Sadhbh

Sadhbh , also Saeve, is a legendary figure from the Celtic mythology of Ireland from the Finn cycle around Fionn mac Cumhaill .

mythology

Sadhbh is seen as the daughter of Bodb Derg by Síd Slievenamon , wife of Fionn Mac Cumhaill and mother of Oisín . In the story of Oisín's birth, Sadhbh appears to the hunter Fionn as a fleeing deer that finally lets him catch up with him and follows him into his home. At night the animal transforms into its human form. Despite his love for her, he leaves her because of a campaign and she disappears. After seven years of searching, he finds a boy on the slope of the Ben Bulban mountain , whom he recognizes as his son and calls him Oisín ("little deer"). He tells him what had happened: His mother Sadhbh was kidnapped by a "black man", the druid Fear Doirche, against her will using magic. The latter only had power over her when Sadhbh was not in Fionn's Almhuin Castle , from which he had lured her out in the form of her husband. Sadhbh had to remain forever in the power of the druid who had turned her back into a deer.

An equality with Sadb ingen Chuin , the daughter of Conn Cétchathach is sometimes assumed, but cannot be proven.

See also

• List of Celtic gods and legendary figures
• Myths and legends from Ireland
• Celtic women

literature

• Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 .
• Ingeborg Clarus : Celtic Myths. Man and his otherworld. Walter Verlag 1991, ppb edition Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2000, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-491-69109-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ingeborg Clarus: Celtic myths. Man and his otherworld. Walter Verlag 1991, ppb edition Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2000, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-491-69109-5 , pp. 209 f.