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The Northern Elen
The earliest possible European reference to Elen seems
to be Nehalennia or Nouelen a
Gallo-Belgic deity represented, like Artemis, with hunting hound (a
greyhound) and basket
of fruit (a fertility symbol, usually containing apples). She was a protector
of travellers in
early Roman times, both by land and sea. She was particularly associated with
water. She
may have been a moon goddess associated with the tides. Her known temple
locations are
Always on the coast, and surviving inscriptions often
praise her for successfully completed
voyages, or implore her for similar journeys to come.
She is invariably associated with a
large dog as a companion. She has occasionally been
associated with the Roman Goddess
Fortuna (who also accompanied Nemesis).
There was also a Germanic sea goddess called Elen, who
was probably a derivative of the
Belgic goddess. A guide to Northern mythology says this about her:
‘Elen - Anglo-Saxon
sea-goddess, particularly focussed as a protectress of seafarers and
sailors. She is clearly a source for
, or derivation of, Nehalennia, a Gaulish Goddess with
very similar attributes’.
The Gallic Celts of the Ardennes revered a forest
goddess called Arduina, associated with
a bear, she was also allegedly known as Lune. The Romans referred to her as
‘Diana of
the Woods’ (indicating parallels with Artemis). Her cult was taken up by the
pagan Franks
and continued into medieval times, one major cult centre of Arduina/Lune being
Luneville
once an important Merovingian town. The name suggests lunar connections
again, and
possibly connects with Elen (see below).
Interestingly in Bulgaria (once a centre of Artemis
worship) as mentioned above, the word
‘elen’ means ‘deer’, an animal sacred to Artemis. This is unlikely to be a
coincidence.
Our next source on Elen is Bardic literature,
particularly the Welsh Mabinogion, a medieval
text of the 11th century preserving the oral folk tales (some
allegedly originating as far back
as 500BC). These tales have become confused over many generations but remain
a good
source of Celtic lore.
The basic lore of Elen preserved here is of a goddess of
light or beauty, some scholars derive
the name Elen from a word for ‘shining’ others from the Welsh for ‘nymph’.
One of her
popular epithets was certainly Elen the Bright.
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Elen 
Variant: Elin
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The name presented in Welsh texts as the mother
of Constantine, so it is most likely a Welsh form of Helen
- however, it is also identical in form to Welsh elen -
"nymph". 13/4/2004 - ODFN
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Elen was a figure, here more an elemental spirit rather
than a deity, who ruled over the
energies of nature. She was also traditionally seen as the leader of the
Ellies (‘fairies’), a
name probably derived from the Welsh
‘Ellyl’, or Elf. She was also a spirit of the trackways.
Some suggest the ‘Elves’ were pre-Celtic people and that
Elen may have been their goddess.
Another reference to Elen is as ‘Helen of the Ways’, a
mythic figure who lived in a great
castle, and desired to connect this castle to all others through a series of
paths. Later this
myth seems to have been interpreted in terms of her alleged role in the
building the Roman
road system in Britain (usually built on ancient tracks). Roman roads were in
fact named
after her in Wales, in the form Sarnau Elen, or 'Helen's Roads'. In this way
Helen would
become increasingly Romanised in Mabinogion tales.
But the Mabinogion tradition is a confused mix of
several Elens or Helens according to most
scholars. First there is the ancient Elen just
mentioned, then there are two historical women
called Helen or Elen. These three figures have become merged in the folklore
preserved in
the Mabinogion. The first mortal Elen (or Helen, her Greco-Roman name) was
the wife of
Magnus Maximus, a rebel Spanish Roman general, proclaimed Western emperor in
Britain
383 (and one of first Pendragon Kings of Britain). She was identified in
Welsh heroic
literature, genealogies and Triads as Elen Lluyddawc, 'Helen of the Hosts',
possibly meaning
armies (earliest surviving MSS. of 12th c., preserving much earlier
material). Though angelic
and Elvin connotations are also suggested in various tales. Helen’s daughter
later married
Vortigern, King of the Britons. This Elen becomes (or merges with) an
archetype who
symbolizes the power and fertility of the land. Her partner Maximus, like so
many other
archetypal Celtic heroes, defends the land, but he also brings the glory of
Rome to the Celts.
