Manannan and Agni
There is nothing in particular in our previous investigations (see: The Great Lunar Cycle) to suggest that Njörðr, Pwyll, or Manawydan are themselves Horse Twins, as has sometimes been suggested, and these theories, which lack the fuller context, must be put aside. Instead, we can draw an interesting connection between the advisor of Samvarana, Vasistha and the friend and helper of Pryderi, Manawydan. In the portion of the myth where Samvarana in the Vedic version and Pryderi in the Welsh parallel occupies the sacred mountain improperly, leading to a wasteland, it is Vasistha in the one tale, and Manawydan in the other, who must then bring Samvarana or Pryderi back to their kingdoms to break the enchantment and revive the land. Interestingly, at this time Manawydan has become husband to the previously wooed wife of the now dead Pwyll -- that is, Rhiannon.
If we consider again the hymn to "Suryā's Bridal," a possible link between Manawydan/Vasistha and the god Agni then comes into view. For, at the end of the hymn, we read that Suryā, the daughter of the sun, had a series of husbands, just as Rhiannon has now had two husbands in succession. The hymn states:
40 Soma obtained her first of all; next the Gandharva was her lord. Agni was thy third husband: now one born of woman is thy fourth.
41 Soma to the Gandharva, and to Agni the Gandharva gave (Rig Veda, 10.85.40-41).
Though it is possible the hymn is merely conflating various sun princesses here into one figure, and while some may say that this cryptic passage shouldn’t be extended too far or taken too literally, it must be said that Manawydan and his Irish form Manannan do have characteristics that can be interpreted in line with the fire-priest god Agni, as does Vasistha. Indeed, the application of this passage as a lens to our further comparisons proves exceedingly fruitful, and the success of this application further supports its validity, as we will see. By the end of our further investigations, it will be seen that this brief hymnal passage is one of the most important Master Keys of comparative mythology generally speaking, either codifying a mythic structure that we find repeated in nearly all the various branches, or rather giving us a glimpse of the theological essence that is enacted far and wide in the Soma marriage myths of several of the Indo-European branches.
Manawydan and Manannan are each said to be the son of the sea, while Agni is called “child of the waters.” Vasistha is said to be reborn from Varuna, who himself is a god identified with all water. Additionally, Vasistha goes as emissary to Vivasvat-Surya to request the Sun god’s daughter for Samvarana, while Samvarana worships the sun god for 12 days straight, similar to how Agni is the emissary to the gods, carrying the sacrifice to them by burning it and rising into the sky. Again when Samvarana has stayed too long on the sacred mountain and has neglected his sacrifices, it is Vasistha's task to go as emissary to retrieve him and remind him of these sacrificial duties.
There also exists a pattern of Agni being sent, like Vasistha, as an emissary or messenger to retrieve a god and avert disaster. In Chapter 6 of the Lāvāṇakalambaka of Kathāsaritsāgara, when Siva and Parvati are engaged in a one-hundred year long sexual ritual to return Kama to the world, the universe comes to the edge of destruction due to their long absence. It is Agni that the Devas decide to send to interrupt Siva and Parvati in their lovemaking, as Vasistha is sent to interrupt Samvarana in he and Tapati's romantic dalliance on the mountain breast. In this case, Agni is afraid of Siva and hides in the waters, but eventually he uses his heat to stimulate and interrupt Siva, bringing a happy end to the crisis with the end of the sexual marathon and the return of Siva and Parvati. Similarly, in the Mahabharata (Udyoga Parva, 14), when Indra goes to hide in a lotus in repentance for killing the Brahmana Vrtra, the king who takes Indra's place, Nahusa, tries to make Indra's wife Indrani his queen. She asks Brihaspati for help, who sends Agni to retrieve Indra, which he does, bringing about his return and a happy conclusion. Arthur A. Macdonell asserts that Agni is “constantly and characteristically called a messenger (duta)” (Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, 96).
It seems clear that Vasistha in this myth is a stand-in for some god or other, for he takes the role directly comparable to that which the god Manawydan does in the parallel Welsh myth. And not only does Agni follow Soma and the Gandharva in wedding the sun princess in the hymn, just as Manawydan follows Pwyll in marrying Rhiannon, but it is also said that at Soma and Suryā's wedding, “Agni was leader of the train.” Besides the Horse Twins, the wooers Chyavana and Samvarana, the princesses, and their fathers, there are almost no other figures that appear in the Indian forms of these wooing tales besides Vasistha. And he appears in an assisting capacity perfectly fitting one who would lead the train at the wedding, the primary priest and advisor of Samvarana as he is, just as Agni is priest of the sacrificial fire.*
*“[Agni] combines in himself the functions, in a higher sense, of the various human priests called by the above and other specific names (1.94.6; 2.1.2; &c.).” “Agni’s priesthood is the most salient feature of his character. He is in fact the great priest” (Macdonell, 97).
