I have mentioned this band before in the music section of this blog, but everytime I listen to one of their songs, I come to appreciate this band even more. They are very Celtic influenced and like to tell stories through their songs; mostly about the Gallish wars. The song below is titled “A Rose for Epona”. The Goddess Epona was protector of horses, donkeys, and mules. Epona was the sole Celtic diety that the Romans also worshiped. Epona and her horses were also said to be the leader of the souls into the Afterlife. This draws parrallels to Rhiannon of the Mabinogion. Rhiannon and Epona share a lot of the same attributes.
The song tells about a time when the Gallic wars broke out. The Helvetians decided to leave their homeland and migrate to the western coasts of Gaul to start a new life. At the time, the song tells about how many Helvetians had to face shattered hopes. And so does the protagonist, whose viewpoint the song was written. A young gaulish woman was part of the helvetic migration, but after the battle of Bibracte, all hopes that she and her people would ever reach their new home were torn to pieces. Her situation was desparate. In this situation the young gaulish woman despairs, can’t accept her fate and turns to her goddess Epona and accuses her for having forsaken her people. (Nuclear Blast Europe)
Historical Note: The reason the song was titled “A Rose for Epona” was that all over Gaul there were Epona temples where people traditionally offered freshly cut roses or rose petals to their goddess.
The horse is connected to the earth goddess, going back 30,000+ years. The horse is popular on cave paintings. Connected to land, water and moon the horse is used throughout Celtic society as the symbol of the earth goddess. The Celtic Dobbuni went so far to create the White Horse of Uffington onto a hillside which is at least 3000 years old, the Dobbuni descend from those that built Stonehenge. The Celtic horse appears on most Celtic coinage along side moon and solar Celtic symbols. The ruler of a tribe would be seen as being union with the land by being depicted riding the horse, or being named under the horse image on the coin.
Yes you are correct. In terms of this song, the band is referencing Epona specifically and her particular attributes; as protector of travellers. The chalk horse of Uffington appeared too early to be directly related to Epona.
Same archetype, different name.
Gerald of Wales (1180′s) claims that a high king of Ireland would have sex with a horse in front of all his people to bond the king to the land.
http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/topography_ireland.pdf
Page 77/78
Does not surprise me that a clergy man would say such a thing honestly. Just as the Romans depicted the Celts as savages.
Ha ha, yes, sadly these types of people were the main sources of textual written records on the practices of the Celts. One has to treat such writing with the understanding that their worldview will be prejudiced against the Celtic worldview. Fortunately, there were some Christians that were formerly Druids, who transferred their knowledge across into the earliest Celtic texts like the Book of Kells with less prejudice.
Yes! agreed.
I like it! They remind me a bit of Within Temptation.
Thank you for sharing!
Yeah they are really good!