Monaghan Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore

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rescuer. Her recovery seems to have been com-

plete, for when Dubh Rois was later killed in

battle, she did not go mad again but became a

BARD to lament his loss. The parallel of this story

with the familiar Irish tale of a goddess of SOV-

EREIGNTY who appears as a HAG until kissed,

whereupon she becomes a beautiful girl, has

been noted by scholars. The story is also similar,

with a gender reversal, to the Sumerian myth of

the taming of the wild man Enkidu by the tem-

ple woman Siduri.

mistletoe Symbolic plant. An evergreen para-

sitic plant that grows on deciduous trees and

shrubs, the mistletoe (Viscum album) retains

some of its ancient symbolic power even today.

The British tradition of placing a sprig of mistle-

toe in the home at the winter holidays, under

which kissing rituals take place, is still common

in England and America today. The associations

of mistletoe with pre-Christian religion are still

so strong that it is not used in church decora-

tions, reflecting an ancient belief that it was sac-

rilegious to bring it into church.

The Roman author Pliny the Elder said

mistletoe was the DRUIDS’ most sacred plant,

especially when it grew on an OAK—a tree sacred

to the Celtic priesthood. He said the plant was

harvested in ritual fashion on the sixth day after

the new moon. After a ritual banquet, two white

BULLS with bound horns were led to the mistle-

toe-bearing tree and were slaughtered after the

plant was cut down with a golden sickle. A

mistletoe harvested under such circumstances—

called “all-heal”—was believed to be powerful

medicine against barrenness and impotence, as

well as a remedy for poisons.

Source: Crow, W. B. “The Mistletoe Sacrament.”

In Matthews, John. A Celtic Reader: Selections

from Celtic Legend, Scholarship and Story.

ellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1991.

Mithras Persian deity. Although found in

Celtic lands, especially in Britain around the

region of Hadrian’s Wall, this deity of light was

not Celtic but imported by the Roman legions,

for there were many legionnaires who were

especially devoted to Mithras. His temples,

called Mithraea, were the site of the blood ritual

called the Tauroboleum, in which a worshiper

was drenched in the blood of a newly slaugh-

tered BULL as a kind of baptism. There is no evi-

dence that the rite was used by the Celts, who

had their own bull ritual called the

BULL-SLEEP.

Moccus Continental Celtic god. Known from

only one inscription that includes his name,

which may mean “PIG,” this god was identified

by the Romans with their deity MERCURY.

Modron (Madrun) Welsh goddess. In the

Welsh mythological texts called the MABINOGION,

we find references to this obscure goddess whose

name means “mother,” making her parallel to

the continental Celtic goddesses called DEAE

MATRES, “the divine mothers” as well as to

MATRONA, “mother.” Little myth is attached to

her, which has led some to envision her as an

early, even pre-Celtic, divinity whose name sur-

vived while her narratives and rituals were lost.

In Cornwall a SAINT called Madrun or Madron is

found, possibly a Christianization of the earlier

goddess; rituals at St. Madrun’s WELL include

dropping PINS into the water to foresee the

future health of the petitioner.

Mogetius Continental Celtic god. An

obscure god mentioned in two inscriptions,

Mogetius was identified by the Romans with

their deity of war, MARS.

Mogons (Mogounos) Continental Celtic god.

This obscure god may derive his name from a

word meaning “to increase,” suggesting a divinity

of strength and FERTILITY.

Mog Ruith (Mug Ruith) Irish hero. Several

medieval Irish sources mention this DRUID,

334 mistletoe

whose name has been interpreted to mean “the

wheel magician” under the assumption that he

used a wheel as a tool for DIVINATION. His leg-

end involves travels to the eastern Mediterranean,

where he met Simon Magus, a great magician;

there Mog Ruith followed king Herod’s com-

mand to cut off the head of the early follower of

Christ, John the Baptist. For this ancient crime

of Mog Ruith’s, the Irish have suffered famine

and other tragedies.

Some texts give him as the father of the mys-

terious TLACHTGA, after whom a significant

mythological site is named. He is described as

MUNSTER’s chief druid, who saved their warriors

in battle by miraculously drilling a WELL with an

arrow or spear. Then he built a fire from the

wood of magical ROWAN trees, over which he

chanted incantations until he saw clearly enough

to prophesy victory. Suited in a bird cloak, he

flew into the air and did battle with the opposing

druids, while the Munster warriors killed their

foes beneath him.

Molling (St. Molling) Irish legendary figure.