Why exactly should the name of the legendary Rig Vedic poet and seer “Vasistha” then be used here as a stand-in for Agni? A note in Macdonell's work may shed some light on this. He explains that, in fact, “Vasistha” is a name known to have been identified with Agni in the Vedas: “The names of ancestors sometimes identified with Agni are in part those of families to which composers of the RV belonged. Some of these, like Vasistha, seem to have had a historical origin while others, like Angiras and Bhrgu, are probably mythical” (Macdonnell, 96). Furthermore, “the Vasisthas [clan descending from the legendary poet] claim to have first wakened her (Ushas [the Dawn]) with their hymns (7.80.1)” (Macdonell, 47). Thus Vasistha as a stand-in for Agni going as a priestly messenger to help reignite the sacrifice in order to bring about the return of the proper ritual cycle and the healing of the wasteland would be perfectly fitting. Regarding the magical influence of the sacrifice upon the rising of the sun, and thus on the cycle that holds the cosmos together, a theme central to the Samvarana wasteland myth in question, Macdonell explains, “The notion the kindling of Agni exercised a magical influence on sunrise seems not to be entirely absent in the RV. Such appears to be the meaning of the poet when he exclaims: ‘Let us light Agni, that thy wondrous brand may shine in heaven’ (5.6.4). This notion is clearly stated in a Brahmana passage: ‘By sacrificing before sunset he produces him (the sun), else he would not rise (SB 2.3.1.5, cp. TS 4.7.13.3)” (Macdonell, 98). Agni indeed also gives rain from heaven (RV 2.6.5) (as Indra gives rain to the land after Vasistha brings Samvarana back from his absence) among other abundant gifts.
So: beginning with the potential correspondence of Vasistha to Agni as described in the "Suryā's Bridal" hymn, and then the correspondence of Vasistha to Manawydan based on their occupying the same role in parallel tales, then of Manawydan to his cognate Manannan, we can begin to investigate the possibility that Manawydan/Manannan is also the same figure as Vedic Agni.
There are numerous similarities that can carry a further comparison connecting Agni-Vasistha to Manawydan-Manannan. First, Manannan and Manawydan are commonly called Manannan mac y Leir and Manawydan fab Llyr -- that is, this god's status as son of the sea god Lir/Llyr is generally so important that it is made a part of his very name, this part of his name effectively translating as "son of the sea." As for Agni, he is frequently associated with waters, so much so that the epithet Apam Napat, meaning descendent or nephew of waters, is numerically most often attached to him in the Rig Veda. This could then imply the same relationship that “mac Lir” does for Manannan. Agni is said to playfully hide in the waters (Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 85; Satapatha Brahmana Part 1 (SBE12); RV 3.1; RV 7.49.4; RV 10.51-53. 10.124) and the fish are said to report news of his presence to the gods (O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger (1994). Hindu Myths. 97–101). Agni is said to be twice (RV 1.149.4) or thrice (RV 10.45.1) born (Gregory Nagy, Greek Mythology and Poetics, 99; Herman Oldenberg, The Religion of the Vedas, 63): from water, in the air, and on Earth, signifying the different forms fire may take. The idea that he was first born from water was the result of a complex understanding of the nature of fire, a belief that fire was contained (lived) in water and arose from it (was born of it), entering back into it when doused (Oldenberg, 65-66). Oldenberg explains that
The water comes down from the ‘highest father’, the heaven; the plants suck their food from the rain and from the water of the earth…The plants are indeed the ‘first-born essence of waters’, ‘water is their nature’. Therefore, the power must have remained latent in water, and it breaks forth as fire from the wood of the plants. If the fire then returns to the heaven as smoke, i.e. as cloud, the circle is completed…’The same water goes up and down in the course of the day: the downpour (of rains) swells the earth; the flames of Agni swell the heaven’ (I, 164, 51). (Oldenberg, Religion of the Vedas, 65)
He is the offspring of Tvastr and the Waters or simply of the Waters (10.2.7; 10.91.6; AV 1.33.1). As Arthur A. Macdonell further lists: he is “the ‘embryo’ (garbha) of the waters (3.1.12-13); he is kindled in the waters (10.45; AV, 13.1.50); he is a bull who has grown in the lap of the waters (10.8.1) he is ocean-girt (8.91),” concluding that “the notion of Agni in the waters is prominent throughout the Vedas. Water is Agni’s home, as heaven is that of the sun (5.85.2; cp AV 13.1.50; 19.33.1).” (Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, 92).* Macdonell sums this up, declaring that, “In fact the abode of the celestial Agni in the waters is one of the best established points in Vedic mythology” (Macdonell, 70). As such, he is described with certain other water-related imagery that may remind of Manannan. Agni is said to rescue from calamity as if in a ship going over the sea (RV 3.20.4; 5.4; 7.12), and his flames are like the resounding billows of the ocean (RV 1.44.12). Manannan has a ship that rides by the power of thought over the waves, called Wave-Sweeper (which, if it is not a remnant of the fire god paraphernalia, could also simply derive from his connection to the sea). As Manannan rides a chariot over the sea to meet Bran in The Voyage of Bran, Agni too is called a charioteer (RV 1.25.3).
*“Agni rests in all streams (8.39, cp Ap.SS 5.2.1). In the later ritual texts Agni in the waters is invoked in connexion with ponds and water-vessels. Thus even in the oldest Vedic period, the waters in which Agni is latent, though not those from which he is produced, may in various passages haev been regarded as terrestrial. Oldenberg thinks that the terrestrial waters are chiefly meant in this connexion and doubts whether the lightning Agni is intended even in the first hymn of the third book. In any case, the notion of Agni in the waters is prominent throughout the Vedas. Water is Agni’s home, as heaven is that of the sun (5.85.2; cp AV 13.1.50; 19.33.1). The waters are also often mentioned along with the plants or wood as his abode (2.1.1 &c.)” (Macdonell, 92).
