Glossary in B (Celtic)

Here is a glossary of mythology Celtic : Balor, Banba, Bansidh, Bécuma, Belen, Belenos, Belisama, Beltaine, Berecyntia, Blaí Briuga, Bleiz (Blaise), Bleunwenn, Blodewedd, Boand (Boann), Bodb (Badba), Borvo, Bran le Béni, Bran Mac Febail , Branwen, Brendan, Bres, Brian, Brigantia, Brigit, (Brig, Brigid, Brighid), "Brown of Cúailnge"

Celtic glossary

Balor is the king of the Fomorians, those inhuman, hideous and demonic beings who are the personification of chaos and destruction. They are at war with all, and especially with the Tuatha Dé Danann (“people of the goddess Dana”), the gods of Ireland. His wife is Cethlenn.

According to the stories, he is a one-eyed or cyclopean giant whose eye paralyzes or strikes down entire armies. He lives on the island of Tory, where he lives, his only eye closed, in constant fear of seeing a prophecy come true according to which he must die by the hand of his grandson. Despite her efforts to delay this end by keeping Ethne, her daughter, away from men, she finds herself pregnant and gives birth to triplets. Balor ordered them to be thrown into the sea but one of them survived: it was the god Lug.

However, in the fight, he asks four men to lift his eyelid with spears, so that he can annihilate his enemies. During Cath Maighe Tuireadh (the Battle of Mag Tured, anglicized to Moytura), the god Lug comes to him, charming and talkative, so much so that Balor insists on seeing his face. As soon as the eyelid is lifted, he receives a sling stone which rips out his eyeball and throws him among his friends, the Fomoire. He unwittingly kills thousands, ensuring the victory of his enemies, the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Balor embodies the negative forces of evil, the power of which can only be held in check by the light-force of Lug, himself a relative of Balor.

In the story Welsh of Kulhwch and olwen, his name is Yspadadden Penkawr.

Balor is close to the Cyclopes of Greek mythology.

Banba (modern spelling Banbha), in Irish Celtic mythology, is a queen of the Tuatha Dé Danann, her name means "pig", "boar", the emblematic animal of the priestly class of Celts (see Druids).

She is the daughter of Ernmas and with her sisters Fódla and Ériu, she forms a triad, the true personification of Ireland. She is the wife of Mac Cuill, son of Cermait, grandson of Dagda. When the Milesians land, each of the three sisters asks them to give their name to the island; Ériu is chosen, but Banba is used as an allegory. She is sometimes likened to Masha.

In the legend of Cesair, Banba is given for having been the first person to set foot in Ireland, since the Flood.

Bansidh (pronounced bannshi) is a woman from Sidh, that is to say from the Other World, a messenger of the gods. If the documentation comes to us mainly from medieval Irish literature, this deity is pan-Celtic; it is found in particular in the Middle Ages under the name of banshee and in Brittany under the name of Marie Morgane, in a form altered by folklore.

They are magicians who generally move in the form of swans, and who sing divine music. Systematically, the stories insist on their youth and their beauty, their irresistible power of seduction. Their magic is more powerful than that of the druids for matters of love. They serve as an intermediary between the gods of the Tuatha Dé Danann and men. Sometimes they grant their favors to men, if they are worthy of them, that is to say heroes or highly skilled warriors, such as Conle or Bran Mac Febail, and take them with them to the "Plain of Pleasures,” Mag Meld, another name for Sidh. Sometimes their appearance causes a disease that no medicine can cure, and which leads to death, unless divine intervention.

Unable to survive Christianization as such, the Bansidh will become, at the level of folklore, a fairy, a witch or a healer.

In Celtic mythology, the god Gallic Belenos (Latin Belenus) is comparable to the Apollo of the pantheon of Greek mythology. It is sometimes designated by the theonym of Maponnos, it is the equivalent of Diancecht Irish. His consort is Belisama, "the very brilliant".

