#boann

Another possible explanation for the fact that Fand is so little known in the tradition is that her name was substituted for or modified from a better known character. Certainly there are interesting parallels with other Irish tales. Ethne, for example, the name of Cú Chulainn’s wife in the first part of SCC [Serglige Cú Chulainn], is also one of the names of the Dadga’s wife. Another “wife” of the Dagda is Boand. The phonological similarity between Boand and Fand suggests that if Fand does not derive directly from Boand, it is a probable substitution. Boand is also sometimes named as Elcmar’s wife, and in one story it is told that she had an illicit tryst with the Dagda from which she latter bore the child Aengus. If Sterckx is right that in ATDM [Altram Tighe Dá Mheadar] Elcmar is banished from the Brug for his lack of fertility, we might wonder if on one level Cú Chulainn’s help to the Otherworld was seminal and whether Manannán’s separation from Fand had to do with their inability to reproduce? But Cú Chulainn’s tryst with Fand (unlike Manannán’s with Caintigern in IB [Immram Brain] or Rhiannon’s with Pwyll in Pwyll) does not result in offspring. And despite the analogs Fand cannot be reduced to simply another sovereignty goddess. Furthermore, the reason for the split between Fand and Manannán is not, according to the text, the lack of offspring. Rather, the text implies that Manannán left Fand for the same reason that Cú Chulainn left Emer. According to the latter because: “what’s old is bright...what’s familiar is stale”—that is, Fand and Manannán’s relationship has grown old and “stale” (possibly, considering that they are immortals, after many centuries).

white cow

Celtic Mythology | The Three Noble Strains