The lore and customs have continued to this day regarding Brighid, more vividly than all the other Gaelic deities combined. In the middle ages, Brighid is in many stories. In one she is the wife of Bres, the half-Fomorian ruler of the Children of Danu. Their son, Ruadan, wounded the smith god Giobhniu at the second battle of Magh Tuireadh but he himself was slain in the combat. Brigid then went to the battlefield to mourn her son. This was said to be the first caoine (keening), or lament, heard in Ireland.
Until recent time, it was a tradition to hire women to caoine at every graveside. In another story, Brighid was the wife of Tuireann and had three sons: Brian, Iuchar and Ircharba. In the tale, The Sons of Tuirean, these three killed the god Cian, father of Lugh L‡mhfhada when he was in the form of a pig.(2)
She was transformed by the Church of St. Brigid into St. Brigid about 453 C.E. Saint Brighid is known as the patroness of farm work and cattle, and protector of the household from fire and calamity. To this day, one of her most common names in Gaelic is Muime Chriosd, "Foster-Mother of Christ." St. Brighid was said to be the daughter of Dubthach, a Druid who brought her from Ireland to be raised on the Isle of Iona, sometimes called "The Druid's Isle."
"A fascinating link to the traditions of the saint Brigid is the fact that a woman called Darlughdacha appears in St. Brigid's community in Kildare as her close companion, sharing Brigid's bed. Darlughdacha, who became abbess of Kildare on Brigid's death, means 'daughter of Lugh' and the 'saints' lists' also give her feastday as 1st February...Mary Condren thinks that Darlughdacha might even be the original name for the goddess Brighid, presumably as Brigid (Exalted One) is a title rather than a name." (2)
It is said that by repeating the genealogy of Brighid, you will always be protected. "This is the geneology of the holy maiden Bride, Radiant flame of gold, noble foster mother of Christ, Bride, daughter of Dugall the Brown*, Son of Aodh, son of Art, son of Conn, Son of Crearer, Son of Cis, son of Carmac, son of Carruin, Every day and every night That I say the genealogy of Bride, I shall not be killed, I shall not be harried, I shall not be put in a cell, I shall not be wounded, Neither shall Christ leave me in forgetfulness. No fire, no sun, no moon shall burn me, No lake, no water, nor sea shall drown me, No arrow of fairy nor dart of fay shall wound me And I under the protection of my Holy Mary And my gentle foster-mother is my beloved Bride." (1)
One of the most ancient rituals known is reflected in this piece. It is known as the Three-fold Death by burning, drowning and stabbing. This was usually the form of death of the Sacred King, after which time, he became one with his Land. "Brighid is known in the Hebrides as the foster mother of Christ, and this clearly shows the mixing of Christian and pagan influence that is so common here. As foster mother she is of course exceptionally honoured, since in Celtic society the foster parents had special place, they ranked higher than the natural parents, the relationship being considered extremely sacred." (3)
"St. Brighid (in Gaelic pronounced sometimes Bride, sometimes Breed), St. Bride of the Isles as she is lovingly called in the Hebrides, has no name so dear to the Gael as "Muime-Chriosd", Christ's Foster-Mother, a name bestowed on her by one of the most beautiful of Celtic legends. In the isles of Gaelic Scotland, her most familiar name is Brighid nam Bhatta, St Briget or St. Bride of the Mantle - from her having wrapt the new-born Babe in her Mantle in Mary's hour of weakness. She did not come into the Gaelic heart with the Cross and Mary, but was there long before as Bride, Brighid or Brighid of the Dedannans, those not immortal but for long ages deathless folk who to the Gael were as the Olympians to the Greeks.
