Rigantona
Rigantona : ‘Divine Queen’ an epithet of a goddess associated with horses whose name is a back construction from the medieval form Rhiannon. She was a goddess of sovereignty whose stories show how she came from the Otherworld to validate the rule over a territory. The song of her birds also had the power of enchantment.
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Hymn to Rigantona at Calan MaiRigantona, I strew rose petals about your altar
For your coming from the Otherworld. Spring is all about us The hawthorn tree has leaves Emerging from the Otherworld I feel your presence in the blossoming boughs, In the flowers of the fields, In the green leaves and the many-coloured petals. These petals from another year I have kept for you Until roses bloom again And you ride Through the gates of the Otherworld Across the land in splendour. Rigantona, I strew rose petals about your altar For your coming from the Otherworld. |
Hymn to Rigantona at Calan GaeafRigantona, we strew rose petals about your altar
for your going into the Otherworld. In this dark of the moon I hold vigil here for your going into the Otherworld Rigantona – I strew rose petals about your altar for your going into the Otherworld Winter is now upon us and the darkness Rigantona – the leaves are strewn upon the earth the hawthorn tree is bare for your going into the Otherworld The song of your birds is lost in the sigh of the wind in the shriek of the wind but I listen still for it's echo with your going into the Otherworld |
Rigantona; the Horse Goddess
Rigantona (‘Great Queen’) was a British goddess associated with horses. As such she is seen as conjunctive with Epona, a goddess particularly associated with Roman cavalrymen in Gaul but with attested shrines in Roman Britain. Epona is also mentioned in the late Latin story by Apuleius The Golden Ass which contains a description of a shrine to Epona in a stable and refers to a practice of putting roses on such shrines.
Rigantona appears as Rhiannon in the medieval Welsh story in the Four branches of Y Mabinogi, usually collected in English translation with other stories under the title The Mabinogion. Rhiannon can be shown to be a development from Brythonic of the name Rigantona. The medieval Welsh stories present her riding into the Welsh landscape from the Otherworld at a place called Gorsedd Arberth, which may be an Otherworld portal similar to the Sidh of the Irish tradition. She comes to claim Pwyll for her husband and later her horse associations are stressed when she has to do a penance at a horse-block when she is wrongly accused of killing her son. There appears to be buried themes of sovereignty and the stewardship of the land here, and in our modern practice Rigantona – as she is formally addressed – or Rhiannon – as some of us more personally address her - is expressive of our relationship with the land of Brython. The Horse Goddess is both the embodiment of the spirit of the land and of our lives, both physically and spiritually, as part of the land.
Later in the Mabinogi tale cycle, Rhiannon goes back in Annwfn – or the Otherworld – for a time when the land reverts to wildness, and it is Manawydan, striving against the magic of an Otherworld sorcerer, who restores the land and enables her return. Again, there appear to be themes of sovereignty and human habitation of the land running through this tale.
Elsewhere in the medieval Welsh tales, Rhiannon’s Otherworld qualities are stressed. Her birds sing over the sea and create an atmosphere of enchantment and the suspension of time. The giant Ysbadadden says in the tale Culhwch and Olwen, that Rhiannon’s birds are "they that wake the dead and lull the living to sleep".
Rigantona is the Horse Goddess. She embodies our relationship with the land of Brython. Her connections with the Otherworld also reflect the shifts between the worlds, which we acknowledge and live by as part of our religious life.
Rigantona appears as Rhiannon in the medieval Welsh story in the Four branches of Y Mabinogi, usually collected in English translation with other stories under the title The Mabinogion. Rhiannon can be shown to be a development from Brythonic of the name Rigantona. The medieval Welsh stories present her riding into the Welsh landscape from the Otherworld at a place called Gorsedd Arberth, which may be an Otherworld portal similar to the Sidh of the Irish tradition. She comes to claim Pwyll for her husband and later her horse associations are stressed when she has to do a penance at a horse-block when she is wrongly accused of killing her son. There appears to be buried themes of sovereignty and the stewardship of the land here, and in our modern practice Rigantona – as she is formally addressed – or Rhiannon – as some of us more personally address her - is expressive of our relationship with the land of Brython. The Horse Goddess is both the embodiment of the spirit of the land and of our lives, both physically and spiritually, as part of the land.
Later in the Mabinogi tale cycle, Rhiannon goes back in Annwfn – or the Otherworld – for a time when the land reverts to wildness, and it is Manawydan, striving against the magic of an Otherworld sorcerer, who restores the land and enables her return. Again, there appear to be themes of sovereignty and human habitation of the land running through this tale.
Elsewhere in the medieval Welsh tales, Rhiannon’s Otherworld qualities are stressed. Her birds sing over the sea and create an atmosphere of enchantment and the suspension of time. The giant Ysbadadden says in the tale Culhwch and Olwen, that Rhiannon’s birds are "they that wake the dead and lull the living to sleep".
Rigantona is the Horse Goddess. She embodies our relationship with the land of Brython. Her connections with the Otherworld also reflect the shifts between the worlds, which we acknowledge and live by as part of our religious life.