Editing Boann

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Use Irish English|date=November 2021}}
[[File:Newgrange-bank.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The [[River Boyne]] with [[Newgrange]] in the background.]]
[[File:Valley of the river Boyne.jpg|right|thumb|300px| The [[River Boyne]] as seen from [[Brú na Bóinne]].]]

'''Boann''' or '''Boand''' is the [[Irish mythology|Irish]] goddess of the [[River Boyne]] (''Bóinn''), an important river in Ireland's historical province of [[Kingdom of Meath|Meath]]. According to the ''[[Lebor Gabála Érenn]]'' and ''Táin Bó Fraích'' she was the sister of [[Bébinn|Befind]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/fraech.html|title=The Cattle-Raid of Fraech|website=www.maryjones.us|access-date=13 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230081945/http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/fraech.html#|archive-date=2013-12-30|url-status=dead}}</ref> and daughter of Delbáeth, son of [[Elatha|Elada]], of the [[Tuatha Dé Danann]].<ref>''[[Lebor Gabála Érenn]]'' [http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/lebor4.html#55 §64] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100715225248/http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/lebor4.html#55#55 |date=2010-07-15 }}</ref> Her husband is variously [[Nechtan (mythology)|Nechtan]] or [[Elcmar]]. With her lover [[the Dagda]], she is the mother of [[Aengus]].

== Etymology ==

Her name is interpreted as "white cow" ({{langx|ga|bó fhionn}}; {{langx|sga|bó find}}) in the ''dinsenchas'', where she is also called "White Boand".<ref>Metrical ''Dindshenchas'', [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T106500C/index.html Vol 3], [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T106500C/text003.html poem 3: "Boand II"] (ed. Edward Gwynn) at [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/ CELT]</ref><ref>[https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T106500C.html ''Boand I'']</ref> [[Ptolemy]]'s 2nd century ''[[Geography (Ptolemy)|Geography]]'' shows that in antiquity the river's name was ''Bouvinda'' [Βουουίνδα],<ref>Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller (editor & translator), [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_i_JfAAAAMAAJ#page/n0/mode/2up ''Klaudiou Ptolemaiou Geographike Hyphegesis'' (''Claudii Ptolemæi Geographia'')], Volume 1, p. 79, Alfredo Firmin Didot, Paris (1883)</ref><ref>[[Ptolemy]], ''[[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Geographia]]'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/2/1*.html 2.1]</ref> which may derive from [[Proto-Celtic language|Proto-Celtic]] ''*Bou-vindā'', "white cow".<ref>[[T. F. O'Rahilly]], ''Early Irish History and Mythology'', Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946, p. 3</ref> 
An alternate version of her name is given as '''Segais''', hence Well of Segais.<ref>[https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T106500C.html ''Boind II'']</ref> We are also told that Eithne was the wife of Elcmar and that another name for Eithne was Boand.<ref>[https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T300012/index.html ''The Wooing of Etain'' "Version 1" p. 143]</ref>

== Mythology ==

In the tale of [[Aengus]]'s birth, Boann lives at [[Brú na Bóinne]] with her husband [[Elcmar]]. She has an affair with [[the Dagda]], who impregnates her after sending Elcmar away on a one-day errand. To hide the pregnancy from Elcmar, the Dagda casts a spell on him, making "the sun stand still" so he will not notice the passing of time. Meanwhile, nine months pass and Boann gives birth to Aengus.<ref>Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. ''Myth, Legend & Romance: An encyclopaedia of the Irish folk tradition''. Prentice Hall Press, 1991. p.39</ref><ref name="Hensey">Hensey, Robert. Re-discovering the winter solstice alignment at Newgrange, in ''The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology''. Oxford University Press, 2017. pp.11-13</ref> The ''[[Dindsenchas]]'' explains the name Aengus as meaning "one desire", because the Dagda had been Boann's one true desire.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stokes |first1=Whitley |title=The Metrical Dindsenchas: Boand II |url=https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T106500C.html |website=Corpus of Electronic Texts |publisher=University College, Cork |access-date=3 August 2019}}</ref> It has been suggested that this tale represents the [[winter solstice]] illumination of [[Newgrange]] at Brú na Bóinne, during which the sunbeam (the Dagda) enters the inner chamber (the womb of Boann) when the [[Sun path|sun's path]] stands still. The word ''solstice'' (Irish ''grianstad'') means sun-standstill. The conception of Aengus may represent the 'rebirth' of the sun at the winter solstice.<ref name="Hensey"/><ref>Anthony Murphy and Richard Moore. "Chapter 8, Newgrange: Womb of the Moon", ''Island of the Setting Sun: In Search of Ireland's Ancient Astronomers''. Liffey Press, 2008. pp.160-172</ref>

