Artist's commentary
Morrigan
Hi there guys :) (Smile)
today a old pic from a couple of years ago: Morrigan:...Morrigan? wait, no green hair? no bat wings? no darkstalkers? Well, this is the Morrigan from celtic stories, hope you like it :) (Smile)
Was done in a hospital with both arms full of wires. nice memories :D (Big Grin)
PSCS/Bamboo/5hours/Music: Therion - The Beauty in Black
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LETÂŽS WIKIATTACK!
The MorrĂgan ("phantom queen") or MĂłrrĂgan ("great queen") (also known as MorrĂgu, MorrĂghan, Mor-RĂoghain, sometimes given in the plural as MorrĂgna) is a figure from Irish mythology who appears to have once been a goddess, although she is not explicitly referred to as such in the texts.
The Morrigan is a goddess of battle, strife, and fertility . She sometimes appears in the form of a crow, flying above the warriors, and in the Ulster cycle she also takes the form of an eel, a wolf, and a cow. She is generally considered a war deity comparable with the Germanic Valkyries, although her association with cattle also suggests a role connected with fertility, wealth, and the land.
The MorrĂgan's earliest narrative appearances, in which she is depicted as an individual, are in stories of the Ulster Cycle, where she has an ambiguous relationship with the hero CĂș Chulainn. In TĂĄin BĂł Regamna (The Cattle Raid of Regamain), CĂșchulainn encounters the MorrĂgan as she drives a heifer from his territory. He challenges and insults her, not realizing who she is. By this he earns her enmity. She makes a series of threats, and foretells a coming battle in which he will be killed. She tells him, enigmatically, "I guard your death".
In the TĂĄin BĂł Cuailnge queen Medb of Connacht launches an invasion of Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cuailnge; the MorrĂgan, like Alecto of the Greek Furies, appears to the bull in the form of a crow and warns him to flee. CĂșchulainn defends Ulster by fighting a series of single combats at fords against Medb's champions. In between combats the MorrĂgan appears to him as a young woman and offers him her love, and her aid in the battle, but he spurns her. In response she intervenes in his next combat, first in the form of an eel who trips him, then as a wolf who stampedes cattle across the ford, and finally as a red heifer leading the stampede, just as she had threatened in their previous encounter. However CĂșchulainn wounds her in each form and defeats his opponent despite her interference. Later she appears to him as an old woman bearing the same three wounds that her animal forms sustained, milking a cow. She gives CĂșchulainn three drinks of milk. He blesses her with each drink, and her wounds are healed. As the armies gather for the final battle, she prophesies the bloodshed to come.
In one version of CĂșchulainn's death-tale, as the hero rides to meet his enemies, he encounters the MorrĂgan as a hag washing his bloody armour in a ford, an omen of his death. Later in the story, mortally wounded, CĂșchulainn ties himself to a standing stone with his own entrails so he can die upright, and it is only when a crow lands on his shoulder that his enemies believe he is dead.