A quasi-historical figure who lived in the seventh

century C.E., Molling was absorbed into Celtic

legends of FIONN MAC CUMHAILL, who is said to

have been the saint’s foster brother. The magical

SMITH, GOBAN SAOR, built Molling’s church for

him from sacred trees. It was at Molling’s church

that king SUIBHNE died after living as a madman.

Such mythological motifs often were connected

with historical figures in order to extend their

sacred powers.

Mollyndroat Manx folkloric figure. On the

Isle of Man we find the tale of a GIANT who served

an evil DRUID. In a story similar to the familiar

European tale of Rumpelstiltskin, Mollyndroat

held a woman captive and refused to set her free

until she guessed his name. This folkloric figure

may be connected with the evil giant MELEAGANT,

also known as Mellyagraunce, who in Arthurian

legend kidnapped queen GUINEVERE.

Moltinus Continental Celtic god. His name

shares its derivation with contemporary words

referring to sheep (English mutton, French

mouton) and has been interpreted to mean

“ram.” This god is known from only two

inscriptions, and unlike many other Celtic

gods, he was not identified by the Romans with

one of their own divinities.

Mona See ANGLESEY.

Monday, Tuesday Folkloric motif. A com-

mon tale told of the FAIRIES is that, although they

love dancing and singing, they had a limited

musical repertoire. They sang, over and over,

the words “Monday, Tuesday” (in Irish, Da

Luan, Da Mart). A hunchback, irritated by their

repetitive song, once added “and Wednesday”

(Agus da Cadin) to their song, causing them great

excitement and delight. In gratitude for their

new melody, the fairies removed the man’s

hunch, and he walked away straight as an arrow.

Another hunchback in the vicinity, hearing the

story, rushed to the same place and waited until

the fairies arrived. The moment they started

singing he interrupted them with “and Friday”

(Agus da Hena), and the fairies, incensed at his

rudeness, promptly gave him the first man’s

hump on top of his own.

Mongán (Mongan) Irish hero. An historical

king of the seventh century C.E., Mongán

nonetheless is partially mythological. Said to be

the son of the sea god MANANNÁN MAC LIR,

Mongán (“hairy fellow,” a name reputedly given

him when he was born with a full head of HAIR)

inherited his father’s SHAPE-SHIFTING talent as

well as his ability to move between this world

and the OTHERWORLD.

Mongán was conceived when his divine father

disguised himself as a human king, a motif that

parallels the story of the conception of king

ARTHUR; Mongán is also described as the reincar-

nation of the Irish hero FIONN MAC CUMHAILL,

Mongán 335

whose fair wife GRÁINNE ran off with the hero

DIARMAIT in a story parallel to that of GUINEVERE

and LANCELOT. Thus Mongán, however histori-

cal his reign, seems also to reflect an ancient

Celtic tale of the goddess of SOVEREIGNTY.

Source: Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris

Slover, eds. Ancient Irish Tales. New York:

Henry Holt and Co., 1936, p. 546.

Mongfhinn (Mongfhin, Mongfhionn) Irish

heroine. Her name was used as a charm to keep

away evil spirits, but Mongfhinn herself was not

especially pleasant. Stepmother or foster mother

to NIALL of the Nine Hostages, she tried to poi-

son him but instead killed herself on SAMHAIN

night, the feast of winter’s beginning on

November 1. In some areas of Ireland that holi-

day was called the Festival of Monghfinn. This

obscure figure may have originally been an

important goddess, for her name includes the

divine syllable fionn, “light,” and women once

prayed to her on Samhain.

monster Folkloric figure. The monsters of

one people were often the gods of an earlier peo-

ple. In many Celtic lands, rather than becoming

monstrously large and frightening, the old deities

became smaller and rather appealing, like the

LEPRECHAUNS and FAIRIES that are found in the

folklore of Ireland and Scotland. GIANTS are also

found, especially in Britain, behind whose awful

visages hide elder gods. Goddesses were often

vilified by followers of male-centered monothe-

ism, so that some monstrous female figures, like

the CAILLEACH, are derogatory descriptions of

powerful early deities. Monstrosity of itself does

not always indicate divinity, unless combined

with SHAPE-SHIFTING or other magical powers.

moon Cosmological concept. The moon,

with its changing phases and its connection with

the tides, was a natural object of importance to

the Celts as to most other cultures. The Celts

originally divided the year according to moons,

according to the Roman author Pliny, with the

new moon beginning each month as the night

began each day. Festivals were celebrated at

moonrise; thus we have May Eve, the evening

before BELTANE, and Hallowe’en, the evening

before SAMHAIN.

