Every book has a bad guy. In mine it’s a goddess. Mercurial and vain, Boanna is the mother goddess of the River Boyne in the great valley of Meath in the northeastern part of the Republic of Ireland. The River Boyne valley is a sacred place in ancient myth and the home of some of the most significant prehistoric monument complexes in Ireland: Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth.
She is beautiful, intelligent and cunning. She is obsessed with nurturing the River Boyne which she created from the sacred well of the of the Sidh in a wild moment of defiance. The Sidh are the gods, fairies and other spirits of Ireland. The Well of Segais was Otherworld’s source of all wisdom gained from the hazel trees that grew on its banks. Their falling nuts carried their knowledge to the world. Only the true owner could approach the well, but Boann came right to its banks, knowing she was breaking the rules. She walked around it withershins — against the sun’s direction; anticlockwise. This is very bad In Irish tradition. Withershins is frequently used in curses or dark magic by druids. As a result, the well water surged out and swept her away. She became part of the river’s waters as it careened across the valley, digging a new path to the ocean.
Her name means bright cow with the white cow as her symbol. Cow were sacred in Celtic cultures representing fertility. The Boyne’s waters feed the pastures and paddocks, like milk feeds the young. She has no weapons but water, which turns out to be more deadly than one would think. In a fit of anger, she flooded the Hill of Tara, the home of the High Kings of Ireland. She destroyed the king’s compound. In Gates of Erin, she uses water to destroy whatever and whomever she can.
Boann is a minor goddess in the Irish pantheon, but a goddess that controls an important water source. That source can be life sustaining, but it can be mercurial and brutal causing havoc across the countryside.