birds

Birds are often depicted in Celtic tradition as symbols of divinity and as servants and messengers of the gods. The Continental Celts included representations of birds in temples and on coins, and more recent Celtic narrative is rich in bird symbolism. Birds and bulls are linked in early Celtic imagery. Some Continental Celts portrayed birds joined with silver chains. The Irish goddesses Badb, Macha, and Mórrígan are sometimes seen as crows. The killing of birds was forbidden the Irish hero Conaire. Several Irish figures were transformed into birds including Angus Óg, Cáer, and the Children of Lir. Éis Énchenn [bird-headed] was a grotesque adversary of Cúchulainn. In Brittany the dead might return in the form of birds; the Breton enfant-oiseau [infant-bird] was killed and eaten by his family. The symbol of Cornish cultural identity is the chough, An Balores. The Irish word for bird is éan; Scottish Gaelic eun; Manx eean; Welsh aderyn, edn; Cornish edhen; Breton evn. Some of the most important birds in Celtic tradition are: Adar Llwch Gwin, the boobrie, chough, cock, cornu, crane, crow, duck, eagle, egret, goose, hawk, jackdaw, ousel, owl, raven, and swan. See also Anne Ross, ‘Sacred and Magic Birds’, in Pagan Celtic Britain (London and New York, 1967), 234–98.