Some scholars believe that the moon was

especially significant to agriculturalists, because

the moon’s waxing and waning was believed to

influence the growth of plants, just as it does the

movement of the tides. An indication of Celtic

awareness of the lunar waxing/waning cycle is

found in the belief that

MISTLETOE and other

magical plants should be harvested under a wan-

ing moon—the declining light of the luminary

indicating that time was ripe for endings. In the

Scottish Highlands, similarly, sowing was always

done under a waxing moon, with the belief that

as the moon swelled, so would the tiny plants

within the seeds.

There is also evidence of ancient lunar rituals;

the Roman author Strabo tells of night-long

dancing among the Celts when the moon was

full. Through the 18th century, such dances were

held at STONE CIRCLES in the Scottish Highlands.

In the 19th century people in the insular Celtic

lands still bowed and curtseyed to the new moon,

while in Cornwall people merely nodded while

reaching into their pockets to touch their money

for good luck. In Ireland a full moon brought

people to crossroads where they danced beneath

its pearly light; the tradition was almost elimi-

nated through priestly opposition but has been

recently revived in the area around Ennis, Co.

Clare, and other rural regions.

Sources: Carmichael, Alexander. Carmina Gadelica:

Hymns and Incantations. Hudson, N.Y.:

Lindisfarne Press, 1992, p. 578; Hull, Eleanor.

Folklore of the British Isles. London: Methuen &

Co., Ltd., 1928, pp. 61 ff; Leather, Ella Mary.

The Folk-Lor

e of Herefordshire. London:

Sidewick & Jackson, 1912, pp. 15–16;

MacCulloch, J. A. The Religion of the Ancient

Celts. London: Constable, 1911, pp. 173–179.

336 Mongfhinn

Mór (Mor, Mór Mumhan) Irish goddess or

heroine. This female figure, whose name means

“big” or “great,” has been described as the land

goddess of the southwestern PROVINCE of MUN-

STER; her full name means “the great one of

Munster,” and the term Mór was often used of

territorial goddesses. Like many other ancient

goddesses, she shrank into a figure of folktale.

Once, it was said, a woman named Mór arrived

with her husband Lear (possibly LIR, an early sea

god) at the promontory in Co. Kerry that bears

her name. They built a house not far from there,

at the foot of Mount Eagle. Lear and Mór lived

there comfortably, for the sea brought them any-

thing they wished. (There is an echo in this tale of

stories of MERMAIDS who lived off the spoils of

ships they had caused to be wrecked at sea.)

One day Mór climbed to the top of the

mountain above her and, for the first time, saw

how large was the land in which she dwelled.

While there on the mountain she was, as they

say in the Irish countryside, “taken short,” and

squatted to relieve herself—a mythological

motif found in many stories of creation by god-

desses. To this day, the ravines that cut through

the mountains of Munster are said to have

resulted from Mór’s gigantic streams of URINE.

Mór’s happiness was destroyed when her

sons, the pride of her life, were lured into trying

their luck as seamen. As her happiness fled, so

did her power, for she withered up in sadness.

Her temper grew so bad that her husband left

her, sailing north and finally settling far away

from his desolate wife.

The vestiges of an ancient goddess can be

found in local folklore, for the place where Mór

came ashore—Dunmore Head, from Dún Mór,

Mór’s

HILLFORT—was also “Mary Geeran’s

house,” in Irish Ty-Vor-ney Gerane, possibly

Tigh Mhorie ni Greine, “the home of Mór, child

of the SUN.” Dunmore faces the setting sun, said

locally to be “Mór on her throne,” another sug-

gestion of a sun goddess. Additionally, the story

is told that Mór went mad and had to be tamed

by the king of the Munster stronghold of

Cashel—the same story told of MIS, the goddess

of the Slieve Mish mountains that bisect the

peninsula on which Mór was said to live. The

two may have originally been the same figure.

A similar GIANT woman of this name is found

in the Highlands of Scotland, where she was said

to have been the daughter of the otherwise

unknown Smûid, who was washed away in a flood

while carrying a group of travelers on her back.

Sources: Curtin, Jeremiah. Hero-Tales of Ireland.

New York: Benjamin Blom, 1894, p. xli; McKay,

John G. More West Highland Tales. Vol. 2.

Scottish Anthropological and Folklore Society.

Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1969, p. 54.

Morann Irish hero. According to several

medieval sources, Morann was a wise BREHON or

judge, who wore a chain around his neck that,

should he begin to speak false words or an unjust

sentence, tightened until it strangled him. It was

also said that if he placed this chain on the necks

of the accused, it worked the same way, stran-

gling them if they lied.

