River Folklore and Legends
The Bristol River Avon is connected to the spirit of the river named Avona, a mythical giantess. Campaigners are now bringing this spirit to life again in the form of a giant puppet of the river Goddess (link is to article) who stands for the voice of the river.
The Salisbury or Hampshire River Avon's source is in the Vale of Pewsey and runs through Durrington near Stonehenge where it was thought to have held great religious significance for the people of Stonehenge. Meandering on through Salisbury, Fordingbridge and the western edge of the New Forest, it meets the Stour at Christchurch Harbour.
Most are probably aware that the word "Avon" is derived from the Brythonic-Celtic word "Abona" which means "river". The Celts also had a river goddess called "Abnoba", which also meant "river" and was derived from the same word.
The River Boyne in Ireland to the Irish Goddess Boann. Boann is understood to mean 'white cow'. Trinity Well is the source of the River Boyne, near Carbury in Co. Kildare. Different stories about creation of the Boyne. cf 'Celtic River Goddesses' by Kris Hughes.
Rivers, such as the Braint, Brent, Brit, Bride and Brue to the Goddess Brighid or Brige.
The River Dart in Devon was said to demand a life every year, maybe invoking a folk memory of a deity? 'Dart how dark tho art every year you take another heart'.
The Rivers Dee, Mersey and Ribble to the Celtic Goddess Belisama.
The River Don in Yorkshie, England and the River Danube in Germany to the Celtic Goddess Danu.
The Itchen to the Celtic Goddess Ancasta. She is known from a single dedicatory inscription found in the UK at the Roman settlement of Clausentum, Bitterne, Southampton.
The River Lea has its source at the sacred 5 Springs that are next to Waulud’s Bank Neolithic Henge. Waulud may be a corruption of the name Wayland (the smith) who was a Norse god, also known as Wolund, Weyland or Weland (of Wayland's Smithy fame). The Lea forms one side of this horseshoe-shaped henge. Lea and Luton take their name from the Celtic God Lugh/Lugos. The Michael Line also runs through this site!
The River Marne in France to the Goddess Matrona. She was a Celtic mother goddess whose name, from the Latin mātr-on-ā, means "Divine Mother" or "Great Mother". There is a single dedication at the source of the Marne, at Balemes-sur-Marne, which mentions a temple and that is evidenced by excavations. Her name is preserved in the ancient name for the river, Matrona. (Matrona evolves in Wales to the Goddess Modron, mother of the Mabon). The place name at the source is named after Belisama (the briliant or forceful one?).
The River Medlock to the Celtic Goddess Mam or Mamma.
The River Murg accompanies the Way of St. James pilgrimage route to Fischingen Abbey, north-east Switzerland.
The River Nore in Ireland is said to be where the Goddess Fódla dwells. Fódla is one of the three sister Goddesses of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
The River Ribble may have originally been called the Bellisama (see the Marne or it may have been the Mersey).
The River Seine in France is also said to be home, particularly at its source of springs to the Goddess Sequana. Sequana maybe meaning 'to drip, or flow slowly'. Sequana originally Celtic then became part of a Gallo-Romano cult.
The River Severn linked to the Goddess Sabrina.
The River Shannon is Ireland's largest river and is dedicated to the Celtic Goddess Sionann, granddaughter of the sea god Lir, who sought the forbidden knowledge from the legendary Connia's Well of wisdom. The waters rose and carried her away, and the river is said to be formed from her body.
The Tamar is associated with Tamara. Tamara is a water spirit/nymph, the daughter of two beings who llived beneath the ground and have variously been described as gnomes/little people/earth spirits. She gave her name to the River Tamar that almost makes Cornwall an island.
The River Tees: The Sockburn Worm, possibly the model for the Lambton story. (see River Wear). The medieval Sockburn estate was held by the Conyers family, and it was Sir John Conyers who was said to have slain the marauding dragon or 'worm'. In doing so, he used a falchion, a curved
machete-like sword, common in Europe between the 11th and 16th centuries, which could be wielded with one hand like a meat cleaver. The Conyer falchion was subsequently presented to each new Bishop of Durham when he first entered the diocese at a nearby ford or via the
Croft-on-Tees bridge, and the falchion (or probably a later copy)22 is now held in the
Treasury at Durham Cathedral.
The River Thames to Belinus, the Celtic healing God or to the Great Eqyptian Goddess Isis who gives her name to the stretch of the river from its source to where it meets the River Thames at Dorchester upon Thames and to the Norse sea God Njord and the Celtic God Tamesis at the Tidal Thames. https://magicklondon.wordpress.com/the-sacred-thames
Rio Truful Truful & Rio Pilmaiquen - rivers where Ngen (river spirits) live and speak to the Mapuche, indigenous people of Chile, South America. These rivers have spiritual significance to our people, but are being polluted by companies mining for lithium, copper and other resources that have been pillaged from our lands.
River Unshin in Co. Sligo said to be the meeting place of the Morrigan and the Dagda
The River Valency, Boscastle, Cornwall linked to St Madrin who travels by sea from Wales to the mouth of the river in Cornwall with her son, founds a church and is associated with 2 holy wells.
The River Wear to the Celtic God Condatis. His name translates to 'where waters meet' or 'confluence and was often equated by the Romans with their God Mars. Durham’s ‘Lambton Worm’, a serpent whose emergence from the River Wear is the subject of a folk song from the 1800s, but which, with related water beings, features in stories from the Middle Ages, intersecting with a critical period in which local nature religions were displaced by the influx of Christianity to
the region.
The River Wharfe to the Romano-Celtic Godess Verbeia, which is documented on an inscribed stone found under a set of steps in lkley by William Camden, a visitor to Ilkley, in 1528. Another altar stone can be found built into the church of All Saints Parish Church. It shows a woman, wearing pleated skirts and a headdress, and holding two snakes, one in each hand. The two snakes converge at the hip.” (From Ritual Journeys with Great British Goddesses by Susie Fox). Local stories talk of Verbeia appearing as a white horse at the Strid, a dangerous, narrow, and deep stretch of the River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire as a warning at a time when a life is lost there. The Goddess of the Wharfe is wild and dangerous, as well as nurturing and life-giving.