#dianand

Bé Chuille and D(i)anand, the two sorceresses. [2]

Be cuilli

Danand, in dana ban-cahinte. [3]

Bé Chuille

D(i)anand, the two female satirists. [4]

[1] Margaret E. Dobbs, “he Ban-shenchus (Suite)”, in Revue celtique (Paris: Libr. A. Franck, 1931), 169.

[2] Translation my own.

[3] Margaret E. Dobbs, “The Ban-shenchus (Suite)”, in Revue celtique (Paris: Libr. A. Franck, 1931), 205.

A somewhat marginal character in the mythological tracts, Dianand is said to be the daughter of Flidais and is most often enumerated along with one or more of her three sisters, namely Arden, Bé Chuille, and Bé Thete. The texts also give her name as Dinand and, quite often, as Danand and Danann.[1] The last two appellations would seem likely to confuse the characters of Dianand and Danu as they are referred to by the same textual names. Indeed, it may have been something along these lines that led to the conflation of characters across two redactions of Lebor Gabála Érenn. Compare:

Flidais, diatá buar Flidais; a cethri ingena, Airgoen 7 Bé Chuille 7 Dinand 7 Bé Theite.[2]

Flidais, of whom is the “Cattle of Flidais”; her four daughters were Argoen and Be Chuille and Dinand and Be Theite.[3]

And:

is i in Danand sin mathair na ndee, 7 is iad a hingena, .i. Airgdean 7 Barrand 7 Be Chuille 7 Be Thedhe.[4]

That Dana is mother of the gods, and these are her daughters, Airgden, Barrand, Be Chuille, Be Thete.[5]

Here we see what looks to be a conflation between Danu mother of the gods and Dianand daughter of Flidais. The first excerpt lists Dianand as one of the four daughters of Flidais. The second excerpt, however, credits Danu as the mother of the four daughters and subsequently replaces Dianand with Barrand. This may suggest, then, that Danu and Dianand were thought of as the same figure and thus listing her both as the mother and the child would have been illogical.

While the above may be, and perhaps is even likely to be, a simple case of scribal confusion and error, some modern scholars think that the link between Danu and Dianand is possibly more complex. John Carey, head of the Sean- agus Meán-Ghaeilge Department at University College Cork, “suggests that Dianand’s name is probably a contracted form of *Día Anann” [i.e., goddess Anu] and that Dianand may consequently be another form of Anu.[6] Certainly Dianand and Anu, do share some common characteristics, most notable of which are their terrestrial and agricultural natures. Recall that Anu is intimately connected to the land, as evidenced by the Dá Chích nAnann, and that, regarding her, Sanas Chormaic states, “de cujus nomine dicitur ana”,[7] (by whose names is meant ana(e) ‘prosperity’). It is noteworthy, then, that Lebor Gabála Érenn calls Dianand a she-husbandman,[8] a title that also links Dianand to agricultural prosperity.

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[1] Michael Murphy, “Lebor Gabála Érenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland: Part VI: Index: D-F”, http://www.ucc.ie/celt/LGDF.pdf (accessed March 30, 2013), s.v. “Dianann”.

[2] R. A. Stewart Macalister, Lebor Gabála Érenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland: Part IV (Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1941), 122.

[3] Ibid., 123.

[4] Ibid., 182.

[5] Ibid., 183.

[6] Sharon Paice MacLeod, “Mater Deorum Hibernensium: Identity and Cross-Correlation in Early Irish Mythology,” Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, Vol. 18/19 (1998/1999): 371.

[7] Sanas Chormaic, trans. by John O’Donovan, ed. by Whitely Stokes (Calcutta: O. T. Cutter, 1868), 4.