Brig the grieving mother

[nellie]

Hello everyone!
How are you all?

I've been thinking a little about Briganti as a possible dawn goddess. I find it interesting that the Irish story of Brig losing her son - involving a divine smith kinsman, has echos in the Greek story of the dawn goddess Eos losing her son, also involving a divine smith kinsman. I'd be interested to hear what you think of Briganti as possibly having roots as a dawn goddess...

... And I'm wondering about that fragment that tells us Dylan was killed was killed by his uncle Govannon. Is there any chance this incident could be a Brythonic version of the story of Brig's grief?

[Chad]

I never looked at it that way. That's a very interesting point. Dylan is the son of Arianrhod in Y Mabinogi. I remember that Govannon killed him in the story. There would almost certaimly be a Govannon/Goibnu connenction. An Arianrhod/Brigantia connection? Maybe. That could be an interesting topic right there. I wouldn't know what to think of that. There could have easily been some type of adaptation in a story as old as that.

[potia]

As the Mabinogi was written in medieval times I don't think relying on that is a good idea


However the idea of Brigantia as a dawn Goddess is not a new one to me. Gellifach wrote a great article about it a while ago at:
musingsfromgellifach.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/brigit-as-goddess-of-dawn.html

[Chad]

Right. That's why I assume that other characters would have been substituted for gods and goddesses that may have either: a) Were lost by the time the tales were written down on paper. Or b) Were remembered, if only slightly, and were purposely omitted because they were very well loved gods or goddessed from folk memory.

I bear in assumption that many gods and goddesses names were probably still known at that time, although I doubt there were any actual Pagans left by the 1100s. Some of the old names were probably still known at that time, though. Most likely in rural reaches by people who were probably illiterate, therefore no written records of those stories, which would probably have been outright banned by the Chutch, would exist. However, this is merely conjecture on my part.

[lorna]

Wow, that Gallifach essay is really informative. Although I've known Brigantia for a few years I had never thought of her as being associated with dawn before, although in the context of the celestial Brigantia inscription and the fact Imbolc sits in the place of dawn on the wheel of the year this makes perfect sense. Thanks for posting this thread folks.

[nellie]

Gellifach rocks and I trust her conclusions far more than my own.

I agree I'm on wobbly turf with the medieval stuff, but...y'know. I suppose Silver Wheel (assuming that is correct) being the dawn breaking over the horizon is trying to push the evidence a touch Have a read somewhere Arianrhod descrbed as somthing like a summer dawn? I can't remember where I've got this from at all though, so possibly I'm talking nonsense (again, ha!)