Morda Welsh hero. This minor figure in Welsh

mythology was an old man whose job was to tend

the fire beneath the goddess CERIDWEN’s great

CAULDRON. When the blind servant did not see

GWION taste the magical brew and so take the WIS-

DOM from the cauldron, Ceridwen was furious and

struck him so hard that one EYE fell out.

Mordred (Modred, Modreuant, Medrawd,

Medrawt) Arthurian hero. The illegitimate son

of king ARTHUR, conceived with Arthur’s half sis-

ter MORGAUSE through the machinations of the

magician MERLIN, Mordred was opposite to his

father in all ways. Where Arthur was magnani-

mous, Mordred was stingy; where Arthur was

brave, Mordred was cunning and cowardly, but it

was Mordred who finally brought down the great

dream of CAMELOT and the ROUND TABLE.

The legends of king Arthur have a basis in

Celtic myth, but they were elaborated by many

Mordred 337

generations of poets and imaginative writers,

who used the outline of the tale to paint evoca-

tive human portraits. The character of Mordred

as Arthur’s enemy was established in the 12th

century by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Prior to

that, as the Welsh hero Medrawd, he was a brave

warrior who died in the battle of CAMLAN. After

having been absorbed into the Arthurian legend

as the great king’s son and enemy, Mordred was

listed in the Welsh TRIADS as one of the “Three

Dishonored Men of the Island of Britain.”

Morfessa Irish hero. The magical race called

the TUATHA DÉ DANANN came to Ireland from

another land with four magnificent capitals, each

led by a master of wisdom rather than a king.

One of these cities was FALIAS, from which came

the great INAUGURATION STONE called the LIA

FÁIL. Morfessa, “great wisdom,” was the wisdom-

master of Falias, who gave the Tuatha Dé the

stone when they sailed for Ireland.

Morfran (Morfran fab Tegid) Welsh god or

hero. The son of the great goddess CERIDWEN

was an ugly child, and to make up for this disad-

vantage his mother determined that he would

become the world’s wisest person. She began

brewing a collection of herbs that would bring

him that

WISDOM, setting her servant boy GWION

to watch the CAULDRON. But Gwion accidentally

drank some of the brew, absorbing with it the wis-

dom and bringing down upon himself Ceridwen’s

wrath. Welsh myth says little more of Morfran,

save that his ugliness finally proved useful when

he escaped the battle of

CAMLAN because every-

one mistook him for a devil. (See AFAGDDU.)

Morfudd (Morfudd ferch Urien) Welsh

heroine. This obscure heroine was the daughter

of king URIEN; her mother may have been the

goddess MODRON.

Morgan (Morgen, Morgan Le Fay, Morgan la

fée, Morgaine, Morgana, Orva, Orna, Oua,

Orains, Ornais, Morgain, Moruein, Morganz)

Arthurian heroine. King ARTHUR had several half

sisters, children of their mother IGRAINE with her

first husband, duke GORLOIS of Cornwall. Two are

frequently confused because of their similar names

and their questionable behavior: the sorceress

Morgan and the ambitious queen MORGAUSE, who

may have originally been the same figure.

Morgan learned

MAGIC while still a child in a

convent boarding school; some legends say she

furthered her study with the great magician

MERLIN. She soon gained great powers of

enchantment. When slighted by her lover GUY-

OMARD, Morgan created the PERILOUS VALLEY

where any knight unfaithful to his lady would be

trapped by his self-created illusions. She ulti-

mately married a minor king, URIEN, and

became the mother of OWEIN, the knight who

wed the mysterious LADY OF THE FOUNTAIN in a

romantic Arthurian tale.

While her brother ascended to triumph at

CAMELOT, Morgan worked to bring disaster on

Arthur and his court, stealing and ultimately

destroying the magical scabbard of EXCALIBUR,

which protected the king in battle. Yet it was to

Morgan that Arthur was brought at the end of

his earthly life, so that she could take him to the

OTHERWORLD, to die or be healed there.

Behind the shadowy woman of legend stands

a powerful being whose close connection with

the Otherworld is made clear by her alternative

name of Morgan Le Fay, Morgan “the FAIRY” or,

even more powerfully, “the fate.” Early texts

describe her as the most beautiful of nine

women who lived on a FORTUNATE ISLE where

everything was astonishingly fertile; her sisters

were Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea,

Gliton, Tyronoe, and Thiten. Like many

another FAIRY LOVER, she attempted to seduce

men, fixing upon the fine knight LANCELOT as

her prey—but without success.

Morgan may be connected with a similarly

named goddess of Ireland, the MÓRRÍGAN, a divin-

ity of death and battle. She may have descended

from a sea goddess, for the name Morgan survives

as a Breton name for sea fairies who kidnap

338 Morfessa

human men, while in Wales LAKE spirits are called

Morgans; and the Fata Morgana, a sea mirage of

palaces and columns complete with its own

watery reflection, was according to medieval leg-

end created by Morgan.