Second, as we have noted and supported above, Agni is primarily known as a priest and emissary between the sacrifice and the gods, as the flames and smoke rise to the sky, but he just as much is said to be a psychopomp, conveying the souls of the dead to the afterlife or to rebirth, as the flames and smoke rise from the funeral pyre. Manannan is centrally seen as a psychopomp as well, carrying the souls of the dead to the Land of Promise. This is perhaps why he was associated with the easterly isle of Man, the land of the dead seen as over the waves and to the East of Ireland. Agni himself is worshipped in the Southeast corner of temples, and known as the guardian of this direction, due to this same psychopomp concept. Connected with this role of fire priest and psychopomp, Agni is said to be a wise sage (RV 10.124; Kanvasatpathabrahmanam (SB.IV.i.iv.11)), with the “mind swiftest among (all) those that fly” (RV VI.9.5), as Manannan too is wise and versed in magic.
Third, Agni remains extremely central to Hindu marriage rites to this day, with the Panigrahana “hand-holding” ritual taking place in front of a sacred fire, and the Saptapadi “seven steps” ritual of vows taking place in front of, and often including the walking around of, the fire. The Fire god was seen as the witness of the sacred marriage ceremony, and the ritual employment of fire in the marriage ceremony can be traced precisely to the very line of the Vedic hymn we have referenced, in which the Daughter of the Sun is temporarily given to Agni, as this line formed the basis of the marriage rites, as we can clearly see in the Grihya Sutras. Furthermore, as Macdonell notes, “The boons which Agni bestows are rather domestic welfare, offspring, and prosperity,” and he is asked to deliver parents from childlessness (Macdonell, 98). Meanwhile, in “The Fosterage of the House of Two Pails,” Manannan is directly connected with marriage as well as birth and fosterage, and is in this text said to take over the responsibility for all marriages. In “The Conception of Mongan,” Manannan also takes on an active role in conceiving the child Mongan upon a mortal couple.
This son Mongan is described in riddling terms that could easily be a description of fire: "He will be in the shape of every beast both on the azure sea and on land, he will be a dragon before hosts, he will be a wolf of every great forest” (The Voyage of Bran, Son of Febal, to the Land of the Living). “In the shape of every beast” describes fire's general shape-changing nature; “a dragon before hosts” describes fire being carried before armies, appearing like the sometimes fire-breathing creature the dragon or simply like a fierce serpentine monster of flame (Agni is called a raging serpent in RV 1.79.1); “a wolf of every great forest” most obviously describes how fire devours forests like a wolf. In a prominent myth, Agni “eats” the forest of Khandava to appease his hunger (Mahabharata, Adi Parva, CCXXX). Agni is described eating forests up with his sharp tooth or his tongue in the Rig Veda (1.143.5; 6.60.10; 10.79.2), which is only to be expected.
Fourth, the Vedas describe Agni as a lord of three spheres and three corresponding forms. These were the forms of fire, lightning, and the Sun, and the corresponding spheres of earth, air, and the Sun, or earth, air and heaven, alternately (Charles Russell Coulter; Patricia Turner (2013). Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities. Routledge. p. 26). Having these three forms, Agni correspondingly has three legs, and is frequently depicted thus. Manannán sometimes takes the form of a wheel rolling across the ground, as in"Pursuit of the Gilla Decair" from the 16th-century, in which his movement is also compared to wind, a hawk, and a swallow. Lore of the Isle of Man and some eastern Counties of Leinster (according to John O'Donovan) says that Manannán rolled about on three legs. Alternately, in some late folktales he is followed by a mysterious three-legged, rolling creature. The depiction of him as a three-legged being is seemingly connected to the hazy origin of the three-legged triskele symbol that is the flag of the Isle of Man, Manannan’s eponymous island. This would imply that the triskele could symbolize fire in its three births: earthly fire, lightning, and the sun* — the vital, fiery essence of the cosmos in its three manifestations.
*“Owing to the diverse births above described, Agni is often regarded as having a triple character, which in many passages is expressly referred to as with some form of the numeral ‘three.’” “The gods made him threefold (10.88.10).” “Thus one poet says: ‘From heaven first Agni was born, the second time from us (= men), thirdly from the waters (10.45.1, cp. vv. 2-3). The order of Agni’s abodes is also heaven, earth, waters in other passages (8.44.16; 10.2.7; 10.46.9) while one verse (1.95.3) has the variation: ocean, heaven, waters” (Macdonell, 93).
