St. Patrick of Ireland by Philip Freeman

Author:Philip Freeman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2004-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE PRIMARY SOURCES for Celtic religion in Ireland are tales dating from medieval Christian times that recall the days before the faith arrived on the island. These sources are a treasure trove of information, but we have to be cautious in our interpretations since they were all recorded by Christian clergy or those trained in a Christian setting.

In the Irish epic Táin Bó Cuailnge, for example, the warrior queen Medb and her husband, Ailill, command a massive force that invades the land of Ulster to capture a glorious bull. Medb is the epitome of a fierce and powerful female leader who inspires armies and practices a promiscuity unavailable to the average Irish woman. “I’ve never been with a man unless I had another waiting in the wings,” she boldly tells her husband, from whom she demands a total lack of jealousy in spite of her frequent and open dalliances. Medb, whose name means “intoxicating,” has a role that is clearly supernatural and pre-Christian in origin. She offers herself to the best and strongest of warriors and kings as a reward for bravery and loyalty. Just underneath the medieval story, it’s tempting to see Medb as a Celtic sovereignty goddess who dispenses power and legitimizes rule as a representative of the divine land.

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