mother of heroes” in the current issue. That would be Air n-Aithesc<\/i> Volume I Issue II Lughnasadh\/Samhain<\/a> which you can order right at that link should you wish to read the rest…<\/p>\n

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Muimme naFiann: Foster-mother of heroes<\/h2>\n
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When the subject of women warriors come up, Sc\u00e1thach, C\u00fa Chulainn\u2019s teacher, is one of the first noted, along with Medb.\u00a0 <\/span>Yet even more so than Medb, Sc\u00e1thach\u2019s story is not her own but a very brief part of C\u00fa Chulainn\u2019s. \u00a0<\/span>Much of what is \u201cknown\u201d about her today is embellishment. The idea that she is the <\/span><\/span>eponymous Goddess of the Isle of Skye, [i]<\/span><\/span><\/a> is a Goddess of War, the dead and even blacksmiths is found repeated within Pagan sources.[ii]<\/span><\/span><\/a> However, while some of these concepts, like the association with Skye, did come about late within Gaelic culture, the others appear to have developed even later outside of the culture, primarily within the Pagan community.[iii]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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What we do know about her is that she taught warriors, most notably C\u00fa Chulainn, and had a gift of prophecy. And in this she is not alone, for Finn Mac Cumhail\u2019s lesser-known foster-mother(s), especially Bodbmall, shared similar traits. <\/span>Nagy stated, \u201c\u2026it would seem that Bodbmall, B\u00faanann, and Sc\u00e1thach are all multiforms of a supernatural martial foster-mother figure who appears in various contexts.\u201d[iv]<\/span><\/span><\/a>We have no stories for B\u00faanann. \u00a0<\/span><\/span>Sc\u00e1thach is called Sc\u00e1thaig Buanand<\/i> in one version of the T\u00e1in B\u00f3 C\u00faalnge,<\/span><\/i> <\/i>which O\u2019Rahilly translates as \u201cSc\u00e1thach the victorious.\u201d[v]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> The name, however, appears in the <\/span>Sanas Cormaic (<\/i>\u201cCormac\u2019s Glossary\u201d) described as \u201cmuimme nafiann\u201d<\/i>(\u201cfoster-mother of heroes\u201d) and related to the role of Anann as mother of the Gods.[vi]<\/span><\/span><\/a>Anann is one of the Daughters of Ernmais, the one usually identified as the Morr\u00edgan.[vii]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Many scholars do read these foster-mothers as supernatural beings, although seldom as actual Goddesses. [viii]<\/span><\/span><\/a> Certainly, Sc\u00e1thach\u2019s distant and hard to reach land and Finn\u2019s fosterers\u2019 wilderness hide-outs as well as their powers both as a warriors, often seen as unnatural for women, and as seers indeed mark them as Otherwordly.[ix]<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Sc\u00e1thach\u2019s title of \u201cB\u00faanann,\u201d and the name\u2019s connection with the Goddess Anann, may make Sc\u00e1thach seem to be the Goddess. \u00a0<\/span>Likewise, <\/span>a possible etymological relationship between the names Bodbmall and Badb raises the question as to whether she is supposed to be this War Goddess.[x]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest by purchasing Air n-Aithesc<\/i>\u00a0Volume I Issue II Lughnasadh\/Samhain<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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[i]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> There are a multitude of examples. Caitlin Matthews directly uses these words to describe her in several books, for example The Elements of the Celtic Tradition<\/i>, Element Books, 1989, pg. 76.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[ii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> I will not pick out one source for much of this, as where any of it came from originally is impossible to say. A quick online search brings up thousands of websites, often directly repeating each other with no further sourcing. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[iii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> Isle of Skye part has shown up even in somewhat academic sources. (<\/span>James MacKillop. Dictionary of Celtic Mythology<\/i>, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, pg. 410 for example) <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>How old a connection this was and when Sc\u00e1thach became connected to the MacDonald fort Dun Scaith is difficult to determine. The earliest reference I found to that she was on Skye was in Macpherson’s \u201cOssian\u201d inventions of the mid-18th<\/sup> century where he places her at the site and gives C\u00fa Chulainn the Dun in another tale.