Mythology
A number of significant dates occur in early February, when Nuin/ ash begins. Foremost is Imbolc (Feb 1st) and Candlemas (Feb 2nd) and these are the feasts of Brigit (Brigde, Bride), whose vast influence was critical to all rites of birth.
Although Irish, Brigit has many names, one being her Brythonic counterpart Arianrhod (another Brigantia in northern Britain). Her name means 'the shining one' (breo being a torch in Irish) and associated with fires (the annual need-fire or renewal of the hearth-flame) and the colour white. Hence her connection with 'Alba' (white) and Scotland. A goddess of fertility, healing, craftwork and poetry, she epitomises the inspirational and female aspect of ash.
A related form of Brigit is Epona, the celtic horse-goddess, a mythic aspect of
whose story appears as Rhiannon in the Mabinogion (where she suffers as a horse
for years in order to keep her child from the ignorance of Powyll, her lord).
Epona (root of the word pony) is symbolised beautifully in the Uffington horse, a carving on the Oxfordshire chalk downs made over 3,000 years ago.
Odin's ancient World Tree, Yggdrasil, although originally a Yew, became the
'World Ash', yet his spear was always ash, as were all spears made by Iron
age peoples. The greek centaur, Chiron, made the ash spear which gave Achilles
his victory at Troy. Greeks, Romans, Germanic and Celtic tribes, all had spears
and arrows made from ash. Other links to Nuin are Nuada of the Silver Hand, a
king of the Tuatha de Danaan, and Nodens, to whom a large sanctuary on the River
Severn was dedicated in the third to fifth centuries. Both their names a re
interpreted as 'cloud-maker' (Green 1992, 162) .
More recently, Tim
Severin's voyage of the Brendan demonstrated the venerated sea-power - or power over
water of ash
- with wood cut from the north side of the tree...
odd notes: the Tree of Life, Ygdrassil (world-tree),
‘Askr Yggr-drasill’ (’the horse of Yggr’), Sleipnir
(Odin’s eight-legged horse); ‘’Tre fuilngid Tre Eochair’ (’the triple-bearer
of the triple key’) has two great ashtrees, the Tree of Tortu (Brythonic)
and the Branching Tree of Dathi (the Danes/ Nordic).
associations: snakes fear ash and
will not crawl over its wood. Traditionally the yule-log
(left: Odin on Sleipnir)
ash sacred to the Anu (or Danu - mother of the Danu), and to Poseidon in greek
mythology
Feb 1st feast of Imbolc/ Feb 2nd feast ofCandlemas, when all fires renewed from single source
of Brighde (St Brigit) February fill-dyke, season of floods.