Fifth, Agni is in more than one place shown to shape-shift in order to test humans. Once, he tests King Shibi in the form of a pigeon, the king passing the test and proving his selfless virtue (Chapter 131, Vana Parva, Mahābhārata). He also oversees the Agniparishka fire test, which Sita is subjected to, also a test of virtue (Śloka 28, Chapter 201, Vana Parva, Mahābhārata). Examples of trial by fire abound particularly in the Iranic tradition. In Avestan it is called garmo-varah, heat ordeal (cf. Boyce, History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. 1, 1996:ch. 6), and in the text of the Avesta, blazing fire is the instrument through which justice is decided (Yasna 31.3, 34.4, 36.2, 47.2, 31.19, 51.9). Boyce points out that, "there are said to have been some 30 kinds of fiery tests in all" (Boyce, 2002:1). In the Vendidad violating truth is tested and detected by drinking a kind of “blazing” water (fire in water), which may have had brimstone or sulphur in it. Trial by fire was used in ancient Persia as a judicial tool, either requiring the accused to pass through fire or to have molten metal poured on their chest. In the comparable Hindu agniparishka fire test, the accused would have to sit on a burning pyre and survive. A similar test survives in the Indian Sansi tribe, where women's purity is tested by having to carry burning embers in their hands for a hundred yards. Manannan too is a shapeshifter and a tester with perhaps the same hidden underlying meaning, appearing as a beggar or cleric (“Manannan at Play”; “The Conception of Mongan,” where he also teaches Mongan shapeshifting) or some other unassuming being to beguile or aid humans. This trait became central to his depiction in later tales, which focused on his wily and trickster-like exploits, such as his bringing Cormac mac Airt to the otherworld and tempting and testing him with otherworldly gifts, including a cup that judges truth and falsity (“His Three Calls to Cormac”) as Agni judges virtue. As such, this cup of truth is likely to be from a shared root with the aforementioned Iranic cup of brimstone or sulphur from the Vendidad which tested truth in a ritual context. In the Irish tale, Manannan says that he comes “from a country where there is nothing but truth.” Manannan then gives Cormac his silver branch* in return for three unnamed wishes. These wishes end up being the taking away of his daughter, son, and wife in succession. However, in the end Mannanan returns these to Cormac in a spirit of friendship along with other gifts, Cormac's lesson seemingly learned. This could be of interest in relation to Agni's role in forgiving sin, for he is not a cruel god but a benefactor and close domestic friend of mankind, as well as a purifier: “Agni also forgives sin committed through folly, makes guiltless before Aditi (4.12.4; 7.93.7)” (Macdonell, 98). When he reveals his true identity to Cormac at the end of the tale, Manannan says, “I brought you here by enchantments that you might be with me to-night in friendship.” Agni is called “the nearest kinsman of man” (RV 7.15.1; 8.49.10) and “friend” (RV 1.75.4), no doubt connected to the domesticity of the hearth fire and the many blessings connected to fire in ritual as well as domestic contexts.
*cf. RV 6.13.1: All blessings come from Agni as if from branches of a tree. “From thee, as branches from a tree, O Agni, from thee, Auspicious God! spring all our blessings-”. The red gold apples could combine this concept of blessings with a fire symbolism.
Sixth, Manannan is also closely associated with the three gods of crafts, Goibniu and his two brothers, but is not one of them. Yet he does himself produce or distribute many of the famous treasures and weapons of the Tuatha de Danann. He presides over Goibniu's feast and commissions a shield from the craft god Lucra, and also crafts the magical crane bag. He is said to have the belt and smith's hook of Goibniu. This close association with crafts and weapon making, despite not being the blacksmith god or one of the main craft gods himself, only seems logical when Manannan is seen as the god of fire, fire being the necessary companion of craft work and blacksmithing. He is said to have a red spear and a yellow spear, perhaps repeating the colors of fire. Agni, on the other hand, has a flaming spear (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 51; Daniélou, Alain (1991). The Myths and Gods of India, pp.88–89).* His apples, with which he tempts Cormac, are also of red gold and hang from a shining silver branch.
*Certain secondary sources (World Heritage Encyclopedia, “Manannan mac Lir,” Article Id: WHEBN0000085878; Harry Mountain, The Celtic Encyclopedia, 840) mention that he has a “flaming helmet”, which would be significant, but we have not been able learn of a primary source for this claim as of this writing. If it is inaccurate, it could be based on the attested helmet of Manannan's, Cathbarr, which, in Manx folklore (“The Boyhood of Lugh”), is set with gems that flash as its wearer moves, or which, in The Fate of the Children of Tuireann, gives Lugh's face the radiance of the sun by its reflection.
Seventh, Manannan is also depicted as overseeing the great Feast of Age, which keeps the gods immortal, and this association may be due either to the necessity of fire for cooking food, or, more likely, simply from the fact that fire conveys the food of the gods up to them from the burnt sacrifice. In the conception of the Vedic sacrifice, the god of fire directly serves the life-bringing offerings to the gods (Brereton and Jamison, The Rig Veda: A Guide, 73-74).