That earlier Brighid was goddess of poetry and music, one of the three great divinities of love, goddess of women, the keeper of prophecies and dreams, the watcher of the greater destinies, the guardian of the future. I think she was no other than the Celtic Demeter - that Demeter- Desphoena born of the embrace of Poseidon, who in turn is no other than Lir, the Oceanus of the Gael, and instead of Demeter seeking and lamenting Persephone in the underworld, it is Demeter- Brighid seeking her brother (or, it may be, her son) Manan (Manannan), God of the Sea, son of Oceanus, Lir...Persephone and Manan are symbols of the same Return to Life." (9) "î
'H—g‡in makes connections between the saint, the goddess, the sun, poetry, cows, Vedic tradition and the Goddess Boann (eponym of the River Boyne), who may have been the mother of Brigit, and whose name seems to come from bo/-fhionn (white cow, she of white cattle,) cognate with Sanskrit Govinda." (5) "The epithet bœadach, 'victorious'...is one commonly applied to Brigit...A national saint in her own right, Brigit has been somewhat overshadowed by Patrick, but the variants of her name current for Irish girls are in themselves evidence of her enduring importance: compare the forms Brigid, Breege, Breda, Breed, Bride, Bridie, beside the diminutive in -een. Behind the Christian saint of the hagiographers and the accounts of wonders ucriously performed, and behind the oral and literary traditions, one can spy the figure of a pre-Christian goddess.
Brigit is represented in the early poetry as Mother of Christ and equal in rank to Mary, and as 'The Mary of the Gael". Hence the tradition of Brigit goes deeper as well as further back than that of the Briton, Patrick." (4) And from the same book on page 50, this poem: Brigit Bœadach "Brigit Bœadach, Bœaid na fine, Siur R’g nime, N‡r in duine, Eslind luige, Lethan breo. Ro-siacht no’:bnem Mumme Go’del, Riar na n-o’ged, O’bel ecnai, Ingen Dubthaig, Duine œallach, Brigit bœadach, Brigit bœadach, "Victorious Brigit, Glory of kindred, Heaven-King's sister, Noble person, Perilous oath*, Far-flung flame. She has reached holy Heaven, Gaeldom's foster-mother, Support of strangers, Spark of wisdom, Daughter of Dubthach, High-minded lady, Victorious Brigit, The living one of life. (*dangerous to swear - for perjurers.)" (4)
To this day there is the unusual blending of Brighid the ancient Goddess with the Saint and how typically Gaelic this is; this mixture of Christian and Old Celtic and pagan lore, exemplified in poetry like this: Is tu gleus na Mnatha Sithe, Is tu beus na Bride bithe, Is tu creud na Moire mine, Is tu gniomh na mnatha Greuig, Is tu sgeimh na h'Eimir aluinn, Is tu mein na Dearshul agha, Is tu meann na Meabha laidir, Is tu taladh Binne-bheul. Thine is the skill of the Fairy Woman, And the virtue of St. Brigit, And the faith of Mary the Mild, And the gracious ways of the Greek woman, And the beauty of lovely Emir, And the tenderness of heartsweet Deirdre, And the courage of Maev the great Queen*, And the charm of Mouth O' Music**." *Literally, "the strong" **Literally "honey-mouthed" (9)
"...And I was putting another word to it, for her, fair Foster-Mother of Christ, when she looked at me and said, "I am older than Brighid of the Mantle...I put songs and music on the wind before ever the bells of the chapels were rung in the West or heard in the East. I am Brighid-nam-Bratta, but I am also Brighid-Muirghin-na-tuinne, and Brighid-sluagh, Brighid-nan-sitheachseang, Brighid-Binne-Bheule-lhuchd -nan-trusganan-uaine, and I am older than Aone and am as old as Luan. And in Tir-na-h'oige my name is Suibhal-bheann; in Tir-fo-thuinn it is Cœ-gorm; and in Tir-na-h'oise it is Sireadh-thall. And I have been a breath in your heart. And the day has its feet to it that will see me coming into the hearts of men and women like a flame upon dry grass, like a flame of wind in a great wood..."
