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User:

battleraven (123139)

Battle Goddess, One of Three
and College Student

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Name:

battleraven

E-mail:

butterflyparadox@gmail.com

Bio:

Ceara Nerys Whitfield

BASIC INFORMATION

[Name:] Ceara Nerys Whitfield
[Age:] 23
[Birthday:] October 31, 1985
[Deity:] Morrigan
[Sexual Orientation:] Straight
[Family:] Ceara is an only child born to older parents. Her father was an attaché to the US Consulate in Edinburgh; her mother was a social butterfly inside local circles. After retiring from his government job, Ceara's father, Dustin now works for a small college, teaching international relations and political science. Grandparents (paternal side) are cattle ranchers in New Mexico.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Average height/weight, black hair, brown eyes, stands 5' 6½" ( 1.69 m)

PERSONALITY

Quirky, sometimes quiet, sometimes bubbly, with a twisted sense of humor that is sometimes very violent. Hates really deep psychological dramas and Virginia Woolf-esque novels.

HISTORY

Ceara is a college student at University of Maryland, College Park. She is studying engineering as a major and military history as a minor. For fun, she takes martial arts and fencing classes as well as rebuilding/restoring an old hot rod she'd gotten from a friend of her father's. She also teaches Bea Winters martial arts some afternoons. She’s dating Patrick Garrett and they are quite happy together. Ceara likes to divide her time between the DC/ Metro area and her grandparent’s ranch in New Mexico.

WEAKNESSES

Weaknesses: Has trouble opening up in relationships, big social settings tend to make her nervous because she got lost at one when she was six. She’s also a bit of a firecracker and doesn’t always think her actions through before doing them.

STRENGTHS

Battle goddess, goddess of nature and sovereignty, highly developed martial skills, gifted with very good strategy skills. Has a certain affinity for ravens and cattle. Also has prophetic foresight, the ability to cast spells, and the powers to transform her self into a bird, fish, or animal, and from a beautiful young girl into a hag. Prefers psychological warfare to actual combat.

GENERAL DEITY HISTORY

From Wikipedia:

The Morrígan ("terror" or "phantom queen") or, less accurately but still used in some texts, Mórrígan ("great queen"), (aka Morrígu, Morríghan, Mor-Ríoghain) 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.

She is usually seen as a terrifying figure. She is associated with war and death on the battlefield, sometime appearing in the form of a carrion crow, premonitions of doom, and with cattle. She is often considered a war deity comparable with the Germanic Valkyries, although her association with cattle also suggests a role connected with fertility and the land.

She is often interpreted as a triple goddess, although membership of the triad varies: the most common combination is the Morrígan, the Badb and Macha, but sometimes includes Nemain, Fea, Anann and others.

The sources

Glosses and glossaries

The earliest sources for the Morrígan are glosses in Latin manuscripts, and glossaries (collections of glosses). In a 9th century manuscript containing the Latin Vulgate translation of the Book of Isaiah, the word Lamia is used to translate the Hebrew Lilith.[1] A gloss expains this as "a monster in female form, that is, a morrígan".[2] Cormac's Glossary (also 9th century), and a gloss in the later manuscript H.3.18, both explain the plural word gudemain ("spectres")[3] with the plural form morrígna.[2] The 8th century O'Mulconry's Glossary says that Macha is one of the three morrígna.[2] It therefore appears that at this time the name Morrígan was seen as referring to a class of beings rather than an individual.

Ulster Cycle

The Morrígan'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 Cúchulainn. In Táin Bó Regamna (the Cattle Raid of Regamain), Cúchulainn encounters the Morrígan as she drives a heifer from his territory. He challenges and insults her, not realising 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".[4]

In the Táin Bó Cuailnge queen Medb of Connacht launches an invasion of Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cuailnge; the Morrígan, glossed as equivalent to Alecto of the Greek Furies, appears to the bull in the form of a crow and warns him to flee.[5] Cúchulainn defends Ulster by fighting a series of single combats at fords against Medb's champions. In between combats the Morrígan 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. HoweverCúchulainn 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 givesCúchulainn three drinks of milk. He blesses her with each drink, and her wounds are healed. [6] As the armies gather for the final battle, she prophesies the bloodshed to come.[7]

In one version of Cúchulainn's death-tale, as the hero rides to meet his enemies, he encounters the Morrígan as a hag washing his bloody armour in a ford, an omen of his death. Later in the story, mortally wounded, Cúchulainn 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.[8]

Mythological Cycle

The Morrígan also appears in texts of the Mythological Cycle. In the 12th century pseudohistorical compilation Lebor Gabála Érenn she is listed among the Tuatha Dé Danann as one of the daughters of Ernmas, granddaughter of Nuada.[9]

The first three daughters of Ernmas are given as Ériu, Banba and Fódla. Their names are synonyms for Ireland, and they were married to Mac Cuill, Mac Cécht and Mac Gréine, the last three Tuatha Dé Danann kings of Ireland. Associated with the land and kingship, they probably represent a triple goddess of sovereignty. Next come Ernmas's other three daughters: the Badb, Macha and the Morrígan. A quatrain describes the three as wealthy, "springs of craftiness" and "sources of bitter fighting". The Morrígan's name is said to be Anann, and she had three sons, Glon, Gaim and Coscar. According to Geoffrey Keating's 17th century History of Ireland, Ériu, Banba and Fódla worshipped the Badb, Macha and the Morrígan respectively, suggesting that the two triads of goddesses may be seen as equivalent.[10]

The Morrígan also appears in Cath Maige Tuireadh (the Battle of Mag Tuired).[11] On Samhain she keeps a tryst with the Dagda before the battle against the Fomorians. When he meets her she is washing herself, standing with one foot on either side of the river Unius. In some sources she is believed to have created the river. After they have sex, the Morrígan promises to summon the magicians of Ireland to cast spells on behalf of the Tuatha Dé, and to destroy Indech, the Fomorian king, taking from him "the blood of his heart and the kidneys of his valour". Later, we are told, she would bring two handfuls of his blood and deposit them in the same river (however, we are also told later in the text thatIndech was killed by Ogma).

