Badb

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

In Irish mythology, the Badb "crow" in Old Irish; Modern Irish Badhbh means "vulture" or "carrion-crow") was a goddess of war who took the form of a crow, and was thus sometimes known as Badb Catha (battle crow). She often caused confusion among soldiers to move the tide of battle to her favored side. Battlefields were called the land of the Badb, and were often said to include the Badb taking part as a crow or as a wolf. The Badb is associated with the beansidhe, and is said to have been crucial in the battle against the Fomorians.

In the mythological account of the second battle of Mag Tuired, wherein the Tuatha De Danann defeated the Fomorians in battle, Badb is said to have recited the following prophecy of the end of the world:

"Summer without flowers,
kine without milk,
women without modesty,
men without valour;
captives without a king,
woods without mast,
sea without produce." (Ó Cuív 37)

With her sisters Macha and the Morrígan, daughters of Ernmas, she was part of a trio of war goddesses. According to Seathrún Céitinn she was worshipped by Ériu, with whom she may be seen as equivalent. She is sometimes the wife of Neit, and may be equivalent with Nemain, Neit's more usual wife.

She is likely related to the Gaulish deity Catubodua, known from an inscription in Haute Savoie in eastern France.