"The other names are old Gaelic names: Brighid-Muirghin-na-tuinne, Brighid Conception of the Waves; Brighid-Sluagh (or Sloigh), Brighid of the Immortal host; Brighid-nan-sitheachseang, Brighid of the Slim Fairy Folk; Brighid-Binne-Bheule-lhuchd-nan-trusganan-uaine, Song-sweet (literally: melodious mouth'd) Brighid of the Tribe of the Green Mantles. She is also called Brighid of the Harp, Brighid of the Sorrowful, Brighid of Prophecy, Brighid of Pure Love, St. Bride of the Isles, Bride of Joy and other names. Aona is an occasional and ancient form of Di-Aoin, Friday and Luan of Diluain, Monday."
"Tir-na-h'oige (commonly anglicised as Tirnanogue) in the Land of (Eternal) Youth; Tir-fo-thuinn is the Country of the Waves and Tir-na-h'oise is the Country of Ancient Years. The fairy names Suibhal-bheann, Cœ-gorm; and Sireadh-thall respectively mean Mountain-traveller, Grey Hound and Seek-Beyond...." "...that older Brighid of the West, Mother of Songs and Music - she who breathes in the reed, on the wind, in the hearts of women and in the minds of poets...Banmorair-na-mara, the Lady of the Sea...a woman of the divine folk, who was called the Lady of the Sea, and was a daughter of Lir, and went lamenting upon the earth because she had lost her brother Manan the Beautiful, but came upon him at last...and wooed him with songs and flowers and brought him back again, so that the world of men rejoiced, and ships sailed the seas in safety and nets were filled with the fruit of the wave...that passing world of songs and beauty, of poets' dreams and of broken hearts, that even now...is loved again by Brighid the White..." "(And with you for guidance be) The fairy swan of Bride of flocks, The fairy duck of Mary of peace." (9)
"Bride, excellent woman,
sudden flame,
may the fiery, bright sun
take us to the lasting kingdom."
These women were the virgin daughters of the Fire and were called Inghean au dagha; but, as fire-keepers, were Breochwidh. The Brudins, a place of magical cauldron and perpetual fires, disappeared when Christianity took hold. "Being in the Brudins" now means in the fairies. Brigid's shrine at Kildare was active into the 18th century. It was closed down by the monarchy. Originally cared for by nineteen virgins, when the Pagan Brighid was Sainted, the care of her shrine fell to Catholic nuns. The fire was extinguished once in the thirteenth century and was relit until Henry VIII of England set about supressing the monastaries. (8)
Sister Mary Minchin, a Brigedian nun at Kildaire relit the flame on Febuary 2, 1996 and the intention is to keep it burning perpetually once again. In an ancient Irish text Giraldus Cambrensis, she and nineteen of her nuns took turns in guarding a sacred fire which burned perpetually and was surrounded by a hedge within which no male might enter. In this, Brighid is like the Gaulish 'Minerva'." In Minerva's sanctuary in Britain there was also a perpetual flame.
According to the Irish Text "The Book of Dunn Cow," Brighid's sacred number was nineteen, representing the nineteen year cycle of the Celtic Great Year, the time it took from one new moon to the next to coincide with the Winter Solstice. It was believed though, that on the twentieth day of each cycle Brighid herself would tend the flame. Of this fire, it was said, during the time of the Norman conquest, that although it was fed the sacred wood of the hawthorn over a long period of time, "yet the ashes have never increased." The area was said to be twenty feet square with a roof. The sacred fire was sometimes called a "need-fire." Alexander Carmichael, the author of Carmina Gadelica, states that "teine Žiginn was last made in Uist about 1829, in Arran about 1820, in Helmsdale about 1818, and in Reay about 1830." (1)
There is also the tradition of leaving a loaf of bread, pitcher of milk and a candle out for Brighid. the villagers of Avebury in Wiltshire climb the earthen mound called Silbury Hill to eat fig cakes and sugar and water. They also climb Cley Hill to play a game within the earthwork at the summit. (6) The references in the Carmina Gadelica to the serpent coming out of the mound on Latha Fheill Bride from these older associations; that she may be a Fomorian Earth goddess. (3) In support of this, there is an ancient rhyme which is still said in the Western Highlands: "Early on Bride's morn The serpent shall come from the hole. I will not molest the serpent Nor will the serpent molest me. (7)
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