Bandia an fhlaithis

Is téarma acadúil é  Bandia an Fhlaithis, a fheictear de ghnáth i Léann Ceilteach, cé go bhfuil an smaoineamh céanna ann i nósanna eile faoin ainm hieros gamos.James MacKillop, A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), s.v. Sovereignty, Lady.  Is bandia í, ina samhail den tuath, a bhronnann flaitheas ar rí á phósadh nó as caidreamh collaí a bheith aici leis.

Tagann roinnt scéalta dá leithéid leis an móitíf Loathly Lady (D732 sa Motif-Index le Stith Thompson).Victoria Simmons, 'Sovereignty Myth', in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, eag. John T. Koch (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), s.v.cf. Proinsias Mac Cana, ‘Aspects of the theme of king and goddess in Irish literature’, Études Celtiques, 7 (1955-56), 76-114, 356-413, 8 (1958-9), 59-65.cf. J. Doan, 'Sovereignty Aspects in the Roles of Women in Medieval Irish and Welsh Society', Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 5 (1985), 87-102.  Cáintear é áfach as a rá go bhfuil gach bean láidir ina bandia flaithis.

 Fianaise stairiúil 
Dar le cuir síos Gréagacha agus Rómhánacha, d'fhéadfadh é gur dhéithe iad mná Ceilteacha stairiúla sábháil is Camma agus Cartimandua.Victoria Simmons, 'Sovereignty Myth', in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, eag. John T. Koch (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), s.v.  Is léir é fosta go raibh banais idir an rí agus a  thiarnas.James MacKillop, A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), s.v. Sovereignty, Lady; oxfordindex .  Sna deasghnátha aitheanta mar feiseanna, bhíodh ann idir gníomhaíocht ghnéasach agus capaill.  Is graosta fós, maíonn Giraldus Cambrensis in Topographia Hibernica den bhliain 1188, go mbeirtí rí nua Chineál Chonaill, barróg ghnéasach ar chapall bán, a mharaítí ansin chun anraith a dhéanamh.  Nití an rí féin san anraith, agus d'óladh an rí agus a mhuintir ansin é.Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia, eag. Seán Duffy (Nua Eabhrac: Routledge, 2005), s.v. Feis

Is scéal suntasach ó thaobh an troip seo é Echtra Mac nEchach.  Tairgeann bean ghránna uisce dosna mic ar son póige.  Is é Niall amháin a phógann le fonn í, agus thairis sin tá gnéas aige leis.  Leis sin,  iompaíonn an cailleach ina bean álainn, agus aithrisíonn do an rann a leanas:Victoria Simmons, 'Sovereignty Myth', in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, eag. John T. Koch (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), s.v.Echtra Mac nEchach, aistr. John Carey, in The Celtic Heroic Age: Literary Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe & Early Ireland & Wales, eag. John T. Koch agus John Carey, Celtic Studies Publications, 1, 4ú eagrán (Aberystwyth: Celtic Studies Publications, 2003), ll. 203-8.
 A rí Temra is mé in flaithes adbér rit a mórmaithes
 dot shíol go bráth uas gach claind is é in fáth fíor fá a nabraim.
Is léir gur bréagstair é an scéal chun tacú a thabhairt le ceannaireacht chlann Uí Néill i nÉirinn.James MacKillop, A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), s.v. Sovereignty, Lady.