He is a luminous god, whose name means "shining", "shining", his main functions are medicine and the arts. He is honored during the Beltaine festival, which marks a break in the year, the passage from the dark season to the clear, luminous season. During this festival, the Druids performed a ritual of passing cattle between fires, reciting incantations, to protect them from epidemics.

His cult seems to have been important throughout the Celtic world since inscriptions have been found in Gaul Cisalpine, in Transalpine Gaul, in Illyria and in Noricum.

Belisama is an important deity of the Gallic pantheon, whose name means "the very bright". She is both the consort and the female equivalent of Belenos. Associated with domestic fire, she is in charge of metallurgy (more particularly the manufacture of weapons), she is the goddess of blacksmiths in her warrior aspect; she is also responsible for the arts.

An inscription found at Vaison-la-Romaine indicates that a Nemeton was dedicated to him. She is compared to Minerva, Athena and Brigit.

Beltaine (Bealtaine or Beilteine) is the third of the four major religious festivals of the Celtic year; it comes after Samain and Imbolc.

It marks the start of the summer season and takes place on May 1 (giamonios, according to the Coligny calendar). It is a priestly festival, in Gaul it is related to Belenos (avatar of the primordial god Lug in the form of light) and Belisama (“the Most Brilliant”, paredre of the preceding) and whose meaning is “fire of Bel” . In Ireland, it was on this date that the various occupants of the island arrived, if we refer to the Lebor Gabála Érenn (the Books of the conquests of Ireland). It is therefore a celebration of renewal.

Beltaine marks a break in the year, we go from the dark season to the clear, bright season, it is also a change of life since it is the opening of daytime activities: resumption of hunting, war, raids, conquests for warriors, beginning of agricultural and rural work for farmers and breeders. In this sense, it is the total antithesis of the feast of Samhain.

The accounts insist on the fires lit by the druids, pronouncing magic incantations while one makes pass the cattle between these fires, in order to protect it from the epidemics. Philologists complain of incomplete documentation and incomplete sources on the antiquity of this event, while May Day folklore is abundant.

Brigit/Brigantia is often compared to the Minerva of the Romans, with whom she shares a number of functions. She is the mother goddess, she reigns over the arts, war, magic and medicine. She is the patroness of druids, bards (poets), vates (divination and medicine) and blacksmiths.

In Ireland, Brigit is the daughter of Dagda, she is also the mother, wife and sister of Lug, Dagda, Ogme, Nuada, Diancecht and Mac Oc, the gods of the Tuatha Dé Danann. It is associated with the festival of Imbolc, the purification of February 1, supposed to protect the herds and promote fertility. The importance of her cult among the Celts led Christian evangelists to replace her with a saint of whom she became the eponym, Saint Bridget.

Brigantia is found in particular in the names of the peoples of Brigantes (current territories of Yorkshire and Northumberland) and Brigantii (near Lake Constance), whose capital Brigantion (Bregenz) is of the same origin; the same for Briançon. In Gaul, his Epona avatar gives him an obvious psychopomp role.

The theonyms Brigit and Brigantia derive from the ancient Celtic (some say proto-Celtic) "brigantija" or "brigantis" which means "very high", "very high". The origin is the word "Briga" (height, fortress) which, used as a prefix, gave many toponyms both in the island space, in Gaul and in the Iberian Peninsula. It is also present in the composition of the name of certain peoples (Brigantes, for example).

This meaning confirms the primordial role of this goddess.

Blaí Briuga, in Irish Celtic mythology, is the innkeeper of King Conchobar, he appears in several stories of the Ulster Cycle. Its name indicates its employment which is to give food to the warriors Ulates, “brug” means residence, hotel; he is said to be very rich and owner of a vast estate. In the text Compert Con Culainn (The Conception of Cúchulainn), he is cited as one of Cúchulainn's foster-fathers.

