Boann

Her name is interpreted as "white cow" (Irish: bó fhionn; Old Irish: bó find) in the dinsenchas, where she is also called "White Boand".[5][6] Ptolemy's 2nd century Geography shows that in antiquity the river's name was Bouvinda [Βουουίνδα],[7][8] which may derive from Proto-Celtic *Bou-vindā, "white cow".[9] An alternate version of her name is given as Segais, hence Well of Segais.[10] We are also told that Eithne was the wife of Elcmar and that another name for Eithne was Boand.[11]

As told in the Dindsenchas,[12] Boann created the Boyne. Though forbidden to by her husband, Nechtan, Boann approached the magical Well of Segais (also known as the Connla's Well), which was surrounded, according to the legend, by nine magic hazel-trees.[13] Hazelnuts were known to fall into the Well, where they were eaten by the speckled salmon (who, along with hazelnuts, also embody and represent wisdom in Irish mythology). Boann challenged the power of the well by walking around it tuathal; this caused the waters to surge up violently and rush down to the sea, creating the Boyne. In this catastrophe, she was swept along in the rushing waters, and lost an arm, leg and eye, and ultimately her life, in the flood. The poem equates her with famous rivers in other countries, including the River Severn, Tiber, Jordan River, Tigris and Euphrates. Additionally, it mentions alternate names for various parts of the Boyne, including River of Segais, the Arm and Leg of Nuada's wife, the Great Silver Yoke, White Marrow of Fedlimid, the River of the White Hazel, Banna, Roof of the Ocean, Lunnand, and Torrand.[14]

In a variant of the same story as told in the Dindsenchas, Boand tried to hide her infidelity with the Dagda by washing herself in Nechtan's well, but when she approaches it, it overcomes her, and she drowns.[15] She named her son Oengus (meaning one wish) because her one desire was union with the Dagda.

She also appears in Táin Bó Fraích as the maternal aunt and protector of the mortal Fráech.[16] In that story, Fráech's people tell him to go visit his mother's sister Boand to receive the raiment of the Sídhe. Boand then gives Fráech fifty intricately worked mantles and tunics with animal details, fifty jeweled spears that lit the night like the sun, fifty dark horses with gold bells, fifty swords with golden hilts, fifty swords with gold hilts, seven hounds in silver chains, seven trumpeters, three jesters, and three harpists, which Fráech uses to dazzle Medb and Ailill.[17]

She had a lapdog, Dabilla, which was swept out to sea. Torn into pieces by the water, the two halves became the rocks known as Cnoc Dabilla, or Hill of Dabilla.[18][19]

Modern-day commentators and Modern Paganism sometimes identify Boann with the goddess Brigid or believe Boann to be Brigid's mother;[25] however there are no Celtic sources that describe her as such. It is also speculated by some modern writers that, as the more well-known goddess, and later saint, the legends of numerous "minor" goddesses with similar associations may have over time been incorporated into the symbology, worship and tales of Brigid.[26]

Boan is a town in north-western Crna Gora (Montenegro). It is widely believed to have been named after the Celtic Goddess, the Celts having resided in the region in centuries past. Another theory is that it was named after an administrative region of the ancient Persian empire. Boan is home to the Serbian Uskok clan.