Their marriage is a ritual one between sovereign and land. Their story is
told in the romantic
tale Breudwyt Macsen, 'The Dream of Maxen Wledig (Maximus)', in the
Mabinogion.
http://www.zinescene.org/mabin/maxen.html
Here Helen also takes on the role of the queen
of the ‘dreamworld’ when first encountered. Thus associating her with other
Anglo-Celtic
dream queens, like Rhiannon and Mab. Mab is the ‘Queen of the English
Fairies’, sometimes
thought to be a descendant of the Celtic Queen of the Sidhe (the Otherworld),
Maeve. Unlike
Maeve, however, Mab is portrayed more often as a mischievous sprite rather
than a Queen,
and enjoys giving people dreams, especially erotic ones. Rhiannon was an
older Celtic goddess
whose name translates as "divine" or "Great Queen". She
is a potent symbol of fertility, yet
she is also an Otherworldly death goddess, a bringer of dreams, and a moon
deity who was
symbolized by a white horse.
The second Helen, or Helena, was the ‘Christian’
daughter of Old King Cole, the legendary
king of Colchester (ancient capital of the Belgic Trinovantes tribe). This
‘Elen’ married
Constantinus, a Roman general and became the mother (and ‘converter’) of
Constantine,
another rebel Romano-British Emperor, who later as Roman Emperor introduced
Christianity
as the official religion of the Empire (albeit a Christianity that was for
him a syncretic
crypto-paganism, much like his earlier cult Sol Invictus). Constantine was
said to have later
converted a ‘pagan temple’ into a monastery, probably in the 3rd Century
on the site of what
is now Great St Helens in London, in
honour of his mother (who had found the ‘true cross’
on one of her many ‘pilgrimages’, just as the goddess Elen always returned to
her ‘sacred
tree’ after her many ‘travels’ along the ‘ways’. A tradition still marked by
the ‘beginning of
the travelling season’ celebrated in the church of St Helen on Mayday). An
abbey of the
‘black nuns’ of St Helen was also was founded near the monastery in early
medieval times,
and their two churches built next to each other as part of one building with
separate doors
and naves. In folk tradition, Helena was mythologized as Elen the Fair, and
associated with
both the London monastery and nunnery as well as a hospital for foundlings.
Her Christian
form was as the ‘leader of heavenly virgins’, though her nuns seem not to
have lived up to
this role model, they were reprimanded by the Church in the 13th
century for ‘wearing
ostentatious veils and kissing non secular persons’, while their Abbess was
chastised for
‘keeping many small dogs in her lodgings’ (for unknown
purposes)! And in the 14th century
the notorious ‘dancing and revelry’ in the nunnery was banned ‘except at
Christmas and
only then amongst themselves’! Oddly the strange double church has the appearance more
of a castle than a church, according to some, perhaps reflecting the
Arthurian tradition of
Elen as keeper of the Holy Grail in her secret castle (see below). Again the
folklore around
this Elen has been merged with the lore of the syncretic Elen of the
Mabionigion.
A curious aside about 'St Helena' is that she was also traditionally regarded as the founder
of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This of course not only regarded as the
'tomb of Christ', but the world's first round church and the model for Templar churches.
In reality the church was built by Emperor Constantine in honour of Helena
on the site of
a Roman temple to Venus, itself said to have been built over the cave tomb of Christ by
the hill of the Crucixion. As Romans tended to build over corresponding pagan sites,
it is far more likely that the original site was a holy hill complete with sacred tree
and a goddess cave (considered her womb of rebirth). The Aphrodite cult was of course associated with sacred prostitutes, such as the Magdalene and the Gnostic Helen.
Again
these mortal legends might preserve memories of the marriage of a Celtic king
to a woman who embodies the goddess Elen, marrying the sovereign to the land.