A geis forces him to sleep with any passing woman, who is unaccompanied. What he does with Brig Bretach, the wife of Celtchar, who kills him to avenge the affront.

Bleiz is the wolf-man, instructor of the enchanter Merlin.

Avatar of Belenos or the crowned king, he is chosen by the Goddess to be her lover for a day. He becomes a sort of crazy druid, living among wolves and responsible for initiating new adepts in the magic art.

Blodeuwedd is a female creature from Welsh Celtic mythology that appears in the fourth branch of the Mabinogi : Math son of Mathonwy, the meaning of the name is "face of flowers".

Llew Law Gyffes, is under the yoke of a ban (see geis) from his mother Arianrhod which prevents him from having any wife on earth. King Math, who is also a magician, and his nephew Gwydyon make him a wife with flowers and plants (broom, primrose, meadowsweet, hawthorn, etc.); thanks to their magic, their "creature" is more beautiful than the most beautiful of women. The union is celebrated and Llew is endowed with a cantref (estate), but one day when Llew is visiting King Math, at his residence in Caer Dathyl, Blodeuwedd welcomes Goronwy (sometimes called Gronw Pebyr), Lord of Penllyn, who hunting in the country. She falls in love and the lovers plan to kill the husband. But Llew is a god who can only be killed in certain ways: He cannot be killed indoors, or outdoors, while riding or walking. In fact, he can only be assassinated in one position: when he bathes with one foot on a goat and the other on a cauldron, by a specially forged spear. These conditions being met, the god is beaten down and is transformed into an eagle; in retaliation, Gwydyon transforms Blodeuwedd into an owl, reviving Llew and restoring him to human form, allowing him to take revenge and kill the lover.

His character is equivalent to Blathnat from Irish Celtic mythology.

Boand (or Boann) is one of the aspects of the great feminine divinity of the Celts; its name, which means "White Cow", makes it a representation of prosperity. It also takes the name of La Boyne (or Boinn), the eponymous river. The other aspects of this primordial goddess are Brigit and Étain.

Boand is the wife of Elcmar the brother of Dagda, of which she becomes the mistress. From this adultery, will be born Mac Oc (the young son) also named Oengus (single choice). The Dagda had removed his brother by using a ruse, his absence of nine months seems to him to last only one day.

To repair her guilty relationship, she bathes in the lustrous and deadly water of the Segais River, in which she loses an arm, a leg and an eye. As it flees to the ocean it becomes the Boyne River.

“Brug na Boinne”, the Hôtel de la Boyne is the name of the residence of Dagda, in other words a sidh.

Borvo (Bormo or Boramus) is a healing god whose theonym means "bubbling water". It is known by inscriptions dating from the Gallo-Roman era and a certain number of toponyms: La Bourboule, Bourbonne-les-Bains in France, or Burtscheid, Worms, in Germany, to name but a few examples. The number of these toponyms proves the spread and the importance of the worship dedicated to this divinity of the thermal springs. He is considered an equivalence of the Greek god Apollo. His consort is Damona, whose name means "Great Cow", (also called Bormona), which is not unrelated to Boand of the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology.

Bran le Béni (or Bran Vendigeit) appears in particular in the Mabinogi of Branwen, of which he is the brother, with Manawyddan Fab Llyr. He is the son of Lir. He is a giant who cannot enter any house, because of his size, nor can he ride on any boat. Its name means "raven", an animal associated with death; among the Celts he is the sovereign of a kingdom of Wales, he lives in Harddlech that is to say the "beautiful place" (today Harllech in Merionethshire). Matholwch, king of Iwerddon (Ireland), comes to ask for his sister's hand and, at the same time, concludes a peace treaty. Evnissyen, their half-brother, daughter, furious at not having been consulted, cut off the lips, ears and tails of Irish horses. Bran the Blessed offers new mounts, as well as a magic cauldron, to repair the offense. Three years after the wedding, informed by a starling, of the mistreatment that Branwen suffered from her husband, he organized a military expedition against the Irish king, which ended in a massacre.

