Mab, Mabh, Medb, Medhbh, Maeve
In the Celtic tradition, Queen Mab was also known as Queen Maeve. "Maeve" means mead and it was said that Mab gave this blood red wine to all of her consorts. Mead wine represented menstrual blood which was considered "the wine of women's wisdom". In Warwickshire, the word "Mabled" came to mean "led astray by the faeries or elves". In Cymric (the Welsh language) Mab was defined as meaning "small child". Additionally, Mab meant "Drunk Woman" and "Queen Wolf".
Mythologically, Mab was the Queen of Connact; the warrior queen of the Ulster Cycle. She was the combined mother/warrior aspect of the Triple Goddess. The Pagan festival of Mabon was celebrated in her honor each year at the Autumnal Equinox. During the festival, those wishing to be King were not endorsed unless Mab invited them to drink of her mead wine. This ensured that the male king would be well versed in feminism and women's mysteries.
Queen Mab was the earliest known ruler of the Fair Folk, who were known in that period as the Children of Mab. She was the mother of Oberon by an unknown father. It has also been suggested that she may have had more than one husband, although this is not certain.
Queen Mab is the most powerful of the Third Race, even stronger in magic than her son Oberon. Her favored physical form is uncertain, although rumor has it that she looks basically humanoid, but with more than one pair of arms, and is quite small in stature (approximately three inches tall). Queen Mab still appears in works of fantasy even today, her most recent appearance of note being in the NBC mini-series Merlin (1998), where she is the Queen of the Old Ways, and first the creator.
Medb, also known as Mab or Maeve, is the magnificent Warrior Queen of Faeries. According to Irish legend, as in the stories of Gwenhwyfar, no King could reign in this world unless he was married to this Queen of the Otherworld. In other words the King must have one foot in this world and one in the other.
Medb or Mave is credited with Queenly rule among the Sidhe ( Fairies ) and is held by some to be the original "Queen Mab".
"I am the Fairy Mab:
to me 'tis given the wonders of the human world to keep;
the secrets of the immeasurable past..."
from Queen Mab by P.B. Shelley
Throughout a long period of history, Queen Mab has appeared in a numerous selection of differing guises, names and manifestations.
She has been known as Mab, Mabh, Medb, (meev) Medhbh, Maeve (maive or mayv) and sometimes linked with the Morrigan, mainly through Celtic Mythology and Legend.
She is also associated with the Tuatha De Danaan, who were described as being 'a godlike race' that came into Erin from the northern islands of Greece around 4000 years ago.
The Warrior Queen Medb of Connaught appears in the Ulster Cycles which date from around 2000 years ago, and although these stories may tend to appear somewhat fanciful, it is also considered by many eminent scholars that the characters in the legends were in fact, real people.
The Tuatha De Danaan (the people of the god whose mother is Dana) were also recorded to possess great gifts of magic and druidism and after being defeated by the Milesians were forced to establish an underground kingdom known as Otherworld or Sidh'e, meaning Hollow Hills and became known as The Lords of the Sidh'e (pronounced 'Shee') and maybe it is from this that the stories of Faerie Folk originated. (Fairy being a derivative of fey, relating especially to fate)
The transcendant intellect of the Sidh'e later became known amongst Druids as the
Web of the Wise or Web of Wyrd.
Mab appears as the Queen of the Fairies, Titania in Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and Titania stems from the Greek pre-Olympian god race of the Titans and is also associated with Diana the Moon Goddess.
It is also worthwhile to note that around the time Shakespeare wrote this play, Queen Elizabeth 1's Court Poetry and Magic Syndicate (which included Francis Bacon and the enigmatic seer and occultist John Dee) was founded by Edward de Vere, the Lord Chancellor of England and Queen Elizabeth 1 herself was very much a part of this particular 'underground stream of knowledge', which is considered to have Rosicrucian origins and she underwent a mystical ceremony conducted in the depths of Windsor Forest to be crowned as Queen of the Greenwood.