Source: Loomis, Roger Sherman. Wales and the

Arthurian Legend. Cardiff: University of Wales

Press, 1956, pp. 105 ff.

Morgause (Morgawse) Arthurian heroine.

Morgause’s mother was IGRAINE, the beautiful

wife of the duke of Cornwall, GORLOIS. Knowing

that only the heroic UTHER PENDRAGON could

conceive a king with Igraine, the magician MER-

LIN enchanted Uther into the likeness of her

husband so that the wife would commit adultery

without realizing it. Arthur was thus conceived,

but Igraine already had several daughters by

Gorlois, including MORGAN and Morgause, who

became Arthur’s implacable enemies.

Yet Morgause also became his lover,

unknown to the two of them, through Merlin’s

meddling. When Arthur realized that he had

slept with his half sister, who had conceived the

child who would become his murderer, MOR-

DRED, he attempted to have all the children born

at that time killed. Morgause protected her child

by retreating to far Orkney, where she married

the king,

LOT. From Morgause, Mordred

learned to hate his father/uncle, and with her he

plotted the downfall of

CAMELOT.

Because of the similarity of their names, their

dispositions, and their opposition to Arthur,

Morgause and her sister Morgan are frequently

confused or conflated; they may have originally

been a single figure.

Morholt (Morhold) Irish hero. This Irish

GIANT was a warrior who annually came to the

land of king MARK of Cornwall, where he

claimed a tribute or tax. The strong knight TRIS-

TAN killed him, almost dying from Morholt’s

poisoned sword. Tristan later fell in love with

Morholt’s niece, the fair ISEULT.

Moriath (Moriath Morca) Irish heroine. “Sea-

land” is the meaning of the name of this princess

of ancient Ireland, daughter of the king of MUN-

STER in the far southwestern corner of the island.

Her story began when the high king Cobthach

killed his own brother LABHRAIGH Lorc, after

which he poisoned AILLIL Áine, the true king.

Aillil’s son, Labhraigh Moen, was soon banished

from the kingdom, but he allied himself with

Cobthach’s enemy, Moriath’s father, Scoriath.

The moment Labhraigh set eyes on Moriath,

he fell in love with her. Her father kept his

daughter closely guarded, so Labhraigh enlisted

the help of his illustrious harper,

CRAIPHTINE,

who played so sweetly that the entire court fell

into blissful sleep, permitting the lovers to

pledge their troth to each other. When

Labhraigh had to fight Cobthach, his harper

came again to the rescue, playing lulling

melodies so that the enemy army all went to

sleep while Labhraigh’s army, prepared with

earplugs, stayed wide awake. Upon ascending to

the throne of his own region, Labhraigh invited

Cobthach to a dinner, trapped him in an IRON

house, and burned him to death.

Some versions of this famous story have

Moriath as the wooer and her own harper as the

miraculous musician, bearing love poems and

messages to Labhraigh, who became king with

her help.

Source: O’ Rahilly, Thomas. Early Irish History and

Mythology. Dublin: The Dublin Institute for

Advanced Studies, 1946, p. 198.

Mórrígan (Morrigan, the Morrigan, Mórrígna,

Mórrigu, Mór-Ríoghain) Irish goddess. One of

the most important goddesses of ancient Ireland,

she was one of the TUATHA DÉ DANANN, the tribe

of the goddess DANU; she was also associated with

the FAIRY people, for she appears in some texts as

a white COW with RED ears, colors that elsewhere

indicate an OTHERWORLD origin. The Mórrígan

appears in other forms as well: as a gigantic

woman who foretells the future of those about to

Mórrígan 339

do battle (see WASHER AT THE FORD), as a CROW,

as an EEL, as a gray-red WOLF. Such SHAPE-

SHIFTING is commonly associated with divinities

connected with DRUIDS and BARDS, both of

whom were believed to have the power to change

their outward appearance at will. The Mórrígan

was herself a bard, singing her people to victory

at the great second battle of MAG TUIRED; she was

also a magician, casting

ORACLES and foretelling

the future. Most often, however, she took the

form of a BIRD to swoop over battlefields, devour-

ing the bodies of the slain.

A war goddess, Mórrígan is associated with

the other goddesses of battle: BADB, the scald-

crow; NEMAIN, who spreads panic; and MACHA,

the speedy horse of battle. Together they are

sometimes called the “three Mórrígna,” although

in other texts Mórrígan herself appears on the

list. Thus she is connected with triplicity, which

to the Celts meant intensification of power (see

THREE), even though the exact trinities vary.

