Anann
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In Irish mythology, Anann (Anu, Ana) was a mother goddess.
She may be identical with Danu and/or Aine. She has particular associations with Munster: the twin hills known as the Paps of Anu (Dá Chích Anann) near Killarney, County Kerry are named after her. She was a goddess of fertility, cattle, and prosperity, and was known for comforting and teaching the dying. Fires were lit for her during Midsummer.
With Badb and Macha, she is sometimes part of a triumvirate of war goddesses. She may have been the mother of Brian, Iuchar and Iucharba, the sons of Tuireann.
Etymological Clues to Fundamental Character
The reconstructed lexis of the Proto-Celtic language as collated by the University of Wales [1] (http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/pcl-moe.pdf) suggests that the name is likely to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Celtic *Hanona . This Proto-Celtic word connotes the semantics of bread, bog . So this character may fundamentally have been a personification of the supposed bog-land fertility deemed as underpinning the prosperity of cattle, as providing resources such as peat and bog iron and as a repository for the bodies of the dead.
Bibliography
- Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN: 0195089618
- MacKillop, James. Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0192801201.
- Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN: 0007640595