Invisible spacer images for visual layout only
Celtic Paganism
Invisible spacer images for visual layout only
Black Irish > Celtic Paganism > Notes > 04/03/01

Macha Stories

  • Labor Pains of the Ulstermen
  • Twins of Macha
  • Gantz, pp. 127 - 129
  • Otherworld woman seeking out chosen mortal
    • cf. Etáin variation -- goddess stays in Otherworld, we get a virtual image -- not a proper server -- only the sovereignty goddess can pour. Mortal equivalent of goddess.
  • Crunnnniuc
    • landowner
    • woman comes to him, keeps house, goes to bed with him, stays a long time, brings him prosperity
  • Annual feast
    • she doesn't go (outsider)
    • Oinach
    • periods of renewal for the whole community
    • manditory to attend
    • cf. classical commentaries about votive offerings
      • if one disturbed them, one was ostrasized, couldn't participate in annual renewals
  • Crunniuc goes to the feast
    • she tells him not to be careless with his words
    • as part of the celbration, horse racing
    • everyone is praising the kings horses for the speed
    • Crunniuc says his wife is that fast
      • messed up
      • why would he say such a thing?
      • have to establish her equine aspects
      • recognize that the divine is present
        • Are you going? Yes, god willing...
        • Yes, they're fast, but the horse goddess is the source
        • a caution not to brag without aknowledging their true source of speed
  • Crunniuc is seized
    • wife compelled to prove
    • begs to be let off -- pregnant
    • made to race
    • p. 129. races, won, gave birth as chariot finished
      • a son and a daughter
      • emuin = twins
    • any man who heard her, birth pains
    • That was version 1.
  • Handout #1
    • Macha -- verse version, prose version
    • dindshenchas
      • dind -- famous places
      • senchas -- history/lore/legend
    • Ard Macha
      • different versions of who Macha was and her fate
      • Macha who shaped with her brooch the plain versus wife of Nemhedh version
    • pangs
      • Cruind
      • 2 horses to warrior horse race
      • Mag Da Gabra
        • plain of the 2 horses
      • come from ocean waves
        • horses that pull sea-god's chariot
        • M. mac Lir
      • alternate names
        • grian = sun, Macha, sun of womankind
        • daughter of Midir
    • bared herself, loosened her hair
      • losing human identity -- clothes -- human trappings
      • Continental Celts fighting nakid -- contest
    • twins
      • Fir and Fial
    • in time of war, labor pangs
    • then she died
      • buried alone in Ad Macha
  • prose handout
    • Macha Redmane
      • mongruadh
        • mong -- mane of horse
    • 3 kings in Ireland
    • divided reign among the 3, taking turns, 7 years each
    • 1 dies, Aed Ruadh
      • when it's his turn, his daughter takes over, r., battle, Macha wins
      • drives others off -- banished
    • sons -- Dithurba
    • she goes after them, in wood, disguises herself as a leper
      • rubbed rye dough over her body
    • each of them carries her off to mate with her, she ties them up
      • Where's he? He's too ashamed to come back, ashamed to lie with a leper
    • ties them all up
    • carried the 5 sons away -- orders them to dig the Rath
      • preferred slaves to killing them
    • traced with her brooch pin, then they dug the trench
      • eó-muin
  • or the Crunnchu story
  • Emain Macha /v/ /v/
    • seat of high kingship of Ulster
    • most important site
    • Conchuber rules, Cu Chulaind brought up there
    • setting of heroic Ulster cycle of tales
  • archeological evidence
    • not residential center, ceremonial site
    • David Robinson essay
      • CJ Linn -- physical (?) speculative
      • 40 m sturcutre
      • ~1000 BC, 40m diameter
      • 34 post pins, 3.5 m interval around
      • 4 concentric rings -- 200 large posts (roof-bearing?)
      • focus large post, 57cm diameter, 12m height
        • 200-year-old oak
          • 95 BC
      • engineering feat to raise
        • 3600 kg
      • possibly covered by a thatched roof
    • Navan Fort pictures
      • 600 trees, 3000 linear meters used if thatched
      • 35-40 years of age, carefully maintained woodlands
        • closely-controlled growth
        • 6 hectares, 100 trees/hectaire
      • deliberate management
    • Navan area -- largely open and treeless -- distance transport
      • strong organization needed
      • i fstraw/thatch -- 33 hectares of arable land
    • inside -- limestone blocks -- 3m c.
      • 3200 cubic meters quarried and transported
      • 1200/cublic meter -->3,840,000 kg
    • project had to be conceived early over several generations, and supervised by secular goverment and priestly class. Community project. resources of community/enviornment over a long period of time.
    • very important
    • then burned all exposed parts
    • then immediately after, sodded over
      • 2.5m height
    • major material brought from another site
      • built to be burned and then covered over
      • site to honor Macha
      • shows the importance of Macha
  • narratives emphasize
    • equine nature of sovereignty in Ireland
    • rye-dough
      • aspect of sovereignty goddess
        • when not with proper mate, ugly
        • but embrased by proper mate, a beautiful woman
    • rt of Macha -- another similar mount
      • Haughey's Fort
        • might be the other tiwn
        • 2 similar mounds close together
      • ritual pools adjacent to both
        • Loch na Sét /d/ -- Lake of treasures -- Macha
        • The King's Stables -- by Haughey's Fort
          • modern name, but ... equine nature of tradition
  • Macha, wife of Nemhedh
    • 1st to die in Ireland
    • Nemhedh dug 2 roy forts in Ireland
      • Rath Cinn Eich
        • fort of the head of the horse
      • Rath Cimbaith
        • Name of 1 of surviving kings whom Macha takes as a mate
  • Macha as horse sacrifice?
    • Combrensis 12c -- didn't like Irish
      • next king -- horse sacrifice
        • white mare, king mates with it, it's killed, cooked in broth, king swims in broth
      • ~Ashvemeta SAnskrit -- genders reversed
      • guarantees fertility of the land
    • inaugeration of king -- marries sovereignty goddess
    • Macha -- pregnant woman, similar orbit
    • Ard Math remains sacred site even after Christianity

Invisible spacer images for visual layout only

Last Modified:Tuesday, March 26, 2002,©2002

Valid XHTML 1.0!Made with CSSValid CSS!