(<\/span>James Macpherson, The poems of Ossian, tr. by J. Macpherson. To which are prefixed dissertations on the era and poems of Ossian,<\/i> Oxford University Press, 1805, pg. 149; Macpherson, Hugh MacCallum, John MacCallum, \u201cConlaoch,\u201d An original collection of the poems of Ossian, Orann, Ulin, and other Bards, who flourished in the same age, <\/i>Watt, 1816, pg. 153-158;\u00a0 <\/span>John Gregorson Campbell also includes this location in recounting Macpherson\u2019s version of \u201cConlaoch\u201d in The Fians: or Stories, Poems & Traditions of Fionn and His Warrior Band<\/i>, Elibron Classics, 2005 (org. pub. Date 1891), pg. 6<\/span>) Stokes determined that the similarity between the Gaelic term for the Isle of Skye (An t-Eilean Sgitheanach<\/i>) and Scythia (Scithia<\/i>) was all that caused this connection, which he notes as popular at the time. (<\/span>Whitley Stokes, \u201cThe Training of C\u00fachulainn,\u201d Revue Celtique<\/i> 29, 1908, pg. 109 https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/revueceltiqu29pari).<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[iv]<\/span><\/span><\/a> Joseph Falaky Nagy, The Wisdom of the Outlaw: The Boyhood Deeds of Finn in Gaelic Narrative Tradition,<\/i>Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985, <\/span>pg. 264, footnote 13 following from pg. 102.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[v]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> Cecile O’Rahilly, trans. T\u00e1in B\u00f3 C\u00faalnge<\/i> from Book of Leinster<\/i> Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1967, pg. 95, 231 Irish http:\/\/www.ucc.ie\/celt\/published\/G301035\/index.html English http:\/\/www.ucc.ie\/celt\/published\/T301035\/index.html <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[vi]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> John O’Donovan, ed. and trans. (with notes and translations from Whitley Stokes) Sanas Cormaic<\/span><\/i> Calcutta: O. T. Cutter for the Irish Archeological and Celtic Society, 1868, http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=rX8NAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s \u00a0<\/span>pg. 17;<\/span> <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
Whitley Stokes, ed., \u2018Cormac\u2019s Glossary\u2019 in Three Irish Glossaries<\/span><\/i>, London: Williams and Norgate, 1862 http:\/\/www.ucd.ie\/tlh\/text\/ws.tig.001.text.html\u00a0 <\/span>pg. 6; see also <\/span>Nagy Wisdom of the Outlaw<\/i>, pg. 102; \u00a0<\/span>Angelique Gulermovich Epstein, \u201cWar Goddess: The Morr\u00edgan and her Germano-Celtic Counterparts\u201d dissertation, University of California in Los Angeles, 1998\u00a0 <\/span>ch. 2.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[vii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> Epstein, \u201cWar Goddess,\u201d ch.1; Kim Heijda, \u201cWar-goddesses, furies and scald crows: The use of the word badb in early Irish literature\u201d thesis, University of Utrecht, Feb. 27, 2007 <\/span><\/span>http:\/\/igitur-archive.library.uu.nl\/student-theses\/2007-0620-200703\/UUindex.html pg. 34; <\/span>Robert A. Stewart MacAlister, ed. and trans., Lebor Gab\u00e1la \u00c9renn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland,<\/i><\/span> Vol IV. Dublin: Irish Text Society, 1941 http:\/\/www.archive.org\/details\/leborgablare04macauoft <\/span><\/span><\/i>pg. 103, 130-131, 160-161, 188-189, I also discuss Anann as the Morr\u00edgan in \u201cMusings on the Irish War Goddesses,\u201d <\/span>Nicole Bonivusto, ed. By Blood, Bone and Blade: A Tribute to the Morrigan<\/i> Asheville, North Carolina: Bibliotheca\u00a0Alexandrina, 2014, <\/span>pg. 103.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[viii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> Proinsias Mac Cana mentions Sc\u00e1thach briefly under the heading of \u201cGoddesses of War\u201d on page 86 of Celtic Mythology<\/i>, NY: Peter Bedrick Books, 1987,\u00a0 <\/span>yet refers to her as \u201csupernatural\u201d on page 102; Rosalind Clark. The Great Queens: Irish Goddesses from The Morrigan to Cathleen ni Houlihan<\/i>, Savage, MD: Barnes and Nobel Books, 1991 pg. 28.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[ix]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> Miranda Green, Celtic Goddesses: Warriors, Virgins and Mothers, <\/i>New York: George Braziller, 1996, pg. 149; Nagy, The Wisdom of the Outlaw, <\/i>\u00a0<\/span>pg.109-111.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[x]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> Epstein, \u201cWar Goddess,\u201d ch 2.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2014 Saigh Kym Lambert <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0I’ve not blogged for awhile and am not sure when I will again. My writing focus was on getting a new submission for the next Air n-Aithesc and since submitting it we’re trying to catch up on winterizing here, the flu had floored me during the time I had hoped to be doing most of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[19,31,56,11,7,20,14,54,18,17,32,55,33,27,10],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pad6Py-56","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1164,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/1164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dunsgathan.net\/feannog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}