Macha Stories

• Labor Pains of the Ulstermen
• Twins of Macha
• Gantz, pp. 127 - 129
• Otherworld woman seeking out chosen mortal
  • cf. Etáin variation -- goddess stays in Otherworld, we get a virtual image -- not a proper server -- only the sovereignty goddess can pour. Mortal equivalent of goddess.
• Crunnnniuc
  • landowner
  • woman comes to him, keeps house, goes to bed with him, stays a long time, brings him prosperity
• Annual feast
  • she doesn't go (outsider)
  • Oinach
  • periods of renewal for the whole community
  • manditory to attend
  • cf. classical commentaries about votive offerings
    • if one disturbed them, one was ostrasized, couldn't participate in annual renewals
• Crunniuc goes to the feast
  • she tells him not to be careless with his words
  • as part of the celbration, horse racing
  • everyone is praising the kings horses for the speed
  • Crunniuc says his wife is that fast
    • messed up
    • why would he say such a thing?
    • have to establish her equine aspects
    • recognize that the divine is present
      • Are you going? Yes, god willing...
      • Yes, they're fast, but the horse goddess is the source
      • a caution not to brag without aknowledging their true source of speed
• Crunniuc is seized
  • wife compelled to prove
  • begs to be let off -- pregnant
  • made to race
  • p. 129. races, won, gave birth as chariot finished
    • a son and a daughter
    • emuin = twins
  • any man who heard her, birth pains
  • That was version 1.
• Handout #1
  • Macha -- verse version, prose version
  • dindshenchas
    • dind -- famous places
    • senchas -- history/lore/legend
  • Ard Macha
    • different versions of who Macha was and her fate
    • Macha who shaped with her brooch the plain versus wife of Nemhedh version
  • pangs
    • Cruind
    • 2 horses to warrior horse race
    • Mag Da Gabra
      • plain of the 2 horses
    • come from ocean waves
      • horses that pull sea-god's chariot
      • M. mac Lir
    • alternate names
      • grian = sun, Macha, sun of womankind
      • daughter of Midir
  • bared herself, loosened her hair
    • losing human identity -- clothes -- human trappings
    • Continental Celts fighting nakid -- contest
  • twins
    • Fir and Fial
  • in time of war, labor pangs
  • then she died
    • buried alone in Ad Macha
• prose handout
  • Macha Redmane
    • mongruadh
      • mong -- mane of horse
  • 3 kings in Ireland
  • divided reign among the 3, taking turns, 7 years each
  • 1 dies, Aed Ruadh
    • when it's his turn, his daughter takes over, r., battle, Macha wins
    • drives others off -- banished
  • sons -- Dithurba
  • she goes after them, in wood, disguises herself as a leper
    • rubbed rye dough over her body
  • each of them carries her off to mate with her, she ties them up
    • Where's he? He's too ashamed to come back, ashamed to lie with a leper
  • ties them all up
  • carried the 5 sons away -- orders them to dig the Rath
    • preferred slaves to killing them
  • traced with her brooch pin, then they dug the trench
    • eó-muin
• or the Crunnchu story
• Emain Macha /v/ /v/
  • seat of high kingship of Ulster
  • most important site
  • Conchuber rules, Cu Chulaind brought up there
  • setting of heroic Ulster cycle of tales
• archeological evidence
  • not residential center, ceremonial site
  • David Robinson essay
    • CJ Linn -- physical (?) speculative
    • 40 m sturcutre
    • ~1000 BC, 40m diameter
    • 34 post pins, 3.5 m interval around
    • 4 concentric rings -- 200 large posts (roof-bearing?)
    • focus large post, 57cm diameter, 12m height
      • 200-year-old oak
        • 95 BC
    • engineering feat to raise
      • 3600 kg
    • possibly covered by a thatched roof
  • Navan Fort pictures
    • 600 trees, 3000 linear meters used if thatched
    • 35-40 years of age, carefully maintained woodlands
      • closely-controlled growth
      • 6 hectares, 100 trees/hectaire
    • deliberate management
  • Navan area -- largely open and treeless -- distance transport
    • strong organization needed
    • i fstraw/thatch -- 33 hectares of arable land
  • inside -- limestone blocks -- 3m c.
    • 3200 cubic meters quarried and transported
    • 1200/cublic meter -->3,840,000 kg
  • project had to be conceived early over several generations, and supervised by secular goverment and priestly class. Community project. resources of community/enviornment over a long period of time.
  • very important
  • then burned all exposed parts
  • then immediately after, sodded over
    • 2.5m height
  • major material brought from another site
    • built to be burned and then covered over
    • site to honor Macha
    • shows the importance of Macha
• narratives emphasize
  • equine nature of sovereignty in Ireland
  • rye-dough
    • aspect of sovereignty goddess
      • when not with proper mate, ugly
      • but embrased by proper mate, a beautiful woman
  • rt of Macha -- another similar mount
    • Haughey's Fort
      • might be the other tiwn
      • 2 similar mounds close together
    • ritual pools adjacent to both
      • Loch na Sét /d/ -- Lake of treasures -- Macha
      • The King's Stables -- by Haughey's Fort
        • modern name, but ... equine nature of tradition
• Macha, wife of Nemhedh
  • 1st to die in Ireland
  • Nemhedh dug 2 roy forts in Ireland
    • Rath Cinn Eich
      • fort of the head of the horse
    • Rath Cimbaith
      • Name of 1 of surviving kings whom Macha takes as a mate
• Macha as horse sacrifice?
  • Combrensis 12c -- didn't like Irish
    • next king -- horse sacrifice
      • white mare, king mates with it, it's killed, cooked in broth, king swims in broth
    • ~Ashvemeta SAnskrit -- genders reversed
    • guarantees fertility of the land
  • inaugeration of king -- marries sovereignty goddess
  • Macha -- pregnant woman, similar orbit
  • Ard Math remains sacred site even after Christianity