Badb

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In Irish mythology, the Badb (/baðβ/ "crow" in Old Irish; modern Irish Badhbh /bəiv/ 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.

The Badb is not to be confused with Bodb, a male deity.

[edit] What Badb embodies

W. M. Hennessy (in Rev. Celt., i. 39-40. In place of badb, Dr. Hyde (Lit. Hist. Irl., p. 440) uses the word vulture)) has shown that the word bodb or badb, aspirated bodhbh or badhbh (pronounced bov or bav), originally signified rage, fury, or violence, and ultimately implied a witch, fairy, or goddess; and that as the memory of this Irish goddess of war survives in folklore, her emblem is the well-known scald-crow, or royston-crow. By referring to Peter O'Connell's Irish Dictionary we are able to confirm this popular belief which identifies the battle-fairies with the royston-crow, and to discover that there is a definite relationship or even identification between the Badb and the Bean-sidhe or banshee, as there is in modern Irish folklore between the royston-crow and the fairy who announces a death. Badb-catha is made to equal 'Fionog, a royston-crow, a squall crow'; Badb is defined as a 'bean-sidhe, a female fairy, phantom, or spectre, supposed to be attached to certain families, and to appear sometimes in the form of squall-crows, or royston-crows'; and the Badb in the threefold aspect is thus explained: 'Macha, i. e. a royston-crow; Morrighain, i. e. the great fairy; Neamhan, i. e. Badb catha nó feannóg; a badb catha, or royston-crow.' Similar explanations are given by other glossarists, and thus the evidence of etymological scholarship as well as that of folk-lore support the Psychological Theory.