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]]*.  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).  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.  Is léir é fosta go raibh *banais* idir an rí agus a  thiarnas.  Sna deasghnátha aitheanta mar *[[feis]]eanna*, 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.

Is scéal suntasach ó thaobh an troip seo é *[[Niall Noígíallach|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:
:* 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.

## 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 [[Euhemerisation|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.  Mar shampla example, the protagonist of the Welsh *[[Canu Heledd]]* is sometimes read in this way, and figures as diverse as Guenevere; the Cailleach Bhéirre; Medb; Rhiannon; warrior women such as the Morrígan, Macha agus Badb; and the loathly lady of Chaucer's *[[Wife of Bath's Tale]]* have been viewed in the same light.  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.

* However, recent scholarship has tended to criticise these assumptions, in both medieval Irish and related material.  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.&nbsp;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