One
unsourced folk tradition associates Elen with St Pancras describing her as:
“A fey and shy creature, antlers on her head and dressed
in a leafy garb, her faithful dog always by her side, who was, according to
legend, sometimes seen wandering in the ancient woodland where St Pancras
station is now situated.” (Whether this connects with the Boudicca legend at
Kings Cross is not stated).
The
next source of Elen myth is in the Arthurian legends. This is far more
disguised beneath the veneer of Romance and banal Christianity of the tales,
but, given the preceding information, Elen can still be discerned in them.
Her most powerful image here is as Grail Maiden, Elen the White, an apparent
solar archetype represented as a ‘maiden of
dazzling beauty’ sitting on a golden throne in a sea girt castle (sometimes
associated with St Michael’s Mount). An interesting matrix of symbols emerges
from this association with the Grail – a vessel not only originally the
cauldron of plenty and rebirth, held once by Bran (though just as fitting for
a lifeforce bearing fertility goddess like Elen), but also Ceridwen’s
cauldron of wisdom and enlightenment, sampled by Taliesin (connecting the
Grail myth with the Gnostic Helen as Sophia). Both of these are clearly also
related to Elen’s basket of apples (with perhaps even reference to the ‘apples’
of the Tree of Knowledge, and its serpent / messenger of the goddess, being
implied). The Grail Maiden’s name was often given in a medieval form as
Elaine (or Eleanor, sometimes spelt Elonor, in Continental versions), but the
older form Elen survives in some sources. This Elaine becomes the lover of
Lancelot (who also had an affair with another Elaine, a dark seductress
sometimes called ‘Elaine the Black’, who became Galahad’s mother). There were
many other Elaines in Arthurian myth, the most famous being an Elaine who was
the lover of Perceval (himself based on British king Peredur of Galloway,
Arthur’s knights most likely being folk memories of a coalition of kings
under an overking or Pendragon); others include Elaine of Garlot (Galloway),
the wife of King Nentres (a sister of Morgan le Fey, and mother of Perceval’s
lover); Elaine of Benwick (Bourges,
100 miles to south of Paris), wife of King Ban, or Bran (and Lancelot’s
mother); and Elaine of Listinoise, daughter of King Pellinore of Northumbria,
who killed herself on the death of a lover (sometimes associated with ‘Elaine
the Black’). It seems from this that Elaine was not only an ancient
archetype, but also a name given to women of a certain royal line, often held
by both Queen and Princess at the same time. She may also have had a dual
aspect, judging from the Lancelot story. The origin of the proposed Royal
line is not known, but all the tribes indicated were non-Belgic Britons (or
Bretons), and one speculative identity is with the Parisii tribe. A tribe
first encountered by Roman historians in the ‘Paris’ region, and extending
into the surrounding French countryside (including Bourges?). After their
defeat by Rome in 52 BC many Parisii migrated across the channel and settled
in Northumberland (Listinoise). Later the Anglo-Saxon colonization of
Northumbria pushed them futher west, eventually into Ireland where they
became the Parish clan (some believe some of the inhabitants of the British
border kingdom of Rheged, and their kin in Galloway, were descended from
these migrants). If
this is true Elen would have once been the chief goddess of the widespread
Parisii clan (a connection that may invite further Trojan connections). A map
of St Helen sites certainly supports the idea that her cult entered Britain
at the Humber, the original British territory of the Parisii, and then spread
west. It is even possible that the Romans named the Parisii due to their
reverence for Elen (curiously a 13th century manuscript championing the Trojan Brutus as a worshipper of 'Diana', and a British ancestor, was produced by one Matthew Paris, a decendent of the Parisii clan). The Greek name Paris has been speculatively traced to an original
Illyrian form Voltuparis or Assparis, "Hawk", and another of
Arthur’s knights, Gawain, was perhaps significantly referred to as the ‘Hawk
of May’. The Illyrians were an ancient Indo-European tribe of central Europe
(who may have been amongst the last custodians of a very old tradition), they
closely associated with their surrounding neighbours, the early Hellenic
tribes to the south, the Scythians and Thracians to the north and east, as
well the Hallstadt ‘ancestors’ of the Celtic tribes of the northwest, all
within a Iron Age tribal melting pot of c1000BC.
