The Morrigan- Celtic GodDeity"The Phantom Queen"

The Ford at Samhain

On the feast of Samhain, the Dagda found the Morrígan straddling the River Unshin in Connacht, one foot on each bank. They mated there at the ford. Cath Maige Tuired records that the place was ever after called the Bed of the Couple. In return, the Morrígan promised to use her sorcery against the Fomorians in the coming battle. She vowed to drain the fighting spirit from Indech mac De Domhann, the Fomorian champion, and deliver two handfuls of his heart's blood to the Tuatha Dé Danann.

At the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, she kept her word. While Badb and Nemain shrieked confusion into the Fomorian ranks, the Morrígan's incantations helped break their lines. The Fomorians were driven into the sea.

When it was over, she climbed to the summits of the high mountains of Ireland and delivered two prophecies. The first proclaimed peace: rivers running with fish and woods dripping with honey. The second was ruin: summers without flowers and sons betraying fathers.

Cú Chulainn

During the Táin Bó Cúailnge, the Morrígan appeared to Cú Chulainn as a beautiful young woman and offered him her love and her aid in battle. He refused. He had no time for women while he stood alone against the armies of Connacht.

She attacked him during his next combat at the ford. First an eel wrapped around his legs and tripped him in the water. Then a wolf stampeded a herd of cattle over him. Then a hornless red heifer led a charge against him. He broke the eel's ribs, destroyed the wolf's eye, shattered the heifer's leg.

Later she appeared as an old, blind, lame woman milking a cow with three teats. Cú Chulainn was exhausted and thirsty from combat. She offered him three drinks, and with each drink he blessed her, unknowingly healing her three wounds. By the time he recognized who she was, she was whole.

Before his final battle, he saw a young woman washing his own bloodied chariot-harness at a ford. He knew then what was coming. A crow landed on his shoulder as he stood dying, tied to a standing stone with his own belt.