Eighth, Agni is also connected to the dispelling of evil spirits and, specifically, sorcerers, a function directly pertinent to Welsh Manawydan's role in his branch of the Mabinogion. When Rhiannon and Pryderi are taken captive in the mysterious vanishing fort, Manawydan finds himself in a battle of wits with a malicious sorcerer. This is Llwyd ap Kilcoed, who captures Rhiannon and Pryderi, enchants the land, bringing about the wasteland, and changes members of his own household into mice in order to despoil Manawydan's crops. Manawydan must outsmart this sorcerer in order to bring Rhiannon and Pryderi back and restore life and order to the land. Macdonell says of Agni that “probably the oldest function of fire in regard to its cult” is “that of burning and dispelling evil spirits and hostile magic.” He notes that, when kindled, Agni “consumes with iron teeth and scorches with heat the sorcerers as well as the goblins (10.87.2-5-14) protecting the sacrifice with keen glance (ib. v. 9). He knows the races of the sorcerers and destroys them (AV 1.8.4)” (Macdonell, 95).* Thus we can see that, although this feature of dispelling the sorcerer and his magic is not present in the Indian parallel involving Samvarana and Vasistha, it is the other crucial and connected cultic function of the fire. The fire makes sacrifice possible, which brings the rains or causes the sun to shine, but first it also dispels the hostile magic that may be present and contributing to the state of affairs. One of these features is more apparent in the Welsh tale, and the other is more apparent in the Indian, but together the two versions of this myth dramatize the full scope of the fire's role in relation to bringing life, order, and purity back to the land.
* “What is probably the oldest function of fire in regard to its cult, that of burning and dispelling evil spirits and hostile magic, still survives in the Veda. Agni drives away the goblins with his light (3.15.1 &c.) and receives the epithet raksohan, ‘goblin slayer’ (10.87.1). When kindled he consumes with iron teeth and scorches with heat the sorcerers as well as the goblins (10.87.2-5-14) protecting the sacrifice with keen glance (ib. v. 9). He knows the races of the sorcerers and destroys them (AV 1.8.4). Though this function of dispelling terrestrial demons is shared with Agni by Indra (as well as by Brhaspati, the Asvins, and especially Soma), it must primarily have belonged to Agni alone… This is borne out by the fact that Agni is undoubtedly more prominent as a goblin slayer than Indra, both in the hymns and in the ritual” (Macdonell, 95).
It likely will be objected that, despite all these possible connections, Manannan seems not to have been depicted with fire itself. However, this is not true. During the narrative of The Wooing of Etain, it is said that Manannan was known, in one tradition, to have killed Midir and Fuamnach by burning (which could symbolize the fiery purification of her malignant influence, or the setting of the moon at the same time as the dawn fires, Midir being a moon god). It is in fact relatively rare to find fire used as an offensive weapon in Celtic myth, and so this instance stands out. Another significant instance occurs at the beginning of "The Adventures of Art, son of Conn," wherein the Tuatha de Danann are in council deciding what to do with the wife of Labraid Luathlam-ar-Claideb, who has committed a sexual "transgression" with Manannan's son. The punishments debated are for the woman "to be driven forth from the Land of Promise" or "to be burned according to the counsel of Manannan." In the end, Manannan says not to burn her, "lest her guilt should cleave to the land or to themselves" ("The Adventures of Art, son of Conn"). It is certainly noteworthy that Manannan is seen here as the decider of whether to execute a criminal by fire, just as he kills Fuamnach (and Midir, seemingly) with fire himself. The fear that the woman's guilt will "cleave" to the land seems to be a fascinating glimpse into an ancient understanding of how guilt may be spread via an execution by flame.
Manannan is colloquially believed to be a god of the sea primarily. This is the image that has been passed down to us and how he appears in the most common depictions. However, the scholar David Spaan in his essay “The Place of Manannan in Irish Mythology” claims that this sea association is secondary to his true nature, an association likely to be derived from his abode on the Isle of Man and his connection to the land of the dead found thereabouts. Due to the fact that he lives out at sea and has to cross the ocean to carry souls back and forth, he has naturally become associated with the sea as its lord as well. Hence both his sea association and his magical wave-sweeping ship can be explained by his role as psychopomp, and can be supported further by the aforementioned epithet of Agni – Descendent of Waters – and by Agni's general association with water, to the point that Agni was seen as living in that element and being born from it. Manannan's habitual cloak of mist can then be simply explained by this sea association, or even, more fancifully perhaps, as the natural result of fire touching water. Agni, on the other hand, is “smoke-bannered” (dhumaketu).
Spaan further comments on the many similarities between Manannan and the Norse Óðinn, pointing particularly to Manannan as “supreme provider, accomplished magician and sorcerer, as well as custodian of the well of truth and patron of the arts and crafts. Prophet and shape-shifter,” “ruler of the Otherworld,” who leads chosen warriors “to his Land of Promise...to be educated there at his own hand” (Spaan, 179), likening this last facet to Óðinn's role in Valhalla. Manannan also feeds warriors in this place with pigs that are ever renewed, as Óðinn feeds the slain einherjar with the ever-regenerating pig Saehrimnir. This connection of Manannan/Manawydan with Óðinn is important and is crucially supported by the passing of Skaði in marriage from Njörðr to Óðinn, which we have suggested matches the passage of Suryā from Soma to Agni or of Rhiannon from Pwyll to Manawydan. However, while keeping Spaan's important comparisons in mind, we should note here that Agni/Manannan seems only to correspond to one part of the larger makeup of Óðinn, as if the Agni deity is an "aspect" of Óðinn, so to speak.