Despite, or perhaps because of, her connec-

tion with war, Mórrígan is also depicted as hav-

ing an immense sexual appetite. In one memo-

rable myth, she had intercourse with the father

god, the DAGDA, who came upon her while she

was straddling a river and, overwhelmed by her

massive charms, fell upon her lustfully. In

another tale, she so desired the great hero

CÚCHULAINN that she ambushed him, but when

he rejected her, she turned upon him in fury and

was injured in their fight.

Her relationship to the hero was equally

ambiguous in the tales of the ULSTER CYCLE,

especially in the precursor tale to the Irish epic,

the TÁIN BÓ CUAILNGE, called the Táin bó

Regamna. In that story the Mórrígan lusted after

Cúchulainn but also protected him in an almost

maternal fashion; she appeared to him in various

guises as he single-handedly defended the

province of Ulster against the invading warriors

of CONNACHT. When he went forth to his death,

she attempted, but without success, to stop him.

In the Táin the Mórrígan shadows that epic’s

major figure, queen MEDB, who herself was prob-

ably a diminished goddess. The Mórrígan may be

an alternative or Otherworld form of Medb, for

the cave from which the Mórrígan was said to

emerge (see OWEYNAGAT) was Medb’s birthplace

at Connacht’s capital of CRUACHAN. Like Medb

she was connected with TARA, where she cooked

on a spit that could hold three kinds of food at one

time: raw meat, cooked meat, and BUTTER, with

the raw cooking perfectly, the cooked remaining

unburnt, and the butter not melting away.

She had one son,

MEICHE, in whose heart

were three great SERPENTS. The hero MAC

CÉCHT killed him, because had he lived, the ser-

pents would have split his heart open and

devoured all of Ireland. Mac Cécht burned the

heart to ashes, then threw the ashes into a RIVER,

which boiled to death every living creature

within its waters.

The meaning of Morrígán’s name is dis-

puted, with some saying that it means “phantom

queen” and others “death queen,” while still oth-

ers derive it from a presumed early Indo-

European goddess Rigatona, “great queen.” The

derivation of her name from the word for “sea,”

common among early writers, is generally out of

fashion. The word mare that survives in “night-

mare” may be a related word; it refers not to a

HORSE but to a phantom or terrifying GHOST.

Yet others have described her as a version of

the land goddess known as Flaith or SOVER-

EIGNTY, for she was described as a HAG who

could transform herself into a young maiden.

Additionally, she is identified with a pair of

breast-shaped hills called dá chich na Mórrigna,

“the paps of Mórrígan,” near the BRÚ NA BOÍNNE

in Co. Meath, which echo the similarly shaped

hills devoted to the earth goddess of the

province of Munster, DANU.

Sources: Clark, Rosalind. The Great Queens: Irish

Goddesses from the Morrígan to Cathleen Ní

Houlihan. Irish Literary Studies 34. Gerrards

Cross: Colin Smythe, 1991; Dexter, Miriam

Robbins. Whence the Goddesses: A Sourcebook. New

York: Per

gamon Press, 1990, pp. 88–89; Gregory

Lady Augusta. Gods and Fighting Men: The Story

of the Tuatha De Danaan and of the Fianna of

340 Mórrígan

Ireland. New York: Oxford University Press,

1970, pp. 85 ff; Herbert, Máire. “Transmutations

of an Irish Goddess.” In Billington, Sandra, and

Miranda Green, eds. The Concept of the Goddess.

London and New York: Routledge, 1996, pp.

141–151; Hull, Eleanor

. The Cuchullin Saga in

Irish Literature. London: David Nutt, 1898, p.

103; Kinsella, Thomas, trans. The Tain. Dublin:

The Dolmen Press, 1969.

morris dancing British ritual. In parts of

rural Britain, springtime festivals were enlivened

by the presence of men dressed in pleated white

shirts and white trousers, wearing ribboned caps

and bells. A fiddler played while the dancers

stepped briskly about, led by a sword-carrying

dancer upon whose weapon a CAKE was impaled.

This traditional dance had its roots in a spring-

time ritual of renewal. The phallic symbolism of

the sword intensified that of the MAYPOLE, near

which the troupe often danced. The festival they

celebrated, BELTANE, often ended in licentious

behavior appropriate to the burgeoning season.

mother goddess Cosmological concept. As is

the case in other cultures, not all goddesses

among the Celts have maternal natures; there

are goddesses of war and land and power as well

as of motherhood. Yet the Celts clearly honored

the role of the human mother by deifying the

force of maternity in goddesses with simple

names such as DEAE MATRES, “the mothers,” or

MODRON, “mother.”