In addition to the Elen’s of the classical Arthuriad, Scots Folklore has
‘Burd Ellen’ (or Lady
Ellen), the daughter of King Arthur.
While Arthur’s court itself has a mysterious female
knight called Elen Llydaw in some Welsh stories. Little information exists on this character
except that she was a knight and counsellor of Arthur.
One curious Arthurian tale adds another dimension to the
Elen story.
In 'Owain and the
Lady of the Fountain', Lunete (aka Luned and Lynette in some
versions) is taught magick by Nimue (the enchantress lover of Merlin) and
creates a
supernatural fountain in the middle of the forest. She later becomes the wife
Gawain.
The scholar Loomis suggests that LUNED or LYNETTE is a name of the moon
goddess.
Luned (-t) is the older form of the name. - (Bromwich). Another version of
the name in
some stories is Alundyne, which leads to interesting speculations concerning
the Isle of
Lundy (Merlin’s island) from some:
The resemblance of the name of the countess, Alundyne,
to the word Lundy is striking but
just to emphasise the connection an early English version of this story
reads;- "The riche
lady Alundyne, The duke’s daughter of Landuit", both names differ far
less from 'Lundy'
than do many of the names in the Arthurian myths which have become changed
over the
years. In "Jones' Welsh
Bards" the more usual name Luned is said to be the same person
as Elined one of the daughters of Brychain. The same Elined who is thought,
by some
authorities to be St. Elen, the source of the three ancient church
dedications on Lundy, at
Abbotsham and at Croyde. In short Luned is St Elined who is also called St
Elen.
Morgan le Fey was often said to be the sister of Elen
the Bright (sometimes herself called
Elen le Fey) . In Brittany the Morgans were spirits of the land and sea, the
Mari-Morgans
being specifically great sea spirits (associated with the Merfolk of
Cornwall). Their queen
was Morgan Dahut or Ahes, who caused the sinking of the ancient city of Ys
(or the land of
Lyonese in Cornwall). She seems generally to have been seen as a disruptive
influence but
was probably originally a Breton sea or moon goddess. In some legends she is
Queen of
Avalon, the Isle of Apples in the Western Ocean, where the sun sets and the
dead go, along
with her eight sisters (a making lunar nine in all). In Cornwall Morgan was
the name of one
of the illegitimate daughters of the Duke of Tintagel, her sister was Elaine.
It is possible that
Morgan was once thought of as a darker aspect of Elen.
Today Elen survives even in New Age Christian circles as
an ‘angel of light’, usually
associated with Niagara Falls! Curiously described as being formerly ‘the Goddess Elen,
an ancient Celtic solar light Goddess of holy wells, spirit within the land,
and energy matrix
light tracks’.
In complete contrast members of the Church of Satan
invoke her to adversely effect dreams!
It was Harold Bayley in his book ‘The Lost Language of
London’ who brought the archetype
of Elen back to public consciousness. His particular claim was that Elen was
the patron
goddess of London (based on the importance of Helen in London legend and the
prominence
of the Priory and Church of St Helen in its early Christian history).
Something quite possible
given that London originally belonged to the Trinovantes
tribe, who seem to have revered
Elen (if the naming of the daughter of Trinovantian King Cole is anything to
go by). He
claimed the very name of London was derived from Elen. Elen’s Don. He also
assumed
without question that the Helen of Northern Europe (Nehalennia) was derived
from the
‘Helen of the Tree’ of the Mediterranean. Describing the latter as originally
one of the most
‘primeval forces in nature’, a wilder form of Artemis or Diana, represented
as antlered and
standing by a tree with a hunting dog. An identification which leads to the
suspicion that the
Roman temple of Artemis, built where St Paul’s Cathedral now stands
(evidenced by the
Cathedral’s older surroundings being referred to as the ‘precincts of Diana’
in church
records, and the original church of St Paul itself still being the site of
deer sacrifice and
hunting ritual in medieval times, a ‘voodoun’ aspect of some sections of the
early Christian
Church), was actually originally built on the site of a
shrine to Elen in her antlered form.
