Editing Macha (section)

==Macha Mong Ruad==
Macha Mong Ruad ("red hair"), daughter of [[Áed Rúad]] ("red fire" or "fire lord" – a name of [[the Dagda]]), was, according to medieval legend and historical tradition, the only queen in the [[List of High Kings of Ireland]]. Her father Áed rotated the kingship with his cousins [[Díthorba]] and [[Cimbáeth]], seven years at a time. Áed died after his third stint as king, and when his turn came round again, Macha claimed the kingship. Díthorba and Cimbáeth refused to allow a woman to take the throne, and a battle ensued. Macha won, and Díthorba was killed. She won a second battle against Díthorba's sons, who fled into the wilderness of [[Connacht]]. She married Cimbáeth, with whom she shared the kingship. Macha pursued Díthorba's sons alone, disguised as a [[leper]], and overcame each of them in turn when they tried to have sex with her, tied them up, and carried the three of them bodily to [[Ulster]]. The Ulstermen wanted to have them killed, but Macha instead enslaved them and forced them to build [[Emain Macha]] (Navan Fort near Armagh), to be the capital of the [[Ulaid]], marking out its boundaries with her brooch (explaining the name ''Emain Macha'' as ''eó-muin Macha'' or "Macha's neck-brooch").<ref>Eugene O'Curry, ''Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History'', 1861, [https://books.google.com/books?id=li02AAAAMAAJ&q=macha&pg=PA527 Appendix No. XXXVIII]</ref> Macha ruled together with Cimbáeth for seven years, until he died of plague at Emain Macha, and then a further fourteen years on her own, until she was killed by [[Rechtaid Rígderg]].<ref>Geoffrey Keating, ''Foras Feasa ar Éirinn'' [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100054/text037.html 1.27]-[http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100054/text038.html 1.28]</ref><ref>''Annals of the Four Masters'' [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100005A/text017.html M4532]-[http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100005A/text018.html 4546]</ref> The ''Lebor Gabála'' synchronises her reign to that of [[Ptolemy I Soter]] (323–283 BC).<ref>R. A. Stewart Macalister (ed. & trans.), ''Lebor Gabála Érenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland Part V'', Irish Texts Society, 1956, pp. 263–267</ref> The chronology of Keating's ''Foras Feasa ar Éirinn'' dates her reign to 468–461 BC, the ''Annals of the Four Masters'' to 661–654 BC.

[[Marie-Louise Sjoestedt]] writes of this figure: "In the person of this second Macha we discover a new aspect of the local goddess, that of the warrior and dominator; and this is combined with the sexual aspect in a specific manner which reappears in other myths, the male partner or partners being dominated by the female."<ref name="Sjoestedt">{{cite book |first=Marie-Louise |last=Sjoestedt |others=Translated by Myles Dillon |title=Gods and Heroes of the Celts |edition=2nd |year=1982 |publisher=Turtle Island Foundation |location=Berkeley, CA |pages=[https://archive.org/details/godsheroesofcelt00sjoe/page/28 28–9] |isbn=0-913666-52-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/godsheroesofcelt00sjoe/page/28 }}</ref>