Buí, the smiling hag of Knowth, perhaps?

Many people look for meaning in the symbols carved in stone at the great monuments of the Boyne. Sometimes the most facile examination (and perhaps the most puerile too!) is to indulge in pareidolia. When I took this image at Knowth/Cnogba today, I was conscious of the image of the Cailleach, having been reading about her quite a lot lately. I will quote the lovely words of the late Patricia Monaghan, whose book 'The Red-Haired Girl From the Bog' I am currently reading:

"Rock is the hag's prime element, her stony spine.... Cailleach time moves form moon to moon, harvest to harvest. It is pagan time, rooted in the eternal return rather than the once-off redemption."

Seeing this stone again – known under the archaeologists’ counting system simply as Kerb 22 – I was struck at how much it seemed to look like a big smiling face with two bulbous eyes and a big, broad grin.

These rocks were already eternally old when they were hauled into place - all 127 of them - to create a giant kerb or belt of stones around the gigantic mound that we know as Knowth. And now the carvings that were carefully etched into the surface of these slabs are eternally old, and the rocks that bear them speak of the beginning of time.

Once upon a time, so the story goes, this great mound of stone and earth was known as Cnoc Búa or Cnoc Buí, the hill of the daughter of "red-haired Rúadrí", wife of Lug, son of Cian, of the ruddy spears.

"It is there [Cnogba] her body was buried; over her was built a great hill."

What shall we say about Buí today, except that she is remembered still, in these many aeons since her image was first conceived in stone, at the mighty Brug na Bóinde where the hag never dies. The hag's breasts are imagined as mounds in the Boyne landscape; her passage-wombs, creaking and groaning under the weight of the ages, live on to tell the story of the undying sons who were born there – Oengus the young, who was conceived and born in the same day; and Sétanta, whose crossing of the threshold of initiation brought him from innocent boy to murderous warrior. In there, Elcmar the magician of Brug na Bóinde, divined souls with his fork of white hazel; Dagda Mór, the Eochaidh All-Father, offered satiation to those who were crossing over; Oengus protected the beautiful Etaín from the jealous Fuamnach in his sunny, crystal bower.

At ancient Cnogba, it is said that Englec the daughter of Elcmar was stolen away by Midir, much to the heartache of her lover, Oengus Óg. At Newgrange, Oengus had protected Midir’s lover Etáin, and yet at Knowth the two were love rivals for the woman Englec, whose disappearance was mourned greatly by the inconsolable Oengus. Mourning the abduction of his beloved, Oengus engaged in a curious ritual … casting the “blood-red nuts of the forest” on to the ground, and performed “a lament around the little hill”.

Cnogba (Knowth) commemorates a goddess Buí and a goddess Englec.

And so, in the confusion of tales so typical of the lore of the olden days, Knowth commemorates two distinct but perhaps not mutually exclusive events – both involving the passing (so to speak) of great women (goddesses even). As Cnoc Buí, Knowth remembers the great woman who was set to rest there beneath its heaving bulk, the undying hag of the ancient world who had many names and guises. As Chnó-guba (the “nut-lament”), Knowth commemorates the passing of Englec into another realm, swept away by Midir to the Síd of Fer Femin, never to be seen by Oengus again.

Today, I stopped in front of stone 22 at Knowth during my round of the kerb (deiseal, sunwise, this time),  and, having to stall a while under the modern concrete ledge to shelter from a summer shower, I imagined for a time that I was seeing the great women of Cnogba, the abiding visage of the ancient hag that was known here as Buí, and the darling Englec, the beautiful daughter of Elcmar. And I wonder which would endure longer – the memory of these great mythic women, or the stone carvings bearing this image.

The 12 days of Solstice - Day 2 - the golden glow of a beautiful winter sunset at Newgrange

Today is the second day of my new series of Newgrange photographs entitled 'The 12 days of Solstice". Today's image shows Newgrange in winter at around sunset. The sun has just disappeared below the near horizon, but its golden glow is still very much visible. The winter days are short in the Boyne Valley - in midwinter, the sun rises shortly before 9am and sets before 4pm. This dearth of light and heat reminds us how difficult life might have been around solstice in the Neolithic, and how important the turning of the year was to the builders of these huge monuments.

As a photographer, I enjoy the special light that happens at sunrise and sunset in winter. Even when it's cold, and maybe your hands are numb from holding the camera, the golden glow of the sun helps to warm the soul. Sunrise and sunset are very special times, and provide the observer with a moment of exhilaration and gladness. One can only imagine that the builders of Newgrange experienced  similar moments of bliss punctuating their lives as they grappled with some meaning behind their own existence.

For an explanation about the inspiration behind the new series of photographs, see this post:
http://blog.mythicalireland.com/2016/12/celebrating-winter-solstice-season-with.html

Explore Newgrange virtually with this fantastic 3D model

Do you live thousands of miles from Ireland? Yearn to see Newgrange up close but cannot afford the air fare? Fret not. Technology now enables you to explore it from afar....

Newgrange by Seán Doran on Sketchfab

 

This fantastic model, created by Seán Doran and shared on Sketchfab, is based on images of the famous Stone Age monument that were taken from a drone by Matthew Kelly. The model is easy to navigate. Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Left-click and drag to move around the model. Right-click and drag to move the centre of the model.

Enjoy this opportunity to see Newgrange up close, without having to make the journey half way around the world!

Artist creates incredible resurrection image for Easter

Irish artist Richard Moore has created an enormous image of the resurrected Jesus in a field in his home town of Drogheda. The huge depiction - based on a Byzantine image of the resurrected Christ - was created using fertiliser to help bring out the image from the surrounding grass. The gigantic portrait covers an area of approximately two acres.

Richard Moore's image of the resurrected Christ viewed from the air.

Richard explained the inspiration behind the image: "This image stems from a line in the Psalms - 'I will remove sin as far as the East is from the West'. Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection is the balance restored for mankind.  The eyes of the image are on a line in that is on an east west line that extends all the way from Drogheda to Croagh Patrick, an alignment which also marks the Spring and Autumn Equinox sunrise and sunset. And of course Spring Equinox is the astronomical event from which Easter is calculated each year."

"Artist Derek Closkey and myself used very basic materials and astronomy to measure out the image," Richard explained. "I was trying to see how the ancient builders of megalithic sites might have worked out methods of transferring large images on to the ground without being able to see it and still get it right."

Richard has a major interest in ancient megalithic sites and their alignments and is co-author with Anthony Murphy of the book 'Island of the Setting Sun - In Search of Ireland's Ancient Astronomers'.

The giant depiction took about two weeks to create. Richard and Derek marked the area out and then put down fertilizer along the outline of the image to help the grass grow faster so that the image would 'appear' out of the surrounding field.

He has never done anything like this before. Richard typically paints landscapes and streetscapes using mainly oil and acrylics on board and canvas. This is certainly the biggest canvas he's ever used!!