Connection between the Morrigan and Danu?

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[Collinsky]

Can someone share any sources for this, or UPG? I'm very intrigued by this... I know that no one can say anything definitively - but I'd appreciate whatever you've read about this, your experience with Danu or tM (whether that makes it a something you could believe or makes it an absurd idea), or simply your thinking on it.

Thanks!

[Matrinka]

Can someone share any sources for this, or UPG? I'm very intrigued by this... I know that no one can say anything definitively - but I'd appreciate whatever you've read about this, your experience with Danu or tM (whether that makes it a something you could believe or makes it an absurd idea), or simply your thinking on it.

Thanks!

UPG all the way, but my experience of them is that they are a Gaelic Parvati/Kali pairing.  In the case of Parvati and Kali, they are the Light and Dark Mothers.  Danu is a traditional "good mother", like Parvati, kind, loving and gentle with her children without being soft or lenient, while Kali is a Dark Mother, as is tM.  The easiest way to explain their motherhood is to picture your own mother, PISSED OFF or in full on Momma Bear mode.  They're still loving mothers, sure, but they're the loving mother who is going to destroy anyone who dares hurt their child OR beat said child's arse until sitting is not an option for misbehaving outrageously.

They are opposite sides of the coin of motherhood.

In India, Parvati and Kali are, in the lore, seen as being just that, two parts of the whole.  That connection in the Gaelic pair isn't as well presented, but I believe that to be a simple loss in the translation from oral to written transmission of the lore. 

*insert all appropriate UPG disclaimers here*

[Juni]

Can someone share any sources for this, or UPG? I'm very intrigued by this... I know that no one can say anything definitively - but I'd appreciate whatever you've read about this, your experience with Danu or tM (whether that makes it a something you could believe or makes it an absurd idea), or simply your thinking on it.

Thanks!

Well, as far as the lore goes, tM has been associated with/conflated with pretty much everyone, including Danu. So there's precedent for the idea, but it may or may not mean very much.

My UPG: tM is one of the goddesses I honor and work with; I had a casual relationship with Danu that I let fall to the wayside, that I intend to re-establish. I personally find them to be very different entities. tM is present, forceful- she will not be ignored, and is very persistent. Danu I find somewhat distant. I only feel her presence strongly when I'm at a major body of water, which is generally the sea in my case (I did feel her when I went canoeing in NC, but otherwise I spend little time at lakes or rivers.) I don't really see either of them as mother goddesses, either- tM is about sovereignty and battle and making trouble when it suits her; Danu is, to me, more of a distant creatrix. When I imagine Danu in my mind's eye, I invariably think of deep, calm water (with rushing, moving water far overhead) and kind of a sleeping/resting female presence.

I will say, though, that every time I read the myth where tM and the Dagda have sex over the river, I have always (and strongly) imagined it to be Danu's. That may imply an association; I can see Danu, as a creatrix of the world (or at least their part of it) also being involved in the creation of civilization (as I find the Irish myth cycle to be).

[gorm_sionnach]

Can someone share any sources for this, or UPG? I'm very intrigued by this... I know that no one can say anything definitively - but I'd appreciate whatever you've read about this, your experience with Danu or tM (whether that makes it a something you could believe or makes it an absurd idea), or simply your thinking on it.

Thanks!

I'm a bit of an odd duck, I have rarely felt any kind of ressonance towards either Danu or An Morrigan, and with the exception of Brigid and a local river goddess, I've never been drawn to goddesses.

Having said that, I would not hold Danu and An Morrigan to be the same goddess, just going from textual and etymologic sources. So very little is known of Danu, and that we do know of her stems mostlyfrom linguistic reconstruction and cultural comparison (i.e. with Don in Welsh).

As for An Morrigan, the sources are much clearer and while she clearly has aspects of being related to soverginty, her connections to a river seem a little less conclusive. True I do understand that much of her mytnic activity takes place in or near rivers (someone mentioned her coupling with An Dagda) and of course her altercations with Cuchulain (though most of the important events occur at fords or in rivers anway).

Just a few observations.

[DeCarabas]

Can someone share any sources for this, or UPG? I'm very intrigued by this... I know that no one can say anything definitively - but I'd appreciate whatever you've read about this, your experience with Danu or tM (whether that makes it a something you could believe or makes it an absurd idea), or simply your thinking on it.

Thanks!

I don't have any UPG to offer here, but Epstein's dissertation on the Morrígan's various forms was a major influence on me seeing Anu and Danu as at least connected to her, if not the same goddess.  Throughout the Lebor Gabála especially, all three names are used fairly interchangeably, so there's certainly some basis for that connection in the lore.

[UlsterYank]

Can someone share any sources for this, or UPG? I'm very intrigued by this... I know that no one can say anything definitively - but I'd appreciate whatever you've read about this, your experience with Danu or tM (whether that makes it a something you could believe or makes it an absurd idea), or simply your thinking on it.

Thanks!

That's the thing, it all depends on what source you look at, as many list them as alternative names for each other in the literacy myths. Danu and An Mhór-Ríoghain seem to have the same roles as far as cosmology, and they've both been associated with the land in folklore. I recomend Dáithí Ó hÓgáin's The Lore of Ireland, and look under Anu, Cosmology, Danu, and Mór-Ríoghain if you're looking for a good source elaborating on that.

[Collinsky]

Thanks for all the responses! I'm planning to reply more specifically, but I am kind of sitting with this for a while and will be checking into the resources suggested... didn't want to seem like I hadn't read and appreciated the replies though, because I certainly do! 

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