Brigantia, the Tutelary Deity of the Brigantes

 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.

Museum of Brittany, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BrigitteCelt.jpg

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.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_pre-decimal_penny_1967_reverse.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/British_pre-decimal_penny_1967_reverse.png

Scan: Retroplum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

The Devil's Arrows in Folklore

I have always been attracted to and fascinated by megaliths, menhirs, dolmens and stone circles. This is one of the reasons why the teachings of Wodens Folk has always resonated with me for in our religion the worship of the Germanic Gods is also associated with the reverence for sacred places in the landscape such as megaliths and dolmens.

As a young boy in the 1960s I remember regularly visiting the remarkable Devil`s Arrows  which are three surviving menhirs alligned in a field near the A1 and the river Ure in Boroughbridge in the old West Riding of Yorkshire. These stones are very distinctive for they have a grooved pattern formed they say due to millenia of rainfall. I am not convinced that rainfall has caused this distinctive pattern for I know of no other menhirs that are shaped in this way. The tallest stone is 22 1/2 feet in height which makes it the second tallest menhir in the United Kingdom. Originally there were at least four such `arrows` but one was pulled down by our ignorant ancestors in the 18th century who were hunting for treasure. The remains of the stone were then used to build a nearby bridge over the river. The stones are formed from millstone grit and apparently this may have been obtained 9 miles away in Knaresborough.

The alignment of the stones is in a NNW-SSE direction conforms with the summer moonrise. The stones are associated with the `Devil` who used them as `arrows` to fire at the nearby ancient Roman town of Aldborough. The `Devi`l shouted:  "Borobrigg keep out o' way, for Aldborough town I will ding down!" We know that in English folklore references to the `Devil` disguise the contempt of the xtian church for our ancient Gods, in particular Woden and Thunor.

However there is a surviving tale of an encounter between the 'Devil' and Thor recorded in In Search of the Lost Gods. A Guide to British Folklore by Ralph Whitlock (1979). A legend from Treyford Hill near Midhurst in west Sussex refers to an argument between the 'Devil' and Thor whose sleep was disturbed by the 'Devil' leaping from barrow to barrow on the hill. The 'Devil' taunted him by saying that Thor "was too old to go jumping about in this way." Thor thus flung a rock which caught the 'Devil' in his midriff. It is certainly unusual to see the two beings on separate sides which could be an indication of a remembrance of a local cult to Thor or Thunor and that even with the xtian conversion His followers still stayed loyal to him. It could also be suggestive of a contest between Woden and Thunor as there is evidence of their rivalry in the Eddas and Woden is often demonised by the church and called a 'Devil'. The Lay of Harbard in the Elder Edda is one such example of a flyting or verbal contest between the two Gods. However Viktor Rydberg was of the opinion that Harbard was actually Loki in disguise, not Odin. This being the case the 'Devil' in the legend from Treyford Hill could in fact be Loki.

As a boy I was told by a friend that if you danced around one of the arrows three times widdershins the `Devil` would appear. I did try this but nothing happened! So even into the 1960s, in the 'modern' era these folktales still survived and were passed down the generations. Clearly the reference to dancing around a menhir hearkens back to ancient sun worship. However to dance in a widdershins direction is considered to bring bad luck and this may be why it is associated with the summoning forth of the 'Devil'. Several times over recent years I have carried out a rite to consecrate these stones to Woden.