Further, more tentative comparisons can be made between Manannan and Agni. Agni is said to be a giver of weapons on more than one occasion. In one portion of the Mahabharata he gives a magical arrow case, four white horses, and a chariot, to Arjuna, along with the powerful Gandiva bow, which becomes Arjuna's signature weapon. He furthermore gives Krishna the cakrayudha weapon. Manannan, for his part, gives Lugh a self-navigating boat, a horse that could cross both sea and land, a magically fatal sword called "The Answerer," a helm, body armor, and neck-piece. He also gives Finn the shield of wood commissioned from Lucra. The story of Manannan's wife may also bear a distant similarity to that of Agni's wife. Manannan's wife Fand falls in love with the central hero Cuchulainn, son of Lugh. The two become lovers, until Cuchulainn's wife musters a force to attack Fand. Fand returns to Manannan, and Mannanan then shakes his magical cloak, causing Fand and Cuchulainn never again to meet. Agni's wife Svāhā, on the other hand, falls in love with and desires Krishna. Krishna tells her that she will become his wife, but that she has first to be the wife of Agni. Agni and Svāhā have a daughter named Agneya. Manannan and Fand have a daughter coincidentally named Áine. Meanwhile, even more strikingly, other texts call Aine the wife of Manannan. Aine is generally seen to be a goddess of the sun and of summer, which makes for a perfect match to the pattern of sun princesses we have been tracing.* Aine is seen by the king Aillil Aulom in a waking dream in a manner reminiscent of that in which Aengus sees Caer, after which Aillil rapes Aine and has his ear bitten off, making him unfit to be king. Another form of the name of Aine is thought to be Aynia, even more mysteriously similar to Agneya. However, Aine is a sun goddess while Agneya's name does not indicate her as one, thus we may consider this overlap as a kind of coincidence bolstered by the deeper linguistic framework of naming surrounding the fire god's female consorts and children. We should properly draw a line between the sun goddess Aine as Manannan's wife and the sun princess Surya as Agni's, and between Fand as Manannan's other wife and Svaha as Agni's other wife, while considering that these two sets of wives may or may not have an indeterminate amount of overlap. Aynia as daughter of Manannan and Agneya as daughter of Agni could then parallel one another, and this could explain the confusion between Aine/Aynia as either the daughter or wife of Manannan. This is no perfect solution to the problem, but the similarities evident here should be enough to further support the connection between Agni and Manannan.
*“Aine is apparently a sun deity, known as wife either of Echdae, a sun-god in horse-form (ech "horse"), or of Mannanan, the Irish sea god (sometimes she is instead his daughter). Her name apparently means "brightness" or "radiance'"; she is worshipped on John's night (a midsummer ritual) at Knockainey, Co. Limerick, where men circle her mound (sid) at Cnoc Aine carrying poles with flaming bunches of straw and hay tied to them. In the district of Lissan, Co. Derry, she is regarded as a lady who was taken away from her husband's side at night by the "wee folk" and never returned; a vanishing maiden motif” (“The Sun Maiden's Wedding,” Cheryl Steets, 24). This disappearance from her husband's side incidentally resembles the plight of Welsh Rhiannon, who also becomes Manawydan's sun princess wife. This myth then also retains the fact that Aine is passed from one husband to another. Perhaps then Echdae is a local variant (associated with the Eóghanacta) paralleling the first husband of Rhiannon, Pwyll, and of his Greek parallel (as we will see later), who also takes a horse form in the parallel myth, Poseidon Hippios. Aine is raped by King Ailill Aulom and bites his ear off in response, as Demeter is raped by Poseidon Hippios (originally Wanax, “chief/king”) and reacts by becoming the violently furious Demeter Erinys.
In the Brahmanas and Upanishads, Agni is said to be the heat, light, and energy of life, as well as the swiftness of mind (see: section 5.2.3 of Satapatha Brahmana, Agni is all the gods and the spiritual energy pervading the universe). Agni stands somewhat outside and above the other gods, and is often identified with a great number of them in the Vedas, again pointing to his shapeshifting nature and his status as the element of divine vitality found even within other gods. At times, because of this role as the vitality within the other gods, Agni is even seen as the true highest god and as the creator himself. As Arthur A Macdonell notes, he is called “the germ (garbha) of what is stationary or moves and of all that exists (1.70.3; AV 5.25.7)” (Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, 95). This is akin to Heraclitus’ view of fire as the prime element, which manifested the unfolding of Logos in the world, and the Zoroastrian understanding of the holy fire, Atar, as the visible manifestation of Ahura Mazda (just as “Agni” would be one aspect of the high Varunian god Óðinn). The Zoroastrian tradition also preserves the idea that fire is a tester of virtue (trial by fire), a shapeshifter, and the vital force required by the other gods for creation. Manannan too seems to be of the gods, yet separate, a powerful magician living over the sea in his far island, yet occasionally called the chief god of all the Tuatha de Danann. For instance, in “The Fosterage of the House of the Two Pails,” Manannan claims that he is the over-king over all of the kings of the Tuatha De Danann and their true ancestor as well.* Even Manannan's cloak, which causes those on either side of it to never meet again, can speculatively be explained using the lens of Agni. When we hear of “never meeting again,” induced forgetfulness, etc. in relation to a psychopomp god, we should immediately suspect a reference to death, the cloak of never-again-meeting being the veil between this world and the otherworld. When death occurs, the soul experiences forgetfulness and goes to an unreachable land, as Manannan shakes his cloak, which is perhaps a cloak once again visualized as the smoke rising from the funeral pyre.
