Queens: A

Aobh ní Aillil, Aibheaog, Aide, Aige (Mind) Aoibhnait, Enid ní Yniol, Enit, Áednat, Aodhnait, Idnat, Iodhnait, Íonait (Fire, Soul, Spirit) Aiglentine (Sweetbrier Rose) Uallach, Uallaige ingene Muinecháin, banfile h-Erend (Proud)

Over her glistening finger-tips,–
And like a spirit, died unshriven,
Had he ten souls, he must have given
Them all, but once to touch her lips!

And as the light of Heaven varies, now
At sunrise, now at sunset, now by night
With moon & trembling stars, so loved Geraint
To make her beauty vary day by day,
In crimsons and in purples and in gems.
– Tennyson Idylls of the King

aireachail: attentive, observant, watchful. ciall: sense, understanding, cuihmne: patience dúil: hope, éirim, inchinn: what is in the head, intinn: thinking, meabhair: guile, meanma: spirit, meon, mothú, smaoineamh: thought, toil: endure

(pron. AIVE, EEV-nit, EE-nid, AY-nit, EE-nit) Gaulish virgin moon goddess of the Corco Duibhne: Black Oat tribe who can take the form of a swan. Daughter of the Earl of the Mist, Enchanter of the Black Back-lands and the goddess Pressina Argante. She is beautiful with golden hair, rose-red cheeks, white curved throat, white hands, brown eyes, red lips, and voice of pure music like the birds. She wears a crown of amaranth. Annaled in the Glan-uallach Am Breacan Ullach: The Proud Plaid. Mother of the Children of Lir: Fionnuala, Aed, Fiachra, and Conn who were turned into swans. Enit was kidnapped by the lord of the Underworld, housed in a ruined tower overgrown with ivy and white honeysuckle, and rescued by the god Gereint. Later as Gereint lay dying from battling nine battalions of knights and three giants she was assaulted by Earl Limwris and Gereint rose from the dead and killed the earl. She wore robes of purple and red when they married and her mother gave her a dress of gold. Her hair was set with jewels and gold by the goddess Guinevere. She creates sacred bread made from honey. She kneels by the fountain of summer with a sacred cup entwined with wildflowers.

She and her six sisters: Aífe, Ellén, Cliodna, Étain, Fínscoth & Fedelm live in a dense forest in a house on the path. Mother of the Children of Lir. She died in childbirth with her second set of twins, after which Lir married her sister Aífe. Aífe turned them into swans. Aobh returned to her children as the mist, but Aífe dissolved Aobh with her warm rays, separating Aobh from her children again. In Greek mythology she is one of the Hespedes: nymphs who guard the golden apples with the dragon Ladon and live beyond Okeanos. Arethusa, Erytheia, Hespera & Hesperethusa. (45, 47, 56, 58, 60, 65, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 80, 81, 82, 89, 93, 99)

Aífe ní Aillil, Aoife ní Manannan, Aeifé (Beautiful, Radiant) Scáthach nUanaind, Sgathach (Shadowy Queen of the Isle)

‘Ice-clad Scythia, a sad and sterile region without trees and without crops. Cold dwells there, and Fear and Shuddering, and Famine’

(pron. EE-fa, SCAW-thakh, SKY-ah) She has golden yellow hair, turned the children of Lir into swans on the way to the Fleadh Áise - Feast of Age, stole the secret alphabet of knowledge from the Gods, and was turned into an air demon or witch of the air for the end of life and time by the druid Dangerous Red. At Bearnas Mor mountain she took the form of a wild pig and was changed back into human form by the druid of Sidhe Glandeirgdeis. She plays a harp with one string of iron, one of bronze, and one of silver. When the iron string is played it creates sadness; when the bright bronze string is played, it creates laughter; and when the silver string is played, it creates sleep. Cú Chúlainn rescued her from being given as a human sacrifice to the Fomorians and she taught him combat at her military academy in Scythia on the other side of a bottomless pit that could only be approached by having salmon leap onto a magical bridge. Her bedroom there has seven doors, seven windows and compartments with 150 warrior men and 150 maidens. Her other abode Dunscaith:The Fort of Gloom (pron doon SKAA), on the Isle of Skye has seven ramparts, iron palisades with nine severed heads, snakepit, dragons and toads.
In The King of Ireland’s Son Aefa is the oldest daughter of the Enchanter of the Black-Back-Lands who bathes in swan form with her sisters Fedelma & Gilveen. She takes the form of a spinning-woman in a forest hut lighted by candles and moonlight with bread, meat, & wine. Accompanied by a white owl and a cat she marries Maravaun. (45, 47, 56, 58, 60, 65, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 80, 82, 89, 93, 99, 147)

[French Ministry of Education Site: Centre national de documentation pédagogique]