medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>From: Phyllis Jestice <[log in to unmask]>
>Nectan (6th cent.) The Welsh Nectan was a member of the Brychan family,
>which produced several saints.
Nechtan is also the name of an Irish deity figure, the sometimes husband of
Bo/ann and owner of the Well of Seghais, the source of poetic inspiration
and reputedly the Otherworld source of the Boyne River. He has been
identified on occasion as a cognate with Neptune and other watery-based
figures. For example, see Patrick K. Ford, The Well of Nechtan and La Gloire
Lumieuse" (in G. Larson et al., eds., _Myth and Law in Indo-European
Antiquity_, Santa Barbara, 1974, 67-74) which follows up on earlier
suggestions by G. Dume/zil.
>Moling (d. 697) is one of the outstanding seventh-century saints of
>Ireland. His fame reached throughout Ireland, but his cult was especially
>strong in the Kilkenny area of Leinster.
For some interesting ideas about the etymology of his unusual name, see
http://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0203&L=old-irish-l&F=&S=&P=16856
<snip>when Moling came to adulthood, his first church was built for him
>by a mythological mason, the Gobán Saor, who constructed the building with
>wood from the Yew of Ross, one of Ireland's great mythological trees.
Gobba/n Saor (literally Gobba/n the smith or wright) appears frequently in
Irish and Scottish folklore, often as the builder of a monastery or other
prominent structure. He is almost certainly an euhemerized version of
Goibniu the smith, an Irish god of craft, whose spear points were always
lethal. Gofannon is the cognate figure of Welsh mythology.
The life of Moling can be found in STOKES, Whitley, 'The Birth and Life of
St Moling', in Revue Celtique, 1906, n°27, §22.
I wonder which came first--Boniface cutting down the tree of Odinn to build
a chapel or Gobba/n Saor cutting down the Yew of Ross (an equally sacral
tree) for Moling's place. ;)
Francine Nicholson
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