As told in the ''Dindsenchas'',<ref>[[Dindsenchas|Metrical ''Dindshenchas'']], [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T106500C/index.html Vol 3], [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T106500C/text002.html poem 2: "Boand I"] (ed. Edward Gwynn) at [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/ CELT].</ref> Boann created the Boyne.  Though forbidden to by her husband, Nechtan, Boann approached the magical [[Connla's Well|Well of Segais]] (also known as the Connla's Well), which was surrounded, according to the legend, by nine magic [[hazel]]-trees.<ref>C. Squire, Celtic myth and legend, Dover Publications, p. 55, 2003.</ref> [[Hazelnut]]s were known to fall into the Well, where they were eaten by the speckled [[Salmon of Knowledge|salmon]] (who, along with hazelnuts, also embody and represent [[wisdom]] in [[Irish mythology]]). Boann challenged the power of the well by walking around it [[Widdershins|tuathal]]; this caused the waters to surge up violently and rush down to the sea, creating the Boyne. In this catastrophe, she was swept along in the rushing waters, and lost an arm, leg and eye, and ultimately her life, in the flood. The poem equates her with famous rivers in other countries, including the [[River Severn]], [[Tiber]], [[Jordan River]], [[Tigris]] and [[Euphrates]]. Additionally, it mentions alternate names for various parts of the Boyne, including River of Segais, the Arm and Leg of Nuada's wife, the Great Silver Yoke, White Marrow of Fedlimid, the River of the White Hazel, Banna, Roof of the Ocean, Lunnand, and Torrand.<ref>[https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T106500C.html ''Boand I'']</ref>

In a variant of the same story as told in the Dindsenchas, Boand tried to hide her infidelity with the [[Dagda]] by washing herself in Nechtan's well, but when she approaches it, it overcomes her, and she drowns.<ref>[https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T106500C.html ''Boand II'']</ref> 

She had a lapdog, Dabilla, which was swept out to sea. Torn into pieces by the water, the two halves became the rocks known as ''Cnoc Dabilla'', or Hill of Dabilla.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wrwoAAAAYAAJ&q=dabilla+boann|title=The Great Queens: Irish Goddesses from the Morrígan to Cathleen Ní Houlihan|last=Clark|first=Rosalind|date=1991|publisher=Colin Smythe|isbn=9780861402908|pages=137|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2upFDwAAQBAJ&dq=dabilla+boann&pg=PT140|title=Ireland's Animals|last=Coitir|first=Niall Mac|date=2015-09-28|publisher=The Collins Press|isbn=9781848895256|language=en}}</ref>

She also appears in ''Táin Bó Fraích'' as the maternal aunt and protector of the mortal [[Fráech]].<ref>[http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/fraech.html "The Cattle-Raid of Fraech"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230081945/http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/fraech.html# |date=2013-12-30 }}, trans. A. H. Leahy, ''Heroic Romances of Ireland'' Vol 2, 1906.</ref> In that story, Fráech's people tell him to go visit his mother's sister Boand to receive the raiment of the ''Sídhe''. Boand then gives Fráech fifty intricately worked mantles and tunics with animal details, fifty jeweled spears that lit the night like the sun, fifty dark horses with gold bells, fifty swords with golden hilts, seven hounds in silver chains, seven trumpeters, three jesters, and three harpists, which Fráech uses to dazzle [[Medb]] and [[Ailill mac Máta|Ailill]].<ref name="geste">{{cite web |last1=unknown |title=The Geste of Fraoch |url=https://sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cdm/cdm03.htm |website=Sacred Texts |access-date=30 November 2019}}</ref>

