Ankou. This article is about the personification. For the ingredient, see red bean paste. Background[edit] This character is reported by Anatole Le Braz, writer and legends collector of the 19th century. Here is what he wrote about the Ankou in his best-seller "The Legend of Death": The Ankou is the henchman of Death (oberour ar maro) and he is also known as the grave yard watcher, they said that he protects the graveyard and the souls around it for some unknown reason and he collects the lost souls on his land. The last dead of the year, in each parish, becomes the Ankou of his parish for all of the following year. When there has been, in a year, more deaths than usual, one says about the Ankou: - War ma fé, heman zo eun Anko drouk. There are many tales involving Ankou, who appears as a man or skeleton wearing a cloak and wielding a scythe and in some stories he is described as a shadow that looks like a man with an old hat and a scythe, often atop a cart for collecting the dead.
Notes[edit] Cichol Gricenchos. Death (personification) A Western depiction of Death as a skeleton carrying a scythe In some cases, the Grim Reaper can actually cause the victim's death,[2] leading to tales that he can be bribed, tricked, or outwitted in order to retain one's life, such as in the case of Sisyphus. Other beliefs hold that the Spectre of Death is only a psychopomp, serving to sever the last ties between the soul and the body and to guide the deceased to the next world without having any control over the fact of the victim's death. In many languages (including English), Death is personified in male form, while in others, it is perceived as a female character (for instance, in Slavic and Romance languages). Breton folklore shows us a spectral figure portending death, the Ankou. In Ireland was a creature known as a dullahan, whose head would be tucked under his or her arm (dullahans were not one, but an entire species), and the head was said to have large eyes and a smile that could reach the head's ears.
Donn. According to Irish mythology, Donn, or the Dark One, is the Lord of the Dead and father of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, whom he gave to Aengus Óg to be nurtured. Donn is regarded as the father of the Irish race; a position similar to that of Dis Pater and the Gauls, as noted by Julius Caesar. Originally, Donn was the chief of the Sons of Mil, a mythological race who invaded Ireland, ousting the Tuatha Dé Danann. Donn slighted Ériu, one of the eponymous goddesses of Ireland, and he was drowned off the south-west coast of the island. A place near this spot, on a small rocky island named 'Tech nDuinn' ('the House of Donn'), became Donn's dwelling place as god of the dead.
Knockfierna, County Limerick was Donn Fírinne's residence. In modern Irish, the word for the colour brown is "donn". Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. Freyja. In Norse mythology, Freyja (Old Norse the "Lady") is a goddess associated with love, sexuality, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death. Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chariot pulled by two cats, owns the boar Hildisvíni, possesses a cloak of falcon feathers, and, by her husband Óðr, is the mother of two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi. Along with her brother Freyr (Old Norse the "Lord"), her father Njörðr, and her mother (Njörðr's sister, unnamed in sources), she is a member of the Vanir.
Stemming from Old Norse Freyja, modern forms of the name include Freya, Frejya, Freyia, Frøya, Frøjya, Freia, and Freja. Freyja rules over her heavenly afterlife field Fólkvangr and there receives half of those that die in battle, whereas the other half go to the god Odin's hall, Valhalla. Etymology[edit] Attestations[edit] Poetic Edda[edit] Völuspá contains a stanza that mentions Freyja, referring to her as "Óð's girl"; Freyja being the wife of her husband, Óðr. Hel (being) In the Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, and Heimskringla, Hel is referred to as a daughter of Loki and Angrboða, and to "go to Hel" is to die. In the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Hel is described as having been appointed by the god Odin as ruler of a realm of the same name, located in Niflheim. In the same source, her appearance is described as half black and half white flesh-coloured and further as having a gloomy, downcast appearance.
The Prose Edda details that Hel rules over vast mansions with many servants in her underworld realm and plays a key role in the attempted resurrection of the god Baldr. Scholarly theories have been proposed about Hel's potential connections to figures appearing in the 11th century Old English Gospel of Nicodemus and Old Norse Bartholomeus saga postola, potential Indo-European parallels to Bhavani, Kali, and Mahakali, and her origins. The Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, features various poems that mention Hel.
Māra. Māra is the highest-ranking goddess in Latvian mythology, Mother Earth,[1] a feminine counterpart to Dievs (God). She may be thought as the alternate side of Dievs (like in Yin and Yang). Other Latvian goddesses, sometimes all of them, are considered her assistants, or alternate aspects. Māra may have been also the same goddess as Lopu māte, Piena Māte (Mother of the Milk), Veļu Māte (mother of the souls/spirits), Zemes Māte (Mother of the Earth), and many other "mothers", like of Wood, Water, Sea, Wind.
Māra is also depicted in Latvian mythology as the goddess of good fortune. She is the patroness of all feminine duties (children, cattle), patroness of all the economic activities ("God made the table, Māra made the bread"), even money and markets. In western Latvia, and to a lesser degree in the rest of Latvia, she was strongly associated with Laima, and may have been considered the same deity. The festival Māras was held in her honor every August 15. References[edit] See also[edit] Marzanna. Effigy of Morana (Death Goddess).
Czech Republic. Morana. Poland. Marzanna (in Polish), Morė (in Lithuanian) or Morena (in Czech, Slovak, Russian) or also Mara, Maržena, Morana, Moréna, Mora or Marmora is a Baltic and Slavic goddess associated with seasonal agrarian rites based on the idea of death and rebirth of nature. Etymology[edit] Traditions[edit] Marzanna effigy, Slovakia The tradition of burning or drowning an effigy of Marzanna to celebrate the end of winter is a folk custom that survives in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. In the Czech Republic or Poland, this is often performed during a field trip by children in kindergartens and primary schools.[5] The effigy, often prepared by the children themselves, can range in size from a puppet to a life-size dummy. It concerns the "drowning of Marzanna," a large figure of a woman made from various rags and bits of clothing which is thrown into a river on the first day of the spring calendar.
Popular culture[edit] See also[edit] Odin. Etymology[edit] Odin's name is formed from "óðr" and the suffix "-inn". Old Norse had two different words spelled óðr, one an adjective and the other a noun. The adjective means "mad, frantic, furious, violent",[3] and is cognate with Old English wōd (hence the anglo-saxon Wōden).[4] The noun means "mind, wit, soul, sense" and "song, poetry".[5] Origin[edit] The 7th century Tängelgarda stone shows Odin leading a troop of warriors all bearing rings; Valknut symbols are drawn beneath his horse, which is depicted with four legs Originally, Odin was possibly considered mainly a shamanistic god and the leader of the war band.
Parallels between Odin and the Celtic Lugus have often been pointed out. Adam of Bremen[edit] Written around 1080, one of the oldest written sources on pre-Christian Scandinavian religious practices is Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum. Poetic Edda[edit] Völuspá[edit] Lokasenna[edit] Hávamál[edit] The sacrifice of Odin (1895) by Lorenz Frølich. Tuoni.