Cliodhna
Cliodhna [ ˈklɪ̆ană ], also Clíodhna , Clíodna , Clíona , English Cleena , was a fairy figure in the Celtic mythology of Ireland .
mythology
Cliodhna is seen as a Banshee , as Túatha Dé Danann and as a figure from the Celtic Otherworld . Some myths call her a goddess of love and beauty. It was said that her three magic birds, which fed on an otherworldly apple tree, could sing the sick to sleep and heal them.
Cliodhna was in love with a mortal named Ciabhan. One day on the shore at Glandore, County Cork , while Ciabhan was hunting, the sea god Manannan mac Lir put Cliodhna into an enchanted sleep and then sent a wave to bring her back to the Promised Land. The tidal range at Glandore is therefore called Tonn Clíodhna ("Cliodhna's wave").
According to another legend, Cormac Laidir Mac Carthy, the builder of Blarney Castle , called the goddess for help with a lawsuit. She told him to kiss the first stone he saw in the morning. He did so, won the argument thanks to brilliant rhetoric and placed the stone of fluency high up in the walls of his fortress.
There are a large number of folk tales in which Cliodhna plays a role. What they all have in common is their descent from the Túatha Dé Danann and their affiliation with the Banshee, as their queen she is sometimes called.
In the esoteric direction of Celtic Neopaganism , Cliodhna is often mistaken for an ancient Celtic deity .
See also
literature
- D. Franklin: Cliodhna, the Queen of the Fairies of South Munster. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Volume III, Series 2, 1897.
- James MacKillop: A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford 1998.
- Patricia Monaghan: The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. New York: Facts On File, 2004.