=== Buan ===

According to the story "Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise", there is a well in [[Tír na nÓg]] surrounded by nine purple hazel trees. Called the Well of Knowledge, it yields five streams that [[Manannán mac Lir]] later explains are the five senses from which knowledge is apprehended. The hazels, which drop nuts into a pool of five salmon, are called the hazels of ''Buan''.<ref>[https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T302000/index.html  ''Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise'']</ref> The combination of the well, hazels, salmon and the name Buan (meaning "enduring" or "persevering") likely points to a common origin with the story of Boand and the [[Wells in the Irish Dindsenchas|Well of Segais]].<ref>[[wiktionary:buan|Wiktionary "buan"]]</ref><ref name="dolmens">{{cite book |last1=Borlase |first1=William Copeland |title=The Dolmens of Ireland |date=1897 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |location=Indiana University |page=1165 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wvJMAAAAMAAJ&dq=scal+balb&pg=PA802 |access-date=6 August 2019}}</ref>

Another tale relates the fate of the only son of "White Buan," here identified as a male. Buan's son is named as Baile, loved by both men and women, who falls in love with Ailinn, daughter of Lugaid, son of Fergus of the Sea. The two lovers arrange a tryst, but before they can meet, Baile rests his chariot and releases his horses to graze. There he is intercepted by an unnamed character (likely [[Manannán mac Lir|Manannán]] in his trickster guise), described as a horrible apparition, approaching fitfully with the speed of a hawk or the wind from the green sea. When Baile asks the trickster from whence he comes and the reason for his haste, the trickster lies and tells Baile that he brings news of the death of Ailinn, who was killed by the warriors of Leinster and that she and her lover will only be reunited in death. With that news Baile drops dead on the spot, and a yew grows on his grave with the form of Baile's head at its top. The trickster moves on to intercept Ailinn, whom he tells of the death of Baile. With that news, Ailinn drops dead on the spot, and an apple tree grows on her grave with the form of her head at its top. The two trees are eventually cut down, turned into tablets, and inscribed with poems. On Halloween there was a poet's competition in Cormac's court, and the two tablets were brought together. When they met, they sprang together and intertwined as woodbine around a branch.<ref>[https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T301042/index.html ''Scél Baili Binnbérlaig'']</ref>

Another Buan, named the wife of the one-armed King [[Mesgegra]] of Leinster, dies of grief after [[Conall Cernach]] beheads her husband. A hazel tree then grows through her grave.<ref>[http://toddmcompton.com/siege.htm ''The Siege of Howth'']</ref>

== In Neopaganism ==

Modern-day commentators and [[Modern Paganism]] sometimes identify Boann with the goddess [[Brigid]] or believe Boann to be Brigid's mother;<ref>[http://www.unc.edu/celtic/catalogue/stbrigid/essay.html Essay: St Brigid]; [http://www.brigitsforge.co.uk/sarasvati4.htm Brigit's Forge: Sarasvati and Brigit part 4] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050220131102/http://www.brigitsforge.co.uk/sarasvati4.htm |date=2005-02-20 }}</ref> however there are no [[Celts|Celtic]] sources that describe her as such.  It is also speculated by some modern writers that, as the more well-known goddess, and later saint, the legends of numerous "minor" goddesses with similar associations may have over time been incorporated into the symbology, worship and tales of Brigid.<ref name="Condren">Condren, Mary (1989) ''The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland''. New York, Harper and Row. {{ISBN|0-06-250156-9}} p.57</ref>

==See also==
* [[Glas Gaibhnenn]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Celtic mythology (Ulster)}}
{{Celtic mythology (Mythological)}}

{{given name|Boann|nocat}}

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[[Category:Tuatha Dé Danann]]
[[Category:Irish goddesses]]
[[Category:Sea and river goddesses]]
[[Category:Drogheda]]
[[Category:Personifications of rivers]]