Later though it seems the Romans recognised Elen in her own right and equated
her with
the oriental Helen (perhaps leading to the belief that the Britons was
descended from the
Trojan Brutus, just as Rome had been founded by the Trojan Romulus, thus
creating a
common ancestry for Romano-Britons), a tradition that carried over into
Christian times
(and was compounded by the mistranslation of London’s old name, Trinovantium,
as Troa
Nova, or New Troy).
Referring to Nouhalennia, a goddess he finds all over
Europe, and in many parts of Britain
(including Lands End and the Scilly Isles, both said to be part of Lyonese,
the Celtic Atlantis),
Bayley claims the Nou part of the deities name is a
prefix meaning ‘new’, which identifies a
specific ‘New Moon aspect’ of a goddess called Halen or Alen (as the princess
or daughter).
This subtle distinction he relates to the two churches of Helen in London, Great
St Helens
and Little St Helens. He also points to the festival of
the Allan apple as a survival of her cult
(‘allan’ meaning
cheerful). As well as observing that the Welsh term ’alain’ meant fair
or
bright, while the Irish term ‘allen’ refers to great
beauty. Bayley plays with names a lot to
find Elen almost everywhere, but some are quite convincing, for instance the
similar Celtic
names for certain rivers, Elan, Ilen, Alan, Alaune, Len,
Lyn, Lone and Lune. He also points
out that ‘Ellen’ was an old name for the Elder tree (for the Celts a tree symbolising change,
rebirth and associated with the Cauldron) and ‘Hollin’ for Holly,
before revealing
that the Irish word ‘Aileen’ meant green plain, and may have been related to
Llan, meaning
sacred enclosure (curiously the words ‘ley’ and ‘line’ have similar
derivations). Much of this
may be sheer coincidence, but the different derivations claimed for ‘Elen’
are not unusual
given the taste for punning demonstrated in many pagan Mystery cults.
While both Helens are associated with Artemis and have
many similar features direct
descent seems unlikely. As we have seen the Northern Elen is mostly
associated with
flowing water and the moon, while the Oriental Helen is associated with fire
and the sun.
The etymology of their names also appears to be different (and there is
certainly no
connection with Middle Eastern etymologies). Both are referred to as
‘shining’ however
and associated with light (or life force). It is thus probable that both
goddesses are derived
from a much more ancient European deity, a goddess of energy, or light, associated
with the
Sky (and equally with the sun and moon and stars), as well as with the more
immanent
energies of the Earth, much like the Egyptian Hathor and her partner Horus
were. In fact
just as Hathor later became to be associated with both the classical
Aphrodite on one hand
and Sekhmet on the other, so did Helen become associated with Venus and
Nemesis.
Suggesting they both reflect a more ancient and less specialised deity, which
represented
more than just the parts of the
universe, as later pagan deities tended to (the details of which are
still under researched, there are apparent connections with Egypt in the Illyrian myth, but how
is still a mystery). The local Helens were probably dim memories of this ancient goddess,
specialised according to
regional culture.
Curiously however Europe’s most central ley line the ‘St Michael’ line
passes out of
Palestine through Rhodes, the oldest home of the oriental Helen, on through
Greece and Italy,
straight through Bourges, a home of the Arthurian
Elaine, on through both St Michael’s
Mounts (Brittany & Cornwall) and across Cornwall,
with its own St Helen tradition, before
ending in Ireland.