*Agni is “a divine (asura) monarch (samraj), strong as Indra (7.6.1). His greatness surpasses that of mighty heaven (1.59.5).” “He is superior to all the other gods in greatness (1.68.2)” (Macdonell, 98).
Breaking his name crudely into three parts : Irish mana- may mean "portent, sign" but comes from the root men- meaning "to think" or indicating spiritual activity. The suffix -an can mean "bright" or "brilliant," and, using the Old Irish spelling "Manandan" or the Welsh "Manawydan," the final portion of the name dan can mean "gift," "offering," "skill," or "fate." While preemptively deferring the topic to others more knowledgeable, we can briefly point toward various potential meanings of the name as it appears to us, such as "bright portent of thought," "brilliant gift of thought," "skill of mind," etc. The general thrust of these may suggest the bright gift and portent that is fire, which is also a symbol for and the metaphysical origin of mental illumination. Even Manannan's epithet Gilla Decair, meaning "troublesome boyservant," begins to sound like a comic description of fire when all the other evidence is considered. Coincidentally, the eldest son of Manannan's father Lir is said to be named Aodh, “Fire,” in the Christianized romance The Children of Lir. All considered, this seems to us a late (possibly 14th century) and highly romanticized doublet of Manannan, and at the very least is an acknowledgement that Lir has a son, his eldest, who bears the god of fire's name, while Manannan mac Lir is the only god to carry the patronymic marking him as Lir's son. As a drunken man once said, “It all seems so very obvious now.”
Considering all of this, it seems that what we have in the case of Manannan is actually a form of the Fire god that has, ironically, not been syncretized with the “descendant of the waters” deity known as Apam Napat, but merely has traits that make clear to us why these two gods would easily become syncretized, as they are in the Vedic case. If, instead, Irish Nechtan's etymology connects him to Apam Napat (and Neptune), the true “descendant of the waters,” as seems likely (see: Dumezil, “Les Puits de Nechtan”), then we would see that Nechtan (Apam Napat) and Manannan (Agni) are preserved separately in the Irish tradition, while they have become syncretized into one god only in the Vedic branch. What we see with Manannan, then, is as clear a picture as we can wish for of why the fire god, Agni, became syncretized with the Descendant of Waters, Apam Napat: because the fire god is also a child of waters, but in a different context. Manannan's appellation mac Lir, “son of the sea,” has a specific esoteric meaning relating to fire's birth from water or the sea, but does not make him precisely the same as the water deity known as Apam Napat, Nechtan, etc. who is also primarily known to be descended from the waters, but has his own specific and separate function seemingly not specifically related to fire. Thus the Irish “sea god” is likely to actually be the god of fire. Specifically he is the god of fire-in-water, a highly important Indo-European concept.
See also: Brereton and Jamison: “That fire is fueled by plants, especially wood, contributes to the belief that Agni lives concealed within the plants and ultimately within the waters that nurture the plants until he is finally born from them. The connection between fire and waters is also evident in the identification of Agni with a minor divinity going back to Indo-Iranian times, Apāṃ Napāt, the “Child of the Waters.” Originally he was probably a separate deity, a glowing fiery being concealed and nurtured in the waters, perhaps configured in part as lightning. But the single R̥gvedic hymn dedicated to Apāṃ Napāt, II.35, gradually merges Apāṃ Napāt with Agni by attributing Agni’s functions and form to him, until in the final verse Agni emerges fully in the poet’s address to him” (Brereton and Jamison, The Rig Veda: A Guide, 75).
Agni and Óðinn
In this interpretation we would also be able to theorize the placement of Agni in the Norse pantheon. After the sun princess Suryā, in the “Suryā's Bridal” hymn, is said to be married to Soma, she is said to marry the Gandharva and then Agni. While we can say this might indicate the passing of the sun's rays from the moon at night, to the birds of dawn or the singers of the dawn sacrifice (manifestations of the Gandharvas), to the sacrificial dawn fires (Agni), we can also say that Skaði's leaving of Njörðr for Óðinn also seems to match the "Suryā's Bridal" pattern. As we can surmise that Bragi is a much more likely match for the Gandharva than Óðinn is (as Óðinn is not likely to be the lower level court musician of the gods no matter how full of Mead of Poetry he is), it seems logical that Óðinn here may be taking the role of Agni, or more exactly, that Agni is one of the aspects of Óðinn. We note that, as Curwen Rolinson has pointed out in his “Soma-Kvasir, The Eddic-Vedic Myth of the Meath of Poetry,” Óðinn turning into the eagle to escape from the mountain fortress with the Mead of Poetry also parallels the hawk Shyena, a form of Agni, who steals the sacred liquid from the mountain.*
*See also Rolinson's “On Odin as Agni,” which is some of that author's best work and goes into far more depth demonstrating all the correspondences between Odinn and Agni than I am able to at present.
