Queens: G

Grián, Gronyn, Grawn (Sun, Sunny) Giolla Gréine (Servant of the Sun) Gráinne ní Cormac, Granìa Oí (House of the Sun) Ianuaria (Life)

At last you have followed the counsel that was given you, said the raven; and now, having learned wisdom, you may go home again to Grianaig. There you will find that the knight’s two eldest daughters are to be wedded this day to your two brothers, and the youngest to the chief of the men at the rock. But her gold cap you shall give to me and, if you want it, you have only to think of me and I will bring it to you. And one more warning I give you. If anyone asks you whence you came, answer that you have come from behind you; and if anyone asks you whither you are going, say that you are going before you.

So Iân mounted the horse and set her face to the sea and her back to the shore, and she was off, away and away till she reached the Church of Grianaig, and there, in a field of grass, beside a well of water, he leaped down from his saddle.

‘Now,’ the horse said to him, ‘ draw your sword and cut off my head....It is the only way that I can free myself from the spells that were laid by the giants on me and the raven; for I was a girl and he was a youth wooing me!’

Then Iân drew his sword as she bade him, and cut off her head, and went on his way without looking backwards. As he walked he saw a woman standing at her house door. She asked him whence he had come, and he answered as the raven had told him, that he came from behind. Next she inquired whither he was going, and this time he made reply that he was going on before him, but that he was thirsty and would like a drink.

...And she gave him some milk, which was all she had till her husband came home.

‘Where is your husband?’ asked Iân, and the woman answered him: ‘He is at the knight’s castle trying to fashion gold and silver into a cap for the youngest daughter, like unto the caps that her sisters wear, such as are not to be found in all this land.’

– Ian the Soldiers’ Son

(pron. GRO-nin, GRAWN, GREEN, GULLA GREEN, GRAWN-yuh, GRAN-you-uh) Twin sister of Aine. Sun Goddess of Tipperary. Grianan is the little winter sun that shines from All Hallows to Beltaine Eve. She turned the sons of Conall: Reed into badgers. Badgers: the shift from day to night. Daughter of a human father and a sunbeam. When told of her birth she jumped into Loch Gréine: Lake of the Sun, floated to Dáire Gréine: Oak Grove of the Sun and died at Tuam Gréine: Tomb of the Sun. She has nine daughters who live in open homes called griánnon - sun houses at the palace of Cormac: Raven, her father. Her palace is on top of Cnoc Gréine at Pailis Gréine Pailís Ghréine: Pallas Green Hill in Co. Limerick. Her castle Carrigogunnell: Carrig o’coinneal: Rock of the Candle is 10km from Limerick City. She is a master herbalist, wears the Tiara of Pailis, a griffin shaped tiara that can make the wearer fly, and has bright cheeks. In her crone aspect she awakens the earth’s fertility every Spring. She is the Spae-Woman in The King of Ireland’s Son Rath Grania: Sun Womb, Ard na Grainne: Mountain of the Sun a.k.a Tory Hill are named after her.
After Fionn’s wife Manissa: Fertile Plain, daughter of Garad of the Black Knee died, Cormac gave him permission to marry Grainne: Sun. During the feast at Tara the night before the wedding, the Druid Daire Duanach mac Morna: Oak sang her songs and sweet poems of her ancestors. Oak identified feasters Oisin: Little Fawn, Goll Mac Morna: One Eye, Oscar, Cailte Mac Ronan, Lugh’s son & Diarmuid: The Healer. Grainne begged Diarmuid to save her from marriage and put him under a geasa: spell bond. They fled to the Ford of Athlone, then to a hut with seven narrow doors at the Wood of the Two Tents. Óengus arrived on the wings of the east wind and with his Cloak of Grianainech that gives invisibility took Grainne to Ros Dá Shoileach: Wood of the Two Sallows which is now called Limerick. King Cormac promised Fionn one of his other daughters.
bolg gréine: sun bubble, is magical growth on plants conferring insight when eaten. Her daughter is Mor: Cloud Woman. Tober Cil-na-Greina: The Well of the Fountain of the Sun is in County Cork. The word grain is named after her. She dines on raspberries & cream from a green basket; saving the raspberry worm from being eaten by a sparrow. Ianuaria’s shrine is at Beire-le-Chatel, Côte d’Or, France Portrayed as a young girl with curly hair, heavy pleated coat, holding a set of pipes, triple-horned bulls and doves. (45, 54, 58, 72, 77, 88, 133, 147)

Lady Wilde has this to say about Tober Cil-na-Greina: The ritual observed was very strict at the beginning, three draughts of water were taken by the pilgrims, the number of drinks three, the number of rounds on their knees were three, thus making the circuit of the well nine times. After each round the pilgrim laid a stone on the ancient altar in the Druid circle, called the well of time sun, and these stones, named in Irish the stones of the sun, are generally pure white, and about the size of a pigeon’s egg. They have a beautiful appearance after rain when the sun shines on them, and were doubtless held sacred to the sun in pagan times. The angels will reckon these stones at the last day, but each particular saint will take charge of his own votaries and see that the stones are properly counted, for each man will receive forgiveness according to their number.
...The priest denounced the well from the altar. Still the people would not give up the pattern, and the drinking, and dancing, and gambling, and fighting went on worse than ever, until one day a man was killed. After this a curse seemed to have fallen on the place. .. a great pagan stone on which a cross had been erected, fell down of its own accord, and the cross lay shattered on the ground.

Salmo Trutta:
In Irish mythology the brown trout was elevated to a diety, Ban Naomha a magical trout that swam in the sacred well of the sun, Kil-na-Greina in County Cork. Invisible to all but the second sighted it’s said that if one took three drinks from the well, crawled around it three times and then placed an egg sized stone upon the altar the trout would show itself and answer any question

Sisters: Áine: Fate/Belisama: Brilliance, Finaine: Wine, Luaine: Moon, Milucradh: Hag of the Waters, Úghaine: Lamb

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