Matrona
Matrona: 'Mother' is the goddess of the river Marne in Gaul. Her name seems connected with the Matronae 'Mothers' and Matres 'Matrons' who were worshipped across northern Europe from 1AD to 5AD. In Welsh mythology she appears as Modron 'Mother' and her children include Mabon 'Son' and Owain and Morfudd by Urien Rheged.
Hymn to the Matronae
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Boudeis máteres, Mátronás
Toutiás ríganás, Mátronás Nemnalíúmí Matronás Nemnalíúmí Matronás “Mothers of victory/gain, Matronæ “Queens of the tribe, Matronæ “I celebrate the Matronæ “I celebrate the Matronæ” |
Original English chant by River Devora & Rynn Fox. Gaulish translation and video kindly made accessible by DeoMercurio
Matrona 'Mother'
by Lorna
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Matrona 'Mother' is a Gallo-Brythonic goddess best known for her associations with the river Marne in Gaul. She may have been one of the Matronae 'Matrons' or Matres 'Mothers' whose worship was widespread throughout northern Europe from 1AD until 5AD. These goddesses are frequently depicted in threes. Another possibility is they represent Matrona in triple-form.The extent of their veneration shows the Mothers were much loved. Depictions with fruit, bread and cornucopias show they played an important role in maintaining the fecundity and fruitfulness of the land. Representations of Nursing Mothers with infants at their breasts and children at their feet express their associations with human motherhood.
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'Mother's' font at St John's Church, Lund, UK
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At Lydney in Gloucestershire a statue of a single mother goddess was found holding a cornucopia. Offerings of pins suggest she played a role in fertility and childbirth. Inscriptions to the Mothers the Fates hint at a powerful role in human destiny.
Over 50 inscriptions to the Mothers exist in Britain. Some Mothers (ie. 'the German Mother Goddesses') were clearly brought from overseas. However a cluster of altars, inscriptions and place-names centring on Carlisle and Solway provide strong evidence of a cult dedicated to Matrona and her child, Maponos 'the Son', in northern Britain.
Matrona and Maponos re-appear in medieval Welsh literature as Modron 'Mother' and Mabon 'Son'. In Culhwch and Olwen, Mabon is stolen 'from between his mother and the wall' when three nights old. No-one knows where he is, whether living or dead. To find him, Arthur's men enlist the help of the oldest animals: a blackbird, stag, owl, eagle and salmon.
Mabon is found in a house of stone at Caerloyw on the Severn (not far up river from Lydney). Whilst Arthur and his warriors attack, Cai tears down the walls and carries Mabon on his back 'a free man'. Mabon then plays a prominent role in the hunt for Twrch Trwyth.
Unfortunately Modron is absent from this male-centred narrative. Because this story has a basis in the older international folk motifs 'Six Go Through the World' and 'The Oldest Animals', I believe earlier versions may have featured another group of adventurers looking for Mabon on behalf of Modron (rather than on Arthur's orders). Another attractive possibility is Modron herself searched the land for Mabon and found him. Mabon's disappearance and rescue may have formed part of the cult of mother and son.
In The Reckoning of Time, Bede noted December the 24th was held sacred and known by the 'by the heathen word Modranecht 'Mother's Night' and voiced suspicions ceremonies were 'enacted all that night'. Although scholars understand these celebrations to be Germanic, not Celtic, the cultures intermixed and links to Modron are not inconceivable. Perhaps the celebration of Mother's Night and the following day(s) was bound up with the drama of mother and son and linked to the rebirth of the sun at the Winter Solstice.
In The Triads of Ancient Britain, Modron is named as the daughter of Avallach and carries one of three 'Fair Womb Burdens': Owain and Morfudd, the offspring of Urien Rheged. The story of their conception is told in Peniarth MS. 147.
The story is set at 'The Ford of Barking' in Denbighshire. This is a place where 'the hounds of the countryside' gather to bark. Nobody dares see why they are barking until Urien arrives. Urien finds 'nothing but a woman washing.' These dismissive words are disarming. A medieval audience would have recognised the Washer at the Ford: a powerful female deity washing the funeral garments of somebody about to die.
What happens next is shocking and incongruous with the Washer at the Ford's lore. When the hounds stop barking, Urien seizes her and has his way with her. Afterward she gives Urien her blessing then tells him she is the daughter of the King of Annwfn and was fated to wash there until she conceived a son by a Christian. She gives birth to Owain and Morfudd and gives them to Urien a year later.
