In Irish mythology, Neman or Nemain (Modern Irish: Neamhan, Neamhain) is the spirit-woman or goddess who personifies the frenzied havoc of war. In the ancient texts where The Morrígan appears as a trio of goddesses — the three sisters who make up the Morrígna — include Macha and Badb; Nemain is strongly associated with Badb with whom she shares a husband, Neit. Nemain may be an aspect of Badb.

Etymology

The variant forms in which her name appears in Irish texts are Nemon ~ Nemain ~ Neman. These alternations imply that the Proto-Celtic form of this theonym, if such a theonym existed at that stage, would have been *Nemānjā, *Nemani-s or *Nemoni-s.

The meaning of the name has been glossed in various ways. Squire (2000:45) glossed the name as 'venomous' presumably relating it to the Proto-Celtic *nemi- 'dose of poison' 'something which is dealt out' from the Proto-Indo-European root *nem- 'deal out' (Old Irish nem, pl. neimi 'poison' ). However, *nemi- is clearly an i-stem noun whereas the stems of the reconstructed forms *Nemā-njā, *Nema-ni-s and *Nemo-ni-s are clearly a-stem and o-stem nouns respectively.

Equally, the Proto-Celtic *nāmant- 'enemy' (Irish námhaid, genitive namhad 'enemy' from the Old Irish náma, g. námat, pl.n. námait [http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb27.html#nàmhaid]) is too different in form from *Nemānjā, *Nemani-s or *Nemoni-s to be equated with any of them.

The name may plausibly be an extended form of the Proto-Indo-European root *nem- 'seize, take, deal out', to which is related the Ancient Greek Némesis 'wrath, nemesis' and the name Nemesis, the personification of retributive justice in Greek mythology. This is related to the Ancient Greek Nomos, which means a custom or law, and also means to divide, distribute, or to allot. The Proto-Indo-European root is the Old High German nâma 'rapine,' German nehmen, 'take,' English nimble; Zend nemanh 'crime,' Albanian name 'a curse' and the Welsh, Cornish, and Breton nam, 'blame' [http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb27.html#nàmhaid]. According to this theory, the name would mean something like 'the Great Taker' or the 'Great Allotter.'

References

Further reading

  • Hennessey, WM. (1870). The Ancient Irish Goddess of War. Revue Celtique, Vol 1, pp. 27–57. Available 26 September 2007 online at Sacred-texts.com.