While Bran is a formidable hero, like Cúchulainn, some legends make him a god of the Other World, part diviner, part musician and part warrior. His nickname is obviously a late Christian attribute.

Bran is the son of Febal, his name means "raven". As he rests outside his castle, he hears a strange song, the voice of which praises to him the delights of Emain Ablach, the Land of Apple Trees (symbol of eternity), an island in the middle of the ocean. Although he is surrounded by a large company, he is the only one who hears the verses of the messenger from the Other World. Unable to resist the magic invitation, he procures a boat and leaves with “three times nine” companions. On the sea, he is welcomed by a song from Manannan Mac Lir, the sovereign god of Sidh. The first island they approach is occupied by people who only laugh and pay no attention to them; one of the sailors disembarks, he is immediately taken with a frenzied laugh, and refuses to go back on board. Finally they approach the Island of Women (Tir na mBân), the queen throws a thread to Bran in order to pull the boat, and all disembark. All the women are young and beautiful, each companion chooses one, the queen reserves Bran. They live there for several “months” in total bliss.

But nostalgia for Ireland begins to spread among men and Nechtan, son of the god Collbran, decides Bran to return. The queen gives them a stern warning, but they ignore it. Arrived on the shores of Erin, no one recognizes them, and they themselves recognize no one. Nechtan descends to earth, he turns into a pile of ashes. Bran, who has understood, takes to the sea for an endless navigation.

The story of Bran Mac Febail is contained in a medieval Irish text: Immram Brain Maic Febail ocus a echtra andso sis, (The sailing of Bran, son of Febal and his adventures hereafter). It is not certain that the clerics who transcribed this tradition, transmitted orally for centuries, really understood what it was about, because the Sidh of the Celts can in no way be compared to the Christian paradise.

The story of the navigation is perfectly typical of a voyage in Sidh: at the start there is the invitation of the bansidh, then the marvelous stay in the Isle of Women, who are none other than deities. In the island, time does not exist, or at least, the island is timeless for those who stay there. If they are not recognized on their return and Nechtan crumbles to dust when they set foot in Ireland (this was the queen's warning), it is because their stay lasted several centuries and they are long dead. The return to the world of men is accompanied by the grip of time from which they had escaped.

Branwen is a character from Welsh Celtic mythology, heroine of the second branch of the Welsh Mabinogi. His name means White Crow.

Branwen is the daughter of Llyr, the god of the ocean, and the sister of the giant Bran the Blessed, whose companions cut off his head to protect the Isle of Britain. The King of Ireland, Matholwch arrives one day at the court of Bran in Harlech, with the intention of marrying him and concluding an alliance with his neighbor.

The marriage is celebrated promptly, but a half-brother of Branwen, Evnissyen, takes umbrage and mutilates the horses of the king of Ireland. Bran manages to calm things down by separating from his magic cauldron. Branwen goes to Ireland with her husband and gives birth to her child.

Unfortunately, too well hung tongues evoke the mutilation of horses and Branwen is banished from society. She raises a starling which she charges with a message for Bran.

Then comes the war. The final effort at reconciliation fails when Branwen's half-brother throws his son into the fire. The massacre becomes general: there will be only seven survivors.

Branwen, she dies of pain.

In the mythical history of Ireland, Bres becomes the acting king of the Tuatha Dé Danann despite being of the Fomorian people. Indeed, the god king Nuada was wounded during the "First battle of Mag Tuireadh" (Cath Maighe Tuireadh), he had his arm cut off and this mutilation led to his forfeiture, since the exercise of sovereignty required him to be free from all infirmity.