This is clearly a Christianised re-writing of an older tradition whereby the ruler of a region wed its goddess to ensure the fertility of his land and lineage and success in battle. Urien's kingdom, Rheged, centred around Carlisle and Solway, the place of worship of Matrona and Maponos. Matrona's associations with rivers (the Marne and Severn) have been noted so it is apt she appears at a ford. It seems likely this story was relocated from the north to Wales later on.
Here she is presented in sinister form accompanied perhaps by the hounds of Annwfn (Avallach is a King of Annwfn and it seems likely Modron inherited Annuvian qualities and hounds). It is notable Urien only manages to seize her after the barking stops. Modron's seeming fatedness is used to excuse her rape. Nothing is said about what she is washing and we not find out if Urien glimpsed his grave-clothes.
After he rapes Modron, Urien's rise to power over the northern Brythonic kingdoms with the aid of Owain is unprecedented. It is of interest Owain is referred to as Mabon in Bardic poetry and most perturbing he follows in his father's footsteps by raping Teneu (perhaps another water goddess). Urien's fall is as swift. He is assassinated by a jealous rival during a campaign on Lindisfarne. The Old North falls shortly afterward.
One wonders whether this is a consequence of Urien's break with an ancient tradition and mistreatment of a goddess who played a governing role in the fertility of the land and its people and their fates. Did Modron perceive Urien's end as she washed his bloody garments?
The veneration of Matrona slowly disappeared from northern Britain. It seems possible in some areas she was replaced by the Virgin Mary and her son. However her altars and inscriptions remain with place-names such as Madron in Cornwall.
With the Goddess Movement and emerging polytheisms Matrona's worship is reawakening. Her name is being spoken again by devotees, storytellers, poets. In The Remains of Elmet, Ted Hughes speaks of Abel Cross as 'Where the Mothers / Gallop their souls.' Here at Lund they dance on a perfectly preserved altar now used as a baptismal font.
Where there is land
there are mothers.
Matrona stands.
It is time for our relationship with her to renewed.
SOURCES
Anne Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain, (Cardinal, 1974)
Bernard Maier, Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture, (The Boydell Press, 1997)
Faith Wallis (transl.), Bede, The Reckoning of Time, (Liverpool University Press, 1999)
Heron, 'The Oldest Animals' on 'Gorsedd Arberth' http://gorsedd-arberth.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/oldest-animals.html
James MacKillop, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, (Oxford University Press, 1998)
Miranda Green, The Gods of the Celts, (Sutton Publishing, May 2011)
Patrick Ford, Mabinogi and Other Welsh Tales, (University of California Press, 2008)
Rachel Bromwich (ed), The Triads of the Island of Britain, (University of Wales Press, 2014)
Sioned Davies (transl.), The Mabinogion, (Oxford University Press, 2007)
Will Parker, 'Culhwch and Olwen'
Over 50 inscriptions to the Mothers exist in Britain. Some Mothers (ie. 'the German Mother Goddesses') were clearly brought from overseas. However a cluster of altars, inscriptions and place-names centring on Carlisle and Solway provide strong evidence of a cult dedicated to Matrona and her child, Maponos 'the Son', in northern Britain.
Matrona and Maponos re-appear in medieval Welsh literature as Modron 'Mother' and Mabon 'Son'. In Culhwch and Olwen, Mabon is stolen 'from between his mother and the wall' when three nights old. No-one knows where he is, whether living or dead. To find him, Arthur's men enlist the help of the oldest animals: a blackbird, stag, owl, eagle and salmon.
Mabon is found in a house of stone at Caerloyw on the Severn (not far up river from Lydney). Whilst Arthur and his warriors attack, Cai tears down the walls and carries Mabon on his back 'a free man'. Mabon then plays a prominent role in the hunt for Twrch Trwyth.
Unfortunately Modron is absent from this male-centred narrative. Because this story has a basis in the older international folk motifs 'Six Go Through the World' and 'The Oldest Animals', I believe earlier versions may have featured another group of adventurers looking for Mabon on behalf of Modron (rather than on Arthur's orders). Another attractive possibility is Modron herself searched the land for Mabon and found him. Mabon's disappearance and rescue may have formed part of the cult of mother and son.