These divinities may harken back to a pre-

Celtic period, for there are evidences of mother

goddesses from as early as the neolithic period

(ca. 4000 B.C.E.) in Gaul, where the Celts did not

arrive until ca. 1500 B.C.E. The Celts may have

brought their own maternal divinities with them,

or they may have adopted the mother goddesses

of the indigenous people. Because there are no

written documents from pre-Roman Celtic

lands, the genesis or evolution of the Celtic

mother-goddess figures remains problematic, but

it is certain that by the time of the arrival of the

Roman legions in 400 B.C.E. the Celts had fully

embraced the image of the divine mother.

The mother or group of mothers was the most

frequently carved votive image in Romano-Celtic

religion, and many of these images are small

enough to suggest that they were used to adorn

household rather than public altars. Others were

substantial enough to be part of public ceremoni-

als; some are believed to have been borne in pro-

cession, rather as the image of the Virgin MARY

was later carried by the Catholic devout on May

1, the feast of the “Queen of the May,” which was

originally the Celtic festival of BELTANE.

Such accommodation to the old Celtic cult of

the mother was not, however, always the rule,

for wholesale destruction of Celtic “idols” was

demanded by such fierce opponents of paganism

as St. Martin of Tours, who personally destroyed

hundreds of images, many of them incontrovert-

ibly feminine visions of the divine.

Source: Berger, Pamela. The Goddess Obscured:

Transformation of the Grain Protectress from

Goddess to Saint. Boston: Beacon Press, 1985,

pp. 29 ff.

mound See FAIRY MOUND.

Mound of the Hostages Irish mythological

site. On the hill of TARA in central Ireland—some-

times called “royal Tara” because of its associa-

tions with mythological and historical HIGH

KINGS of the land—there is a small tumulus or

artificial mound of earth above a PASSAGE GRAVE

built of stone. Called the Mound of the Hostages,

the site is associated with the great king NIALL of

the Nine Hostages. The term hostages seems to

imply people held against their will; the word fos-

terers would be better, as the nine young men in

question went to Niall’s royal seat willingly in

order to bind their families to his.

mountain Cosmological symbol. Mountains

were sacred to the Celts, but so was everything

mountain 341

else in NATURE, which was the residence of the

divine. Divine force did not spread itself thinly

across the world but tended to condense in spe-

cific sacred places. WELLS and RIVER sources

were important foci of divine power, as were

hills and mountains. Both were typically viewed

as feminine powers. A figure connected with

high hills in Scotland and Ireland was the HAG

named the CAILLEACH, a figure that appears to

descend from pre-Celtic times, which has led to

suggestions that some mountain worship may

precede the Celtic arrivals.

Mountains had additional significance in

Ireland as places of royal or political power.

Some of this significance may have originated in

the simple fact that high hills provide a good view

of the surrounding region, therefore assisting

defenders in case of assault. The hill of TARA,

although not a dominating mountain in its rather

rolling countryside, offers such an impressive

view over the surrounding lands. Nearby,

another small mountain, UISNEACH, became the

mystical center of the island; from its summit one

can see peaks in virtually all of Ireland.

Mountain Sunday See LUGHNASA.

mouse See RAT.

moving stones Folkloric tradition. Celtic lands

are dotted with vestiges of the unknown pre-

Celtic people who built STONE CIRCLES and

other great undeciphered spiritual monuments.

Many traditions and folktales surround such

sites, although it is not possible to know the gen-

esis—whether Celtic, pre-Celtic, or Christian—

of this lore.

One such tradition holds that the stones were

not firmly set in the soil, but were able to move

around at will. Usually such movement occurred

at midnight, although sometimes at dawn; this

did not happen daily but on significant feast

days, especially calendar points such as the mid-

summer SOLSTICE and the Celtic fall feast of

SAMHAIN. The stones got up from their para-

lyzed position and traveled about the country-

side, often going to a nearby LAKE or RIVER to

bathe and drink. Sometimes they turned into

dancing stones (see MERRY MAIDENS) or just

rolled around on the grass. When their brief

window of freedom eased shut, the stones once

more resumed their usual positions and

remained there until their next outing.

Moyturra See MAG TUIRED.

Mugain (Mughain) Irish heroine. This sister

of the great goddess-queen MEDB became the

mother of a hero-king, Aed SLANE, but first

Mugain had to learn to be kind to other women.

