Page 20 - SMITE Magazine Issue 33

ARTICLE
TYING THE CONNECTIONS:
THE MORRIGAN
No one quite knows the exact formation
or makeup of the triple-goddess known as The
Morrígan. Between the rich oral Celtic tradition and
the diverse filtration of centuries, the original myths
and legends of the famed goddess group have been
left open to interpretation. And even then, there was
no set consensus on which sisters had made the
entity’s short list. Today, we have some generally
agreed-upon ideas, several named goddesses and
legends of The Morrígan that come together to
form, at the end of it all, SMITE’s newest take.
First, the nomenclature. To be as confusing
as possible, Morrígan is not just the name of the
combined triple-goddess, but also a possible member. and -rígan as a suffix, meaning ‘queen’. Some
20 The Official SMITE Magazine Issue #33
By Devon Boyette
However, the most generally accepted sisters involved
are as follows: Badb (pronounced byve), Nemain
or Neman (pronounced nevin), and Macha. Other
possible candidates include Morrígan, who may not
exist as an individual, Fea, who might just be Nevin,
and Anu, who is the third member in SMITE. The
goddesses included are all usually associated with
magic, fate, and war on some level, occasionally
tossing in death, magic, or fertility just for kicks.
The name itself, The Morrígan, pronounced
as ‘mor-EE-gan’ has unknown origins to any exact
degree. However, when broken down, usually seems
to stem from mara or mora, meaning ‘nightmare’,
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