St Bridget

[poliphilo]

The tower on top of Glastonbury Tor is all that remains of a late medieval church that fell down in an earthquake.  As is usually the case with these hill-top shrines, the dedication is to St Michael the Archangel. There are images of him on the tower- very badly worn- and this- not so badly worn- of St Bridget milking a cow. According to the researches of Dr John Goodchild, the Godfather of New Age Glastonbury (as reported in Patrick Benham's The Avalonians) Bridget- who is the same person as Bride of Ireland who is a Christanized version of the Great Goddess or Morrigan- was a one-time Glastonbury resident- and ran a women's college or convent at Beckery, just outside the town. One of the titles- or disguises- of the Morrigan is "the black-mained heifer"- and an old fragment of bardic poetry has her travelling the three provinces of Erin, giving milk to everyone. "She was sent to give food and comfort to all; and she gave it, but especially to poor people."

Comments

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

I think there's some good evidence that Brighid was a real person - she founded a monastic settlement at Cill Dara which is the modern town Kildare.

Some of her attributes could have been added by myth afterwards.

The Mór Ríagan was three deities in one as far as I can remember - Macha, Badhbh, and I can't remember who the third one was.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think it's highly probable that under all the mythical and legendary accretions lies a real person called Brighid. She may even have spent time in Glastonbury.

Our culture is full of such figures- Jesus, King Arthur, Maeve, Cuchulain, Robin Hood....