In modern ‘Theosophical’ metaphor we might say Helen
represented power, energy and
light, particularly the ‘Astral Light’, both as lifeforce and astral
energies, as well as the leys
and waters which transmitted them, along with their
tides, and the celestial bodies originating
them. More specifically she was also a symbol of the serpentine path of the
more subtle
‘Earth energy’, as it weaved its way across the landscape vitalising the
environment. Her
solar and lunar aspects also seem to have been recognised by Bayley and his followers
when they refer to her as a ‘goddess of balance’.
Bayley inspired many Elen devotees some of whom even see Nell Gwynn, the
mistress of
Charles II as the last royal ‘bride’ to represent Elen! As the following
extract relates:
‘Nell Gwynne
(1650-87) the mistress of Charles II was supposed to have lived at the
spacious country house situated at Bagnigge, St Pancras. It is possible that
she did, in the
17th century,
the area consisted mainly of fields, and churches. Also, the St
Pancras/Battle
Bridge area had always been Royalist in tendency. However, the importance of
Nell Gwynne is that her life
and her character accrued symbolic
details that made her a living representation of Elen, or
Helen, the 'genius loci’ or patron
deity of London. Nell, a diminutive of Eleanor (or Elonor),
comes from the same root as Elen,
Helen, and the Celtic Goddess, Noualen, who is depicted
in art much as Nell Gwynne is; a
beautiful young woman, holding a basket of fruit with a small
dog beside her.
The complex question of the symbolism of Helen cannot be discussed here
but basically she is an important
deity, both Solar and Venusian in nature. She is often
associated with wells, and also with
'leys' (Sarn Elen). She is usually called by an epithet
bright or shining, or beautiful; it
is interesting that Nell Gwynne's surname means 'white' in
Celtic languages.’
Elen has become
a stock character in neo Pagan mythology and psychic questing, often
absorbing other goddesses, such as
the Irish Bridget and those ancient moon goddesses
grouped by Christians under the name
St Mary, as the interesting neo Pagan analysis in the
link below demonstrates (much ‘New Age’ thought is hampered by poor psychic
practise,
‘magical thinking’, and a desire to link the entire world’s mythology into
one whole –
demonstrated in its sometimes bizarre
etymology. The following example is not free of
this trend but is far better than
most).
http://www.bridgetcheri.com/bridget.htme
Appendix – The Goddess Brigit and St Bride
The Britonic Celtic goddess of fire, light and life,
called Brigid in Ireland, Bride (Breed)
in Scotland, Brigantia in Britain and Brigandu in Gaul,
was of very similar nature to Elen,
and probably evolved from the same precursor. Her
original name, Brigit, is believed to have
been derived from Breo-saighit or ‘Bright Arrow’, probably referring
to lightning (which
represented a spontaneous manifestation of the life force, creating magickal
crystal balls
when it struck sandy beaches, or causing fires in woodland). In Ireland,
where her cult was
most developed, she represented the source of the life giving and psychic
energies of the
world, which seem to have to been divided into five types:
i) The physical
energies of the world, in particular fire;
ii) The life
energies of nature, which produced fertility and fecundity;
iii) The energies of all life forms, producing health and vitality;
iv) The psychic energies of humans, producing ideas,
visions, and art;
v) The creative energies of the gods
(also shared by at least some humans, such as
Blacksmiths and Magicians, in
Celtic tradition), which created new order from chaos.