Queen Mab known also in Celtic folklore as 'Queen Wolf; whose name means mead'
is widely considered to relate to the Mother aspect of The Triple Goddess expressing love, protection, physical sexuality and fertility but also including the more darker sides such as fierceness, revenge and war against her enemies.
I consider that Percy Shelley's epic political poem 'Queen Mab' (which he wrote when he was just eighteen !) which includes Mab's lengthy and fierce tirades against the injustices and cruelties inflicted upon the masses by many of those in positions of power, is indeed a true reflection of her persona and attitude and I firmly tend to believe that she inspired him to write it.
If she didn't inspire him, then for what reason did he choose her, to express these very anarchic sentiments ? - and she is also Queen of Poets.
I have come to believe, as a result of my own extremely unusual personal experiences (and also those of a few of my initiated friends) that Mab is more than just a myth or legend from the past, She is a powerful expression of the Goddess force which is now beginning manifest itself more strongly in this particular aspect each and everyday.
to me 'tis given the wonders of the human world to keep;
the secrets of the immeasurable past..."
from Queen Mab by P.B. Shelley
Throughout a long period of history, Queen Mab has appeared in a numerous selection of differing guises, names and manifestations.
She has been known as Mab, Mabh, Medb, (meev) Medhbh, Maeve (maive or mayv) and sometimes linked with the Morrigan, mainly through Celtic Mythology and Legend.
She is also associated with the Tuatha De Danaan, who were described as being 'a godlike race' that came into Erin from the northern islands of Greece around 4000 years ago.
The Warrior Queen Medb of Connaught appears in the Ulster Cycles which date from around 2000 years ago, and although these stories may tend to appear somewhat fanciful, it is also considered by many eminent scholars that the characters in the legends were in fact, real people.
The Tuatha De Danaan (the people of the god whose mother is Dana) were also recorded to possess great gifts of magic and druidism and after being defeated by the Milesians were forced to establish an underground kingdom known as Otherworld or Sidh'e, meaning Hollow Hills and became known as The Lords of the Sidh'e (pronounced 'Shee') and maybe it is from this that the stories of Faerie Folk originated. (Fairy being a derivative of fey, relating especially to fate)
The transcendant intellect of the Sidh'e later became known amongst Druids as the
Web of the Wise or Web of Wyrd.
Mab appears as the Queen of the Fairies, Titania in Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and Titania stems from the Greek pre-Olympian god race of the Titans and is also associated with Diana the Moon Goddess.
It is also worthwhile to note that around the time Shakespeare wrote this play, Queen Elizabeth 1's Court Poetry and Magic Syndicate (which included Francis Bacon and the enigmatic seer and occultist John Dee) was founded by Edward de Vere, the Lord Chancellor of England and Queen Elizabeth 1 herself was very much a part of this particular 'underground stream of knowledge', which is considered to have Rosicrucian origins and she underwent a mystical ceremony conducted in the depths of Windsor Forest to be crowned as Queen of the Greenwood.
Queen Mab known also in Celtic folklore as 'Queen Wolf; whose name means mead'
is widely considered to relate to the Mother aspect of The Triple Goddess expressing love, protection, physical sexuality and fertility but also including the more darker sides such as fierceness, revenge and war against her enemies.
I consider that Percy Shelley's epic political poem 'Queen Mab' (which he wrote when he was just eighteen !) which includes Mab's lengthy and fierce tirades against the injustices and cruelties inflicted upon the masses by many of those in positions of power, is indeed a true reflection of her persona and attitude and I firmly tend to believe that she inspired him to write it.
If she didn't inspire him, then for what reason did he choose her, to express these very anarchic sentiments ? - and she is also Queen of Poets.
I have come to believe, as a result of my own extremely unusual personal experiences (and also those of a few of my initiated friends) that Mab is more than just a myth or legend from the past, She is a powerful expression of the Goddess force which is now beginning manifest itself more strongly in this particular aspect each and everyday.
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