Áine- Celtic GodDeity
Also known as: Aine
Description
When Ailill Aulom forced himself upon Áine, she bit off his ear in vengeance. The Fitzgerald earls, wiser, claimed her as an ancestress — and on midsummer eve, the people of Knockainey still carried torches through their fields and among their cattle to win her blessing.
Mythology & Lore
Knockainey
Áine's sacred hill was Cnoc Áine, Knockainey, in County Limerick. Her father Eogabail was a foster-son of Manannán mac Lir. On St John's Eve, the local people lit torches of hay and straw on the hilltop and carried them through the fields and among the cattle to win the goddess's blessing on crops and livestock. The practice continued into the nineteenth century.
Ailill Aulom and the Fitzgeralds
Ailill Aulom, king of Munster, forced himself upon Áine. She bit off his ear. The wound gave him his epithet: Aulom, one-eared.
The Fitzgerald earls of Desmond told a different story. Their first Earl encountered Áine at a lake, seized her cloak to compel her, and fathered a son, Gerald, upon her. Gerald inherited his mother's otherworldly nature. He dwells still beneath Lough Gur, emerging every seven years to ride across the water on a silver-shod horse. Áine herself could take the form of a red mare, and farmers left offerings at stones and wells sacred to her for good weather and abundant harvests.
Relationships
- Family
- Enemy of
- Member of