 Léirmheas 
 The fairly strong evidence for a tradition of sovereignty goddesses in early Ireland has led to a fashion in Celtic scholarship for interpreting other female characters as euhemerised sovereignty goddesses, or for arguing that the portrayals of women have been influenced by traditions of sovereignty goddesses. This way of reading medieval Celtic female characters goes back to the 1920s, and is related to the myth and ritual school of scholarship., ag lua   Mar shampla example, the protagonist of the Welsh Canu Heledd is sometimes read in this way,Jenny Rowland, A Selection of Early Welsh Saga Poems (Londain: The Modern Humanities Research Association, 2014),  lch. xx. and figures as diverse as Guenevere;Proinsias Mac Cana, ‘Aspects of the Theme of the King and Goddess’, ‘’Études Celtiques’’, 6 (1955), 356-413.Roger Sherman Loomis, The Grail, from Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol (Cardiff: Wales University Press, 1963).Flint F. Johnson, Origins of Arthurian Romances (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2012). the Cailleach Bhéirre;<ref>Jo Radner, 'The Hag of Beare: The Folklore of a Sovereignty Goddess', Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, 40 (1970), 75-81.</ref> Medb;Tomas Ó Máille, 'Medb Chruachna', Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 17 (1928), 129-63. Rhiannon;Catherine A. McKenna, 'The Theme of Sovereignty in Pwyll’, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 29 (1980), 35-52. warrior women such as the Morrígan, Macha agus Badb;Francoise Le Roux and Christian-J. Guyonvarc'h, La Souveraineté guerriére de l'Irlande: Mórrígan, Bodb, Macha (Rennes, 1983). and the loathly lady of Chaucer's Wife of Bath's TaleSigmund Eisner, Tale of Wonder: Source Study for the Wife of Bath's Tale (Wexford, 1957). have been viewed in the same light.Victoria Simmons, 'Sovereignty Myth', in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, eag. ag John T. Koch (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), s.v.  Britta Irslinger has argued that female characters in early Irish literature whose names relate to ruling or the supernatural, or who have been named after kingdoms, originate as sovereignty goddesses, whereas those whose names relate to drink or some other benefit of the hall were queens.Britta Irslinger, “Medb 'the intoxicating one'? (Re-)constructing the past through etymology”, Ulidia 4. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on the Ulster Cycle of Tales. Queens-University, Béal Feirste, 27–29ú Meitheamh 2013, eag. Mícheál Ó Mainnín agus Gregory Toner (Baile Átha Cliath, 2017), ll. 38-94. However, recent scholarship has tended to criticise these assumptions, in both medieval Irish and related material.Roberta Frank, ‘The Lay of the Land in Skaldic Poetry’, in Myth in Early Northwest Europe, eag. Stephen O. Glosecki, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 320/Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, 21 (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2007), ll. 175–96.  For example, the portrayals of Gormflaith ingen Donncadha (bás 861), Gormflaith ingen Flann Sinna (c. 870–948), and Gormflaith ingen Murchada (960–1030) have all been read as showing influence from the idea of the sovereignty goddess, but this has been shown to rest on little evidence. Likewise the role of the Empress of Constantinople, who appears in the Middle Welsh Peredur but not in its French source, has been found to be open to other readings.  Even where female characters might historically owe something to traditions of sovereignty goddesses, reading them primarily through this lens has been argued to be limiting and reductive.

 Foinsí 
 Sjoestedt, Marie-Louise. 1949. Gods and Heroes of the Celts, translated by Myles Dillon. London: Methuen
 Breatnach, R. A. 1953. “The Lady and the King: A Theme of Irish Literature.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 42 (167): 321–36.
 Mac Cana, Proinsias. 1955, 1958–1959. “Aspects of the Theme of King and Goddess in Irish Literature.” Études celtiques 7: 76–144, 356–413; 8: 59–65.
 Bhreathnach, Máire. 1982. “The Sovereignty Goddess as Goddess of Death?” Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 39 (1): 243–60.
 Lysaght, Patricia. 1986. The Banshee: The Irish Death Messenger. Dublin: O’Brien Press. pp. 191–218.
 Herbert, Máire. 1992. “Goddess and King: The Sacred Marriage in Early ireland.” In Women and Sovereignty, edited by Louise Olga Fradenburg, 264–75. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.
 Eichhorn-Mulligan, Amy C. 2006. “The Anatomy of Power and the Miracle of Kingship: The Female Body of Sovereignty in a Medieval Irish Kingship Tale.” Speculum 81 (4): 1014–54.
 Gregory Toner, Manifestations of Sovereignty in Medieval Ireland, H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lectures, 29 (Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge, 2018), .

 Tagairtí 

Category:Ancient Ireland
Category:Celtic mythology
Category:Irish goddesses
Category:Fertility goddesses
Category:Marriage and religion
Category:Religious rituals
Category:Women and religion