Brigid

This article is about the pagan goddess. For the saint, see Brigid of Kildare. For the given name, see Brigid (given name).

Brigid
Member of the Tuatha Dé Danann
"The Coming of Bríde" by John Duncan (1917)
TextsLebor Gabála Érenn, Cath Maige Tuired, Cormac's Glossary
Genealogy
ParentsDagda
SiblingsCermait, Aengus, Aed, Bodb Derg, Brigid the Healer, Brigid the Smith

Brigid or Brigit (/ˈbrɪdʒɪd, ˈbriːɪd/ BRIJ-id, BREE-id, Irish: [ˈbʲɾʲiːdʲ]; meaning 'exalted one'),[1] also Bríd, is a goddess of pre-Christian Ireland. She appears in Irish mythology as a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the daughter of the Dagda and wife of Bres, with whom she had a son named Ruadán. Her sacred tree appears to have been the birch, given some older Imbolc-related traditions.[2]

She is associated with wisdom, poetry, healing, protection, smithing and domesticated animals. Cormac's Glossary, written in the 9th century by Christian monks, says that Brigid was "the goddess whom poets adored" and that she had two sisters: Brigid the healer and Brigid the smith.[3][4] This suggests she may have been a triple deity.[5] She is also thought to have some relation to the British Celtic goddess Brigantia.

Saint Brigid shares many of the goddess's attributes and her feast day, 1 February, was originally a pagan festival called Imbolc. It has thus been argued that the saint is a Christianization of the goddess, or that the lore of the goddess was transferred to her.[6]

  1. ^ Campbell, Mike Behind the Name. See also Xavier Delamarre, brigantion / brigant-, in Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003) pp. 87–88: "Le nom de la sainte irlandaise Brigit est un adjectif de forme *brigenti... 'l'Eminente'." Delamarre cites E. Campanile, in Langues indo-européennes ("The name of the Irish Saint Brigid is an adjective of the form *brigenti... 'the Eminent'"), edited by Françoise Bader (Paris, 1994), pp. 34–40, that Brigid is a continuation of the Indo-European goddess of the dawn like Aurora.
  2. ^ Hutton 1996
  3. ^ Ó hÓgáin 1991, p. 60
  4. ^ Wright 2011, pp. 26–27
  5. ^ Sjoestedt 2000, pp. 21, 25
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Goddess Obscured was invoked but never defined (see the help page).