The Morrigan has been mentioned as the granddaughter of Nuada (new-uh-da), but on other occasions as his wife. On Samhain (ire. sow-in or sco. sav-un) she becomes consort of the Dagda in return for victory over the Formorians.
In the center is Macha (pronounced mock-ah or magh-ha with a bit of Gaelic phlegm; such as loch is pronounced). Macha appears in several different stories and it is debated as to whether or not they are all the same Macha. In cases such as these I tend to believe they are the same entity, or a reincarnation thereof. There are generally three tales about Macha. The first is concerns her association as part of the Morrigan and a member of the Tuatha de Danann (too-ah-huh day dun-un). The other two speak of her in a more mortal setting. In one case she is Macha Mong Ruad, meaning "red mane," and was the only High Queen of Ireland, somewhere between the 3rd and 7th centuries BCE. The other case, she is wife of a farmer named Cruinniuc, and due to her husband's boasting was made to run a race (and won) while heavily pregnant. She gave birth to twins, and before dying she cursed all the men of Ulster to suffer labor pains in battle. There are two additional tales, one where she is wife of Nemed (niv-ed) and is the namesake of the city of Armagh (ar-mah). In the other, she is daughter of Partholon (this however, appears to be a later Christian addition to link the old Gods with Biblical figures).
Flanking their sister are Badb and Nemain. In some legendary variations these two Goddesses are one in the same, or they are two separate entities but share a husband, Neit. Some variations leave Nemain out altogether and replace her with "the Morrigan" as the entity in Nemain's place.
Badb (bayb, sometimes bave), whose name means "crow," is commonly associated with a bean sidhe (ban-shee) or bean nighe. She likes to cause confusion and terror for enemies on the battlefield, and make prophesies. Aside from Neit, she may have also had a husband named Tethra, a Formorian king. This would also tie her to the same time period when Macha was wife of Nemed.
There isn't too much information out there about Nemain (nev-awn?) unfortunately, other than her name means "frenzy" or "havoc." Again, most of her stories mirror Badb.
While I do like the Morrígan for her darker nature (as most people do), personally I favor her because she is a transitory goddess, as death is often just a new beginning, and as a person born during a transitory time, this has great significance to me. I also like Macha's role as mother.
This painting took a little bit longer than my previous paintings, but there's a little bit more to this one than the others. I have several incarnations of it started including an oil painting and a colored pencil drawing that came before this painting (perhaps more on that later). It took about three days of off-and-on work. I couldn't tell you how many hours total unfortunately. I may rework some parts of it, but generally speaking I'm satisfied with the result. It was a great way to spend the evening of the Harvest Moon.