All of which were regarded as just different modes of
the same universal energy,
metaphorically envisioned as fire and light, or alternatively as wind or
flowing water. Bride
had five aspects that embodied these energies; the Fire goddess; the
Fertility goddess, who
like many other goddesses represented the life force underlying the fertility
of the land and
the fecundity of animals; the Healer, who dealt with biological energies; the
Seer (or muse),
the giver of visions and inspiration to humans, and the Craft goddess,
dealing with creative
powers and those who wield them, such as Craftsmen (Blacksmiths in
particular). In Ireland
her role as mythic representative of the fertility of the land was shared
with many other
tribal goddesses, leading her specialisations to be emphasised in her definition,
which
eventually gave her a three fold aspect (with her fertility aspects merged
into her Healer
archetype and her fiery aspects given practical
manifestation in her forge and hearth). In
other places her more primitive form remained, particularly as Brigantia (who
also retained
her more destructive aspects). In Ireland she had a dedicated body of
priestesses who
tended her perpetual flame on her altar in Kildare, and assisted her work on
Earth. Her
original cult was obviously closely related to Celtic Shamanism and its
survival in Witchcraft. In the 5th century
her high priestess, also called Brigit, or Bridget to be precise, was
allegedly converted to
Christianity by St Patrick, and her priestesses converted to nuns. However
even if this was
true the ‘nuns’ and their leader St Bridget, seem to have carried on much as
before. And
St Bridget, or St Bride as she became known elsewhere, evolved into a new
Christian
archetype within the Celtic Church indistinguishable from the goddess she
replaced. The
Irish pagans claimed that Brigid invented many useful things including
whistling and "keening",
the mournful gong of bereavement, not surprisingly the Irish Christians would
make the same
claim for St Bride.
In one of her most popular forms the goddess Brigit was
the particular representive as the
spontaneous and eruptive emergence of energy, life or inspiration. This was
the sudden flash
of lightning (or inspiration) from above, or the eruptive spring (or feeling)
from below. It was
also the natural phenomena of birth and emergence, both of animals (and
humans) and of
vegetation with the coming of Spring. In Scotland she was regarded as a
serpent queen who
on Feb 1st arose from the burial mounds (connected to the Underworld)
signalling the end of
Winter, the start of the lambing season and the first signs of Spring. The
keeper of the gates
to the underworld, the reservoir of lifeforce as well as the abode of the
dead. Modern pagans
equating this with the rise of Kundalini energy and sexual energy. This
‘bringing life into the
world’ also included the creation of human artefacts for the ancients, who
often regarded
such ‘things’ as having their own life and character. Swords for instance
were given names
and seen as being born in the fiery energy of the Blacksmith’s forge, a
special instance of the
magickal creative energy represented by Brigit. The serpent was her sacred
animal, as was
the swan, the goose and the lamb (the latter also being a totemic animal for
the Knights
Templar). She was also often represented as a ‘virgin’ herself newly born
into the world, so
could be regarded as the Irish form of the new moon aspect of Elen,
Nouhalennia (according
to Bayley). And like her has associations with both the power of water as
well as a more
fiery energy.
This finally brings us back to Elen and London. A
similar goddess to Brigit, quite possibly
Nouhalennia, was probably associated with the sacred spring emerging near
what is now
Fleet St (which crosses the ancient river Fleet, now
covered over as a sewer). This spring,
and its goddess shrine, had been in use as a sacred site
since at least 1000 BC, according to
archaeologists. The ‘holy well’ and temple which replaced it may have been a
Roman or
Romano-British development a thousand years later, but the last Celtic people
to settle near
it are said to be the Irish raiders, who colonized the
banks of the Fleet in the 6th century, at
the time of the collapse of Roman Britain. These people would have without
doubt associated
the site with Brigit. A medieval legend claims that the first church was
built here soon after
by St Bride visiting from Kildare. Whether this was the same St Bride
converted by St
Patrick, an abbess with the same name, or pure myth is uncertain (legend
assumes the
former though). The descendents of these Irish immigrants later rebuilt the
church and
worked on the reconstruction of much of London in early medieval times and
beyond. The
church was thus naturally dedicated to St Bride, and retained this special
dedication till the
building of the 8th and current church on the site by Sir
Christopher Wren in the 17th century.
Later St Brides would become the favoured church of poets and inspired
writers, and later
still became known as the ‘Journalist’s Cathedral’ for the Fleet Street
newspaper community.
In her role as the ‘marrying maiden’ (perhaps in part
due to confusion over her name!)
St Bride also became the patroness of marriage, and the spire of her church
in Fleet St
became the inspiration of the modern wedding cake design (after it had been
damaged by
a lightning strike!).
Appendix B – Other Celtic Goddesses and Elen
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