Sarasvati and Brigit continued (4)
Sarasvati and Brigit
There are many comparisons to be made between the Celtic goddess Brigit and Sarasvati. Both are midwives and have connections with healing as well as poetry, both are sometimes described as triple or part of a triplet, both have their special day at the beginning of spring. (Depending on the movement of the moon, this day will even coincide occasionally).
But there is no evidence that Brigit was first worshipped as a sacred river in quite the same way as Sarasvati and her name is not connected with images of water, flowing or inspiration. It comes from the old Celtic *briganti which meant 'height', therefore 'exalted', 'raised up' giving something like 'she who is exalted'. This makes it more likely to be related to the idea of fire which was seen as 'that which rises' and of hills, than of water.
However, the British goddess Brigantia of northern Britain was linked with river and water cults and her name is also remembered in the Braint on Ynys Môn (Anglesey) and the Brent in Middlesex. Some rivers in Ireland may be related to the name Brigit - there are two rivers called Bride, as well as a Breedoge and a Breda. In spite of this, she does not appear to have given her name to any major rivers in Continental Europe.
Brigit was not the only goddess connected with a river in the Celtic world; divine females were often associated with water sources and rivers, many of which were named for them. We have Sequana, the personification of the source of the Seine in France, Sabrina of the Severn in England and Boand (of whom we shall hear more later) of the Boyne in Ireland.
Springs and wells had healing properties in the ancient Celtic world and Brigit herself is still connected with numerous healing wells in Britain and Ireland today. Rivers could also have a healing function as this passage from the Táin Bó Cuailnge attests:
Cúchulainn lay there sick. Senoll Uathach, the Hideous, and the two sons of Ficce were the first to reach him. They bore him back with them to Conaille, where they nursed his wounds and bathed them in the waters of the rivers Sas, for ease, the river Búan for steadfastness, Bíthslán for lasting health, the clear Finnglas, the bright Gleóir, the dashing Bedc; in Tadc, Talamed, Rinn and Bir, in the sour Brenide and narrow Cumang; in Celenn and Gaenemain, Dichu, Muach and Miliuc, Den, Deilt and Dubglas. (18)
In the above extract it can be seen that the different rivers were named and had different characters as though they were seen as beings in their own right.
The idea of the river as a crossing-place was also recognised by the ancient Celts who invested all liminal or threshold places with a numinous quality. Stretches of water were seen as being gateways between the earthly and supernatural worlds, so that offerings of precious metals, ornaments and weapons were thrown into them. There are also Irish stories of voyages, imrama, which describe the search for wisdom, inspiration and ultimate knowledge by means of a sea voyage to the far islands. In Welsh tradition Gwion gains wisdom from the cauldron of Ceridwen after which he is eaten by her as a grain of wheat, born from her womb and then placed in a leather bag which floats on the sea for many days. Being found by Elphin at a salmon-weir, he emerges and is reborn as Taliesin, the all-wise poet.
Interestingly, in Hindu religion, sacred places on the earth are known as tírthas, a word which actually means a place where one crosses a river. Tírthas may be a mountain, hill, cave or other geographical feature as well as a river, indicating not only that rivers had spiritual power but also that at these places it is possible to cross from the earthly plane to a divine or sacred reality.
There are several connections in Indo-European derived cultures between water and inspiration. In Greek mythology, the springs of Aganippe, Castalia and Hippocrene are sacred to the Muses as well as many other springs and wells. (And the nine Muses more or less correspond to nine aspects of culture which are combined in the one figure of Sarasvati.) In Norse mythology the Well of Mimir was the source of wisdom and Odin, the father of the gods, sacrificed his right eye in order to drink of it.
In Irish tradition water and wisdom are often found together, most notably in the Well of Segais which was the source of inspiration and knowledge. There are stories connecting the goddess Boand ('She of the White Cows') with this well, which only Nechtan and his three cupbearers were able to look upon. When Boand went to the well and walked three times around it against the way of the sun, the waters rose up and drowned her - in the process she became the Boyne river. In this myth therefore the goddess becomes identified with the Boyne and the Boyne river was a place of great importance for Irish poets. Boand is described as being the mother of the three strains of the harp - the sorrow-strain, the joy-strain and the sleep-strain.
The Mead of Poetry
As we have seen, in medieval Welsh poetry and myth, Taliesin obtains poetic inspiration and knowledge by drinking from the herbal brew in a cauldron, made by Ceridwen. The poems in the Book of Taliesin, particularly the Cadair Taliesin, use imagery which presents a symbolic connection between poetry and liquid. (19) Intoxication may have been implicated in poetic and divinatory acts in the same way as in the Bacchic cults of ancient Greece and in the use of the soma in Vedic ritual to stimulate the flow of words and produce ecstacy.
In Norse mythology too, Bragi, the god of eloquence and poetry, and the patron of skalds (poets) was said to have inspired poetry in humans by letting them drink from the mead of poetry. According to the Snorra Edda the gods had made this mead by putting their combined spittle into a pot from which they created Kvasir. He was later killed by two dwarfs who mixed his blood with honey and thus made the mead of poetry.
In Ireland the folklore view of the poet was of someone who could not make a song when sober and many ancient texts connect poets with the word meisce which can mean 'in a mental ferment' as well as 'intoxicated', and often describe them as being heated or having inflamed faces while composing. St Brigit was associated with ale in Irish and Welsh poems and songs. Although this probably has more to do with her role as provider it is tempting to pick up these associations of poetry and intoxication, knowing as we do from Cormac's 9th century glossary that the Irish goddess Brigit was a poetess, a woman of wisdom whom poets adored.
A curious cauldron, the Cauldron of Covetousness, is also described in Cormac's Glossary. Although only the size of the head of a large cingit (goblet?) it had nine chains coming out of it with a hole at the end of every chain. Nine artists stood around it while the company sang, with the point of his spear fixed in the hole of the chain that was next to him. Any gifts given to the artists were put into the cauldron, hence its name, the Cauldron of Covetousness. The proper content of the cauldron was a brethnasc of pure gold weighing twelve ounces.
Stokes also makes note of another mention of this cauldron in the preface to one of the manuscripts of Amra Columcille. Here the author of the text says that each company of artists had a cauldron of white (pure?) silver with nine chains of brass and a hook of pure gold on each chain. All the gold and silver the artists received were put into the cauldron and thus its name, coire sainte, Cauldron of Covetousness. Or, he goes on to speculate, it was called coire sainithi (Cauldron of Pleasantness?) because they used to drink ale out of it and the nine best of the company played a melody around it, while the poem was being sung. (20) We can't say with any certainty what this cauldron actually was, but it is suggestive of ritual activity involving poets, poems, singing, ale and reward. Looking at this with eyes fresh from visions of the soma sacrifice with the singing of the three Udgatri priests and the Hotri priests (similar perhaps in function to the Gaulish gutuater or 'Father of the Invocation') invoking the gods and reciting parts of the Rig Veda, brings colour and depth to the description. Was the cauldron perhaps a container of the ritual liquid that helped to give vision and eloquence to the poets of the company, and was it later filled with the Celtic equivalent of the dakshina or fee for the ritual, namely gold and silver? We can only speculate.
