The Morrígan

The Morrígan ("phantom queen") or Mórrígan ("great queen"), also known as Morrígu, is a figure from Irish mythology. The name is spelled Morríghan or Mór-ríoghain in Modern Irish.

The Morrígan is primarily associated with fate, especially with foretelling doom and death in battle. In this role she appears as a crow, flying above the battlefield. The Morrígan has thus been likened to the Valkyries and Norns of Norse mythology. She is also associated with sovereignty, and her connection with cattle may also suggest an association with wealth and the land.

The Morrígan is often described as a trio of individuals, all sisters, called 'the three Morrígna'. Although membership of the triad varies, the most common combination in modern sources is Badb, Macha and Nemain. However the primary sources indicate a more likely triad of Badb, Macha and Anand; Anand is also given as another name for the Morrígan. Other accounts name Fea and others.

There is some disagreement over the meaning of the Morrígan's name. Mor 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 and the Old East Slavic "mara" ("nightmare"); while rígan translates as 'queen'. This can be reconstructed in the Proto-Celtic language as *Moro-rīganī-s. Accordingly, Morrígan is often translated as "Phantom Queen". This is the derivation generally favoured in current scholarship.

In the Middle Irish period the name is often spelled Mórrígan with a lengthening diacritic over the o, seemingly intended to mean "Great Queen" (Old Irish mór, 'great'; this would derive from a hypothetical Proto-Celtic *Māra Rīganī-s).Whitley Stokes believed this latter spelling was due to a false etymology popular at the time. There have also been attempts by modern writers to link the Morrígan with the Welsh literary figure Morgan le Fay from the Matter of Britain, in whose name mor may derive from Welsh word for "sea", but the names are derived from different cultures and branches of the Celtic linguistic tree.

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