The reign of Bres will be short, because he is a bad king, not only he is ambitious, but he is also avaricious and behaves like a despot. Greed is a serious fault, since in the Celtic domain, the role of the king is precisely the redistribution of wealth. Its Dun mBrese fortress was built by the Dagda. At the beginning of his reign, seven warriors were to help him in the exercise of sovereignty, but three Fomorian kings, Indech mac De Domnann, Elatha mac Delbraith and Tethra, imposed the payment of a tribe on all Irish.

The bard Coirpre pronounces a satire (the first in Ireland) which forces him to abdicate, and Nuada, cured with a silver prosthesis made by Diancecht, can become king again. Bres, with the help of the Fomorians, tries to reconquer the island and take back the throne; he provokes a war where they will be defeated in the "Second Battle of Mag Tuireadh" thanks to the intervention of Lug. According to one version, taken prisoner, he would have taught agriculture to the Tuatha Dé Danann in exchange for saving their lives.

His mother is Eriu (personification of Ireland) and his father Elatha, a Formori. From his union with Brigit was born a son, Ruadan.

Brian, in Irish Celtic mythology, one of the three sons of Tuireann and the grandson of Ogma, the god of magic and eloquence of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
To resist the Fomorians, Cian, the father of the god Lug, goes in search of magical warriors. Unfortunately, on his way, he meets the three sons of Tuireann, his sworn enemies. He transforms into a boar, but Brian sees him and warns his brothers, Iuchar and Iucharba. Then, strong in his own druidic science, he transforms his brothers into dogs and sets off in pursuit of Cian, whom he stabs with a javelin. He finishes it off with stones.
Before dying, Cian asks them to let him return to his human form and Tuireann's three sons will have to buy back a man and not a wild boar. For the blood price Lug, good prince, demands only three apples from the Gardens of the Sun, a pig's skin with healing powers belonging to a king of Greece, a poisoned spear from a king of Persian, two horses harnessed to a chariot, seven pigs of King Eassal of the Golden Pillars, a dog, a roasting spit belonging to the nymphs of a kingdom under the sea and three cries to be thrown at the top of the hill of Mochaen.
The three brothers are lucky and succeed in six of the eight tests, although they have committed many abuses everywhere. So Lug, who knows the future, sends them a charm: they forget the last two missions. Happy, they return to Ireland, but they have to go back to find the brooch under the water and utter the three cries.
But they were mortally wounded by Mochaen and his sons and Lug, despite Tuireann's pleas, let fate be fulfilled. This is the price of initiation.

The Brown of Cúailnge ("Dond Cúailnge"), in Irish Celtic mythology, is a fabulous bull, which is the stake of a mythical raid, subject of the story Táin Bó Cúailnge of the Ulster Cycle.

Queen Medb and her husband King Ailill jointly rule the kingdom of Connaught. During a conversation at their residence in Crúachan, they come to talk about their respective possessions. The queen claims to be the richest, which the king disputes. A careful inspection of their treasures shows that their assets are equivalent, with the exception of a calf (“Findbennach”, the “White Cornu”) which Ailill also possesses. Medb then asks Mac Roth where she can get such an animal. He replies that in Ulster, a superb animal with human intelligence belongs to Dáre son of Fiachna. Mac Roth is dispatched to the kingdom of Conchobar to acquire the beast, but its owner ends up refusing the proposal. Medb summons the chief kings of Ireland and their armies and decides to invade Ulster, after consulting his druid.

It is Morrigan who, in the guise of a bird, comes to warn him of the fate reserved for him by the men of Ireland.

The Brun de Cúailnge has a habit of mating with 50 cows every day, they give birth the next day or they burst. Every evening, 50 children come to play on his back. 100 warriors can warm up by huddled in its shadow. Its moo is so loud it is heard throughout Cooley Township.

During the final battle, the outcome of which will be the defeat of the coalition of the kingdoms of Ireland, beaten by the Ulates, the Brown of Cúailnge arrived in Connaught. He must face the "White Cornu" whom he kills after a terrible fight. Wounded, the bull returns to die in Cooley.