Aine ( Irish pronunciation: [?aːn??] ) is an Irish goddess of summer, wealth, and sovereignty. She is associated with midsummer and the sun , ^[1] and is sometimes represented by a red mare. ^[1] She is the daughter of Egobail , ^[2] the sister of Aillen and/or Fennen , and is claimed as an ancestor by multiple Irish families. As the goddess associated with fertility, she has command over crops and animals and is also associated with agriculture. ^[2]

Aine is associated with County Limerick , where the hill of Knockainey ( Irish : Cnoc Aine ) is named after her. ^[2] This hill was the site of rites in her honour, involving fire and the blessing of the land, recorded as recently as 1879. ^[3] She is also associated with sites such as Toberanna ( Irish : Tobar Aine ), County Tyrone ; ^[4] Dunany ( Irish : Dun Aine ), County Louth ; Lissan ( Irish : Lios Aine ), County Londonderry ; and Cnoc Aine near Teelin, County Donegal .

In Irish mythology [ edit ]

Ailill Aulom [ edit ]

The descendants of Aulom, the Eoganachta , claim Aine as an ancestor. ^[5]

Gearoid FitzGerald [ edit ]

In other tales Aine is the wife of Gerald FitzGerald, 3rd Earl of Desmond , known popularly as " Iarl Gearoid". Rather than having a consensual marriage, he rapes her (thought to be based on the story of Ailill Aulom ), and she exacts her revenge by either changing him into a goose, killing him or both. ^[1] The FitzGeralds thus claim an association with Aine; despite the Norman origins of the clan, the FitzGeralds would become known for being " More Irish than the Irish themselves ."

In a variant of the FitzGerald story, Aine is raped by Gerald's father the Earl of Desmond, who witnesses Aine combing her hair while bathing in a river. The Earl takes possession of Aine's cloak, which is the only way to control her, and he rapes her. Gerald FitzGerald is the product of their union, and Gerald exhibits certain magical abilities; he has the ability to dramatically change size (shrinks down to jump into a bottle), and he can transform into a goose, which he does at Lough Gur near Cnoc Aine. ^[6] After Gerald's father dies, Aine and Gerald inherit his lands. Aine enchants the hillside of Cnoc Aine, causing peas to grow there miraculously overnight. In some versions of the story, Gerald is the king of the Sidhfir, is bound to a pillar in Loch Guirr, and according to Munster prophecy, will one day rise from the Loch mounted on a black steed with a white face to engage in combat during the final war. ^[7]

Manannan mac Lir [ edit ]

In yet other versions of her myth, she is the wife or daughter of the sea god, Manannan mac Lir . ^[8]

Oral folklore [ edit ]

In folklore from County Limerick, ^[9] Aine is said to have two daughters whom she admonished never to marry. The first daughter disobeys her, and on her wedding night Aine finds her son-in-law eating the breast off her daughter. Aine forces her younger daughter to witness the horror and reinforces her warning about disobeying her mother, but the younger daughter soon elopes and runs off with a druid. Aine then shuts herself into her house as a recluse and will only commune with the Sidhe . She dies of grief on Saint John's Eve, and the good folk assemble in great masses bearing torches. It is said from this time on cliars were carried in the fields on Saint John's eve.

In other folklore from County Limerick, Aine was said to have lived in a fort in Cnoc Aine long ago. A woman gathered ash sticks from the fort, and Aine told her to put them back exactly as they were; when the woman failed to do so, Aine abducted her, carrying her into the fort. ^[10] Aine is described as having long, flowing hair.

In another folktale, Aine was said to live at the bottom of a lake. Each year she would emerge at midsummer to sit in her favorite spot called Suidheachan Bean-a'-tighe , where she would comb her long golden hair with a golden comb. ^[11] A young shepherd watched her from afar, and after she fell asleep he stole her comb. Every misfortune visited him after that, but before he died, he requested that the comb be thrown back into the lake.

People in Limerick once brought their sick to the lakes on the 6th night of the full moon (called "All-Heal") when the moon shone brightly on the waters. ^[12] They believed that if the sick were not healed by the 8th or 9th night that Aine would sing or play the Ceol Sidhe , which was used to comfort the dying. Aine's red-haired dwarf brother Fer Fi, a harper, would then sing the Suantraige , which was the song that lulled the dead to sleep.

In The Legend of Sean O hAodh, the herdsman piper Sean O hAodh meets Aine, clothed in fine white robes, near Lough Gur in August, and she requests Sean to play at a ball. She meets Sean in a splendid horse-drawn carriage, and they travel over a long road laden with roses and fruit trees. When they arrive at Aine's mansion, Sean plays the pipes before fine ladies and gentlemen until the early morning hours, but when the sun rises, he sees fish shoaling outside the windows and realizes he is at the bottom of Lough Gur. At the end of the evening, the ladies and gentlemen give Sean guineas and Aine gives Sean a gold purse, and he falls asleep. He reawakens on Suidheachan Bean-a'-tighe to find that all the guineas have turned to gorse but that the gold purse that Aine gave him is still there and never runs empty. ^[13]

Festivals [ edit ]

The feast of Midsummer Night was held in her honor. ^[14] In County Limerick, she is remembered in more recent times as Queen of the Fae. On Saint John's Eve men used to gather on Cnoc Aine, where she was said to dwell, where they would light cliars - bunches of straw and hay tied on poles - that were carried in procession to the top of the hill. Later, the men ran with the cliars through their fields and between cattle to bring good luck for the rest of the year. ^[15] Men who came from neighboring villages were said to be required to look to the moon as they approached the hill to avoid forgetting their homes.

Aine is spoken of as "the best hearted woman that ever lived" and the meadowsweet or queen-of-the-meadow is said to be her plant. ^[16]

Related goddesses [ edit ]

Aine (Ir. "brightness, glow, joy, radiance; splendour, glory, fame") is sometimes mistakenly equated with Danu as her name bears a superficial resemblance to Anu . ^[1]

"Aynia", reputedly the most powerful fairy in Ulster, may be a variant of the same figure. ^[17] Aine's hill is located in the heart of Cnoc Aine (Knockainy) in County Limerick , is the hill of the goddess Grian, Cnoc Greine . Grian (literally, "sun") is believed to be either the sister of Aine, another of Aine's manifestations, or possibly " Macha in disguise". ^[18] Due to Aine's connection with midsummer rites, it is possible that Aine and Grian may share a dual-goddess, seasonal function (such as seen in the Gaelic myths of the Cailleach and Brigid ) with the two sisters representing the "two suns" of the year: Aine representing the light half of the year and the bright summer sun ( an ghrian mhor ), and Grian the dark half of the year and the pale winter sun ( an ghrian bheag ). ^[18]

See also [ edit ]

• List of solar deities
• Aibell
• Cliodhna
• Mongfind

References [ edit ]

Bibliography [ edit ]

• Byrne, Francis John , Irish Kings and High-Kings . Four Courts Press. 2nd revised edition, 2001.
• Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN   0-19-508961-8
• MacKillop, James. Dictionary of Celtic Mythology . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN   0-19-280120-1 .
• O hOgain, Daithi "Myth, Legend and Romance: An Encyclopedia of the Irish Folk Tradition" Prentice Hall Press, (1991) : ISBN   0-13-275959-4 (the only dictionary/encyclopedia with source references for every entry)
• Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art , Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN   0-00-764059-5

External links [ edit ]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aine .

• Photos of Cnoc Aine
• Proto-Celtic — English lexicon