In The Reckoning of Time, Bede noted December the 24th was held sacred and known by the 'by the heathen word Modranecht 'Mother's Night' and voiced suspicions ceremonies were 'enacted all that night'. Although scholars understand these celebrations to be Germanic, not Celtic, the cultures intermixed and links to Modron are not inconceivable. Perhaps the celebration of Mother's Night and the following day(s) was bound up with the drama of mother and son and linked to the rebirth of the sun at the Winter Solstice.
In The Triads of Ancient Britain, Modron is named as the daughter of Avallach and carries one of three 'Fair Womb Burdens': Owain and Morfudd, the offspring of Urien Rheged. The story of their conception is told in Peniarth MS. 147.
The story is set at 'The Ford of Barking' in Denbighshire. This is a place where 'the hounds of the countryside' gather to bark. Nobody dares see why they are barking until Urien arrives. Urien finds 'nothing but a woman washing.' These dismissive words are disarming. A medieval audience would have recognised the Washer at the Ford: a powerful female deity washing the funeral garments of somebody about to die.
What happens next is shocking and incongruous with the Washer at the Ford's lore. When the hounds stop barking, Urien seizes her and has his way with her. Afterward she gives Urien her blessing then tells him she is the daughter of the King of Annwfn and was fated to wash there until she conceived a son by a Christian. She gives birth to Owain and Morfudd and gives them to Urien a year later.
This is clearly a Christianised re-writing of an older tradition whereby the ruler of a region wed its goddess to ensure the fertility of his land and lineage and success in battle. Urien's kingdom, Rheged, centred around Carlisle and Solway, the place of worship of Matrona and Maponos. Matrona's associations with rivers (the Marne and Severn) have been noted so it is apt she appears at a ford. It seems likely this story was relocated from the north to Wales later on.
Here she is presented in sinister form accompanied perhaps by the hounds of Annwfn (Avallach is a King of Annwfn and it seems likely Modron inherited Annuvian qualities and hounds). It is notable Urien only manages to seize her after the barking stops. Modron's seeming fatedness is used to excuse her rape. Nothing is said about what she is washing and we not find out if Urien glimpsed his grave-clothes.
After he rapes Modron, Urien's rise to power over the northern Brythonic kingdoms with the aid of Owain is unprecedented. It is of interest Owain is referred to as Mabon in Bardic poetry and most perturbing he follows in his father's footsteps by raping Teneu (perhaps another water goddess). Urien's fall is as swift. He is assassinated by a jealous rival during a campaign on Lindisfarne. The Old North falls shortly afterward.
One wonders whether this is a consequence of Urien's break with an ancient tradition and mistreatment of a goddess who played a governing role in the fertility of the land and its people and their fates. Did Modron perceive Urien's end as she washed his bloody garments?
The veneration of Matrona slowly disappeared from northern Britain. It seems possible in some areas she was replaced by the Virgin Mary and her son. However her altars and inscriptions remain with place-names such as Madron in Cornwall.
With the Goddess Movement and emerging polytheisms Matrona's worship is reawakening. Her name is being spoken again by devotees, storytellers, poets. In The Remains of Elmet, Ted Hughes speaks of Abel Cross as 'Where the Mothers / Gallop their souls.' Here at Lund they dance on a perfectly preserved altar now used as a baptismal font.
Where there is land
there are mothers.
Matrona stands.
It is time for our relationship with her to renewed.
SOURCES
Anne Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain, (Cardinal, 1974)
Bernard Maier, Dictionary of Celtic Religion and Culture, (The Boydell Press, 1997)
Faith Wallis (transl.), Bede, The Reckoning of Time, (Liverpool University Press, 1999)
Heron, 'The Oldest Animals' on 'Gorsedd Arberth' http://gorsedd-arberth.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/oldest-animals.html
James MacKillop, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, (Oxford University Press, 1998)
Miranda Green, The Gods of the Celts, (Sutton Publishing, May 2011)
Patrick Ford, Mabinogi and Other Welsh Tales, (University of California Press, 2008)
Rachel Bromwich (ed), The Triads of the Island of Britain, (University of Wales Press, 2014)
Sioned Davies (transl.), The Mabinogion, (Oxford University Press, 2007)
Will Parker, 'Culhwch and Olwen'