As many of my readers will be aware, the tribe known as the Brigantes was a major Britonnic tribal confederation located in the northern part of England, between the rivers Tyne and Humber, which corresponds to the ancient Anglian kingdom of Northumbria. The Brigantes were also resident in Ireland in the modern counties of Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny, and on the continent in the Alps. Their capital in England was named Isurium Brigantum (modern day Aldborough, near Boroughbridge in the old West Riding part of present day 'North Yorkshire'). Isurium is taken from the Latin name for the River Ure, the Iseur.
The Devil's Arrows standing stones are located on the outskirts of Boroughbridge. This is one of the many places I lived at with my parents as a boy but my birth town is Darlington, County Durham, which is on the Durham bank of the river Tees, a border town between Durham and Yorkshire. As an aside, I have genetic evidence of being descended from the Brigantes and I have always had a strong affinity with the Devil's Arrows stones.
The name Brigantes shares the same Proto-Celtic root as the goddess, known as Brigantia, meaning 'high, elevated'. This may refer to physical human height, topographical height or metaphorical height. The Germanic Burgundi share a related term and both probably relate back to the Proto-Indo-European *bhergh.
Famously or infamously, the Brigantes were known to be allies of Rome. The defeated anti-Roman resistance leader, Caratacus, the chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, was betrayed to the Romans by Cartimandua, the queen of the Brigantes in 51 CE. This heinous act of betrayal strengthened her influence with the Romans. Her degenerate moral character was further demonstrated by the divorcing of her rightful husband, Venutius and her taking of his armour bearer, Vellocatus to be her consort. Despite attempts by Venutius in waging war against her, the Romans defended their client queen with military support, keeping her in power.
It is not known whether the goddess Brigantia was named after the Brigantes, or the Brigantes named after Brigantia. There is evidence for the cult of Brigantia in Gaul, Britain and possibly in Ireland (Brigid). The Romans identified Brigantia with their own goddess, Minerva, who was likewise a goddess associated with warfare and also with Victoria, the divine personification of victory.
John Moss, writing in his The Celtic Tribes. Origins, Ancestry and the Warrior Class, 2024 hypothesises that she is the same deity as the goddess, Britannia but offers no explanation for his theory. I am not convinced that they are one and the same beyond a slight similarity with their names and the fact that they are both tutelary deities. Britannia is purely a divine personification of the British Isles and may be linked to the Hitto-Phoenician goddess Barat or Brihat who features on Lycaonian and Carthaginian coins, according to Professor L.A. Waddell in his Phoenician Origins of Britons, Scots and Anglo-Saxons Discovered by Phoenician and Sumerian Coins, 1924. See: Britannia, Aryan Tutelary Goddess of the British Isles
A bronze statue in fragments, dating back to the first century CE and housed in the Museum of Britanny is believed to depict Brigantia in her Roman aspect of Minerva. A head and shoulders image is shown below, and one can see the superficial resemblance to Britannia as depicted on pre-decimal British coins.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/BrigitteCelt.jpg
Below is an image of a pre-decimal British penny, which ceased to be legal tender on 1 September 1971. The last pennies for general circulation were minted in 1967, although souvenir pennies were also struck in 1970. One can see the image of Britannia on the reverse of the penny.
Scan: Retroplum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