As battle is about to be joined, the Tuatha Dé leader, Lug, asks each what power they bring to the battle. The Morrígan's reply is difficult to interpret, but involves pursuing, destroying and subduing. When she comes to the battlefield she chants a poem, and immediately the battle breaks and theFomorians are driven into the sea. After the battle she chants another poem celebrating the victory and prophesying the end of the world.

In another story she lures away the bull of a woman called Odras, who follows her to the otherworld via the cave of Cruachan. When she falls asleep, the Morrígan turns her into a pool of water.[12]

Nature and functions

The Morrígan is often considered a triple goddess, but her supposed triple nature is ambiguous and inconsistent. Sometimes she appears as one of three sisters, the daughters of Ernmas: the Morrígan, the Badb and Macha. Sometimes the trinity consists of the Badb, Macha and Nemain, collectively known as the Morrígan, or in the plural as the Morrígna. Occasionally Fea or Anu also appear in various combinations. However the Morrígan also frequently appears alone, and her name is sometimes used interchangeably with the Badb, with no third "aspect" mentioned.

The Morrígan is usually interpreted as a "war goddess": W.M. Hennessey's "The Ancient Irish Goddess of War," written in 1870, was influential in establishing this interpretation.[13] Her role often involves premonitions of a particular warrior's violent death, suggesting a link with the Banshee of later folklore. This connection is further noted by Patricia Lysaght: "In certain areas of Ireland this supernatural being is, in addition to the name banshee, also called the badhb".[14]

It has also been suggested that she was closely tied to Irish männerbund groups[citation needed] (described as "bands of youthful warrior-hunters, living on the borders of civilized society and indulging in lawless activities for a time before inheriting property and taking their places as members of settled, landed communities")[15] and that these groups may have been in some way dedicated to her. If true, her worship may have resembled that of Perchta groups in Germanic areas.

However, Máire Herbert[16] has argued that "war per se is not a primary aspect of the role of the goddess", and that her association with cattle suggests her role was connected to the earth, fertility and sovereignty; she suggests that her association with war is a result of a confusion between her and theBadb , who she argues was originally a separate figure. She can be interpreted as providing political or military aid, or protection to the king - acting as a goddess of sovereignty, not necessarily a war goddess.

There is a burnt mound site in County Tipperary known as Fulacht na Mór Ríoghna - "the cooking pit of the Mórrígan". The fulachta sites are found in wild areas, and usually associated with outsiders such as the Fianna and the above-mentioned männerbund groups, as well as with the hunting of deer. The cooking connection also suggests to some a connection with the three mythical hags who cook the meal of dogflesh that brings the hero Cúchulainn to his doom. The Dá Chich na Morrigna or two breasts of the Mórrígan, a pair of hills in County Meath, suggest to some a role as a tutelary goddess, comparable to Danu or Anu, who has her own hills in County Kerry. Other goddesses known to have similar hills are Áine and Grian of County Limerick who, in addition to a tutelary function, also have solar attributes.

Etymology

There is some disagreement over the meaning of the Morrígan's name. It can be straightforwardly interpreted as "great queen" (Old Irish mór, great;[17] rígan, queen,[18] derived from a hypothetical Proto-Celtic *Māro-rīganījā[citation needed]); however it often lacks the diacritic over the o in the texts. Alternatively, mor (without diacritic) may derive from an Indo-European root connoting terror or monstrousness, cognate with the Old English maere (which survives in the modern English word "nightmare") and the Scandinavian mara.[19] This would derive from Proto-Celtic *Moro-rīganījā.[citation needed] Current scholarship mostly holds to Morrígan being the older, more accurate form.

Arthurian legend

There have been attempts by some modern authors of fiction to link the Arthurian character Morgan le Fay with the Morrígan. Morgan first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini (The Life of Merlin) in the 12th century. However, while the creators of the literary character of Morgan may have been somewhat inspired by the much older tales of the goddess, the relationship ends there. As scholars such as Rosalind Clark have explored, the names are not related: the Welsh "Morgan" is derived from root words associated with the sea, while the Irish "Morrígan" has its roots in words for "terror" or "greatness".[20]

OUT OF CHARACTER

[PB:] Summer Glau
Ceara does know that she is the reincarnation of Morrigan. It had slowly surfaced (dreams, small bits of random knowledge), but she brushed it off as mostly just random bits of information that she learned as a child in Scotland. Until one day when she met Badb. Now she's trying to adjust to it as much as she can. She also hates pina coladas, prefers to hike a mountain or walk through a grassy field rather than walk on a beach, but she does enjoy dancing in the rain occasionally.
[Disclaimer:] This is a character in a role play. I don’t own Ms. Glau, I’m only borrowing her image. This journal will contain material of a sensitive and adult nature. You are warned.

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