This would also fit with the pattern of Óðinn's seeming monopoly on the great majority of magico-priestly deities as compared with the Vedic branch, whether these be Brihaspati, Varuna, Agni, etc. Each of these can be shown to be connected to myths belonging to Óðinn. It would also partially explain the sometimes remarked upon similarities of Óðinn and Manannan as we have mentioned regarding Spaan's "The Place of Manannan in Irish Mythology," and would perhaps account for Óðinn's psychopomp-related roles as well, perhaps even his penchant for going about in disguise. Vedic Agni and Brihaspati are the two central priests of the sacrifice, the priest of fire and of the spoken word, respectively. As such, interpreting both Brihaspati and Agni as aspects of Óðinn would only be reuniting the otherwise divided priestly aspects in one figure.
------
One thing has to be added as a postscript to this issue, as a possibility for further contemplation. The incarnation of Agni from the Mahabharata, Dhrishtadyumna, seems possibly to share a myth with Freyr as well. Dhrishtadyumna is bested by Ashwatthama in the Kurukshetra War because he is missing his sword. This fact is underlined when Ashwatthama refuses to let him die with his sword in his hand. Freyr famously gives his sword away to Skirnir, and misses it later in the battle of Ragnarok. He confronts Surtr (a demonic fire entity) in this battle, and is killed. Now, the Irish Aengus, who we have seen is cognate to Freyr, has a brother named Aed, meaning simply "fire." Both he and Manannan are likely manifestations of the Fire god, but just because Aed's name means “fire,” this should not make us set Mannanan aside as a form of “Agni” as well. Additionally, in Vedic scripture, the Dawn goddess and the Horse Twins are sometimes called siblings (compare here Freyr and Freyja as siblings and Aengus and Brigid as siblings), and Agni is said also to be their brother (RV IV.17.4): “In about three-fourths of these instances Usas is [Dyaus'] daughter, while in the remainder the Asvins are his offspring (napata), Agni is his son (sunu) or child (sisu)” (Arthur A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, 21). In the Mahabharata, Dhrishtadyumna, incarnation of Agni, is born as a twin with Draupadi (who may or may not be connected to Ushas, as we have noted), each emerging in succession from the holy flame of the yagna rite. If Draupadi is related to the Dawn goddess, as we have speculated, this twin birth could be an allegory for the birth of the holy flame and the dawn at the same moment during the dawn sacrifice. The coinciding of their appearance with the dawn sacrifice could be another reason the Horse Twins, as gods of the transition of morning or morning star, are seen as brothers of the Dawn goddess. Horse Twins, Dawn, and Fire gods are then siblings. However, seeing that Freyr, unlike Aengus, is not said to have any brothers, could we speculate a partial combination of the mythos of this Fire god and the Horse Twin in the figure of Freyr, as suggested by the shared motif of dying due to missing his sword? Or reversing the causation, perhaps, could we leave open the possibility that Agni's Mahabharata incarnation took this myth from the Horse Twins due to their close association as brothers?
Ultimately, what the separate existences of Irish Aed and Manannan suggest is that the fire deity must have been seen to have at least two separate aspects: one a more earthly fire, Aed, the other the high priest and psychopomp, Manannan. This accords exceedingly well with the Vedic case, in which celestial and terrestrial fires were separately designated, the celestial Ahavaniya Agni and the terrestrial Garhapatya Agni (Gregory Nagy, Greek Mythology and Poetics, 107). Dumezil points out that a precisely corresponding division of fires appears in Roman tradition with the ordinary templum vs. the aedes Vesta (Dumezil, Rituels indo-européens à Rome, l954, 27-43). The Latin word for this latter temple, aedes, as might be obvious, comes from the same root word that gives the Irish Aed his name, and this etymology suggests that the word came to designate temples due to the fact that these buildings housed sacred flames. Thus, if Aed can be seen as this same terrestrial, domestic fire, he would have direct cognates in the flame of the Vestals and the Garhapatya Agni of the Vedics.* The Dagda is Aed's father, he bears the epithet Aed himself, and is the wind and sky god. This could reflect an understanding also seen in the Rig Veda that the wind is continuous with fire, carrying the germ of the spark: “as Matarisvan, [Agni] was fashioned in his mother, he became the swift flight of wind” (RV 3.29.11). Perhaps more likely, it could go back to the idea, also found in the Vedas, that Agni is the son of Father Sky: “Agni’s father is Dyaus, who generated him (10.45.8). He is the child (sisu) of Dyaus (4.15.6; 6.49.2) and is said to have been born from the belly of the Asura (3.29.4). He is often called the son of Dyaus and Prthvi (3.2.2; 3.3.11; 3.25.1; 10.1.2; 10.2.7; 10.140.7)” (Macdonell, 90).
*There are other possible ways of dividing the Agnis that could be relevant, however. Macdonell says: “The TS. (2.5.8.6) also distinguishes three, the Agni that bears the oblation (havyavahana) as belonging to the gods, the Agni that bears the funeral offering (kavyavahana), as belonging to the Fathers, and the Agni associated with goblins (saharaksas) as belonging to the Asuras” (Macdonell, 97). It seems clear that Aed is closer associated with the hearth fire that is established on earth, while Manannan is the funeral fire. It is unclear, however, if Manannan would be connected to the oblation bearing fire as well, and this distinction may not hold in the exact same fashion.
This postscript must be marked as speculative, but it also must be noted: it may be that we find these two aspects or roles of the Fire god taken on separately by Freyr and Óðinn respectively, as the lower and higher Fire priest gods.
*****
Comments
Post a Comment