She was co-wife, with MAIRENN, to the king of

TARA when she found herself consumed with

envy over a beautiful golden headdress that

Mairenn always wore. Suspecting Mairenn of

hiding something, she bribed a member of the

court to pull down the golden headdress and

shame her rival. But it was Mugain who was

shamed for her behavior, for golden hair

instantly appeared on Mairenn’s head. Mugain

was punished by being forced to give birth to a

lamb and a SALMON before she could bear a

human child. Some have equated her with MÓR,

goddess of MUNSTER.

Source: MacNeill, Máire. The Festival of Lughnasa,

Parts I and II. Dublin: Comhairle Bhéaloideas

Éireann, 1982, p. 326–327.

Mug Nuadat Irish hero. See EÓGAN.

Muilearach (Muileartach, Muir Larteach,

Muilearteach) Scottish and Irish goddess. A

seafaring form of the great goddess figure called

the CAILLEACH, this sea HAG was a formidable

woman, a bald one-eyed being with a blue-gray

face and sharp protruding teeth. She was known

throughout the Scottish Highlands as well as in

the island of Lewis and Harris and the southern

342 Mountain Sunday

Hebrides. An ancestral goddess, mother of the

king of the mythological land of LOCHLANN,

Muilearach lived underwater. She had a HEALING

aspect, for the pot of balm she carried could

make the sick healthy and the weak strong.

Nonetheless she was feared and was killed in a

great battle with the hero band called the FIANNA.

Under the name Muireartach, she was an

Irish goddess, a one-eyed hag named “eastern

sea” who lived beneath the ocean waves with a

magical SMITH. She loved merchants who

caressed her waves with their boats, but she

also loved the treasures they carried and might

upend them just to gather them up into her “ill-

streaming, bald-red, white-named” presence. The

great hero FIONN MAC CUMHAILL killed her after

one too many shipwrecks were blamed upon her.

Muime Scottish folkloric figure. Her name

means “stepmother” or “foster mother,” or “wet

nurse.” She appears in Scottish folklore as an

ambiguous figure, sometimes representing good

luck, sometimes bringing the opposite. It was con-

sidered an extremely bad OMEN to meet this figure

if you were far from home, but nearby she was a

helpful sprite. The folkloric figure is believed to

hide a memory of Celtic times, when the role of

the foster mother was extremely important.

Muircertach mac Erc (Murtach mac Erc,

Muirchertach meic Erca, Muircertach mac Erca)

Irish hero. A historical king to whom mytholog-

ical motifs have been attached, Muircertach

reigned as HIGH KING of Ireland in the sixth cen-

tury C.E. His name is puzzling, in that he bears

the name of his mother ERC, a princess of

Scotland, rather than that of his father

Muireadhach, grandson of the famous king of

TARA, NIALL. Some scholars have suggested that

Erc was originally a goddess rather than a human

woman, although that does not fully explain why

Muircertach would be named for her.

Muircertach figures in an important tale

recorded in the Annals of Ulster, in which he

wrested the high kingship from the earlier resi-

dents of Tara, leaving no survivors. Years later, he

met a lovely woman, SIN, who offered herself to

him provided he would evict his own wife and

children from Tara. He did so, but soon his king-

dom was torn apart by fighting. The warriors who

attacked Muircertach were sent by Sin. Fearsome

warriors they were, too: blue men, men with the

heads of goats, and similar MONSTERS.

They were in reality only sticks and stones,

enchanted by Sin—whose family Muircertach

had killed when he conquered Tara. Muircertach

went mad, raging through the rain and snow

until he came home and fell into a dream in

which he saw demons coming to punish him.

Imagining the palace on fire, he leapt into a vat

of wine, where he drowned. The fire was

another of Sin’s illusions, a final revenge for his

destruction of her family.

Source: Cross, Tom Peete, and Clark Harris

Slover, eds. Ancient Irish Tales. New York:

Henry Holt and Co., 1936, p. 518.

Muirthemne Irish mythological site. The

great plain of Muirthemne was the site of the

defeat of one of the mythological races of

Ireland, the FIR BOLG, who lost control of the

island to the people of the goddess DANU, the

TUATHA DÉ DANANN—who in turn lost Ireland

to another group of invaders, the MILESIANS.

Mullo Continental Celtic god. The name of

this god, associated by the Romans with their war

deity MARS, may mean “mule” or “wall,”

although there is no agreement on which is more

likely or what meaning the term would have.

Mullo is shown in some images as bearing a RAM-

HEADED SNAKE, and he may have been a divinity

of HEALING, which that symbol often represents.

Mumu (Muman) See MUNSTER.

Munanna Irish heroine. In Irish folklore we

find the story of this woman who grew weary of

Munanna 343