The Morrígan is most well known as an Irish Goddess who often appears in crow or raven form, and is associated with battle, warriors, sovereignty, prophecy, and otherworldly power. Though early source literature referencing her only exists in Irish, folklore and archaeological records suggest that She, or closely related divinities, were known and worshiped in Britain and Gaul as well, suggesting that we have in her a pan-Celtic Goddess.
The Morrígan’s name translates from the Irish as ‘Great Queen’ or ‘Phantom Queen’. This name is a key to her nature, showing that sovereignty and queenship are core aspects of her identity and power. Some scholars have given the name an alternate etymology, translating it as ‘Phantom Queen’ (from proposed Proto-Celtic *mor, connoting terror/nightmare, or *mar, connoting the dead). It should be noted that popular etymologies interpreting the Morrígan’s name as connoting ‘Sea Queen’ (via the Welsh mor=sea) and connecting Her to the Arthurian character Morgan le Fay, are incorrect.
As one of the Celtic sovereignty Goddesses, the Morrígan has an association with the land itself, and the rulership and protection of the land and its people. Her seasonal appearances are linked to rituals of warfare and sovereignty as they appear to have been practiced in early Irish society. Archaeological and literary evidence suggests that her earliest manifestations may have been as a tribal/territorial Goddess, and that her war-bringing and martial functions arose out of this sovereignty and tutelary role.
As the Morrígan is best documented in the Irish literature, reflecting early medieval perceptions of Iron Age Celtic society, a cattle-raiding warrior culture, we know her best as a Goddess of battle, heroes, and the dead. The Morrígan is deeply associated in her source lore with incitement of heroes toward glory in battle, with the granting of victory, and with their deaths; in Her own words, She says to the great hero Cú Chulainn, “I am guarding your death.” In battle, She takes part in the action primarily through the use of sorcery, Druidic magic, shapeshifting, terrorizing the foe, and giving aid and strategic information to Her people. She shapeshifts into many forms in Her tales, including crow and raven, cow, wolf, eel, and both old and young women. She also appears as a sexual figure, offering victory and prophetic aid to her chosen war-leader with whom she mates. She also fulfills important roles with regard to poetry and prophecy, giving poetic incitements to the heroes of the Tuatha Dé Danann to rise to their hour of need, giving prophetic pronouncements of victory or of doom on the eve of decisive battles, and announcing the victories and the tales of great deeds afterward.
A common perception of the Morrígan is that She is a form of ‘the Triple Goddess’. While it is true that in many instances where She appears in the Irish literature, She is described as being one of three ‘sisters’, or is referred to as a trinity directly, it should be understood that the triplicity of the Morrígan is NOT equivalent to modern Wiccan ideas of ‘the Triple Goddess’. The Morrígan cannot be neatly fit into a modern ‘Maiden-Mother-Crone’ trinity based on a rigid model of female reproductive status, nor should we attempt to force Her into that model.
Triple-formed deities are very common in Celtic religion. We see examples of this in the three sovereign land Goddesses of Ireland, Ériu, Banba, and Fotla; in the Three Gods of Skill; in the Three Craftsman Gods; and in the Matres or Matrones, Gaulish Celtic Goddesses appearing in groups of three. In each of these examples and many others, the three members of the triad to fulfill related roles as part of a single primary functions. For the ancient Celts, operating within a triune cosmology (land, sky, and underworld/sea), to frame an identity or concept in a triune form conveyed totality. Thus, triads of divinities represent the totality of a set of divine roles or functions, individualized into three characters.
In the case of the Morrígan, it does not work to neatly classify her epiphanies into three distinct identities or faces; for many different names appear in these triune groupings (Morrígan, Badb, Macha, Némain, Féa), and there is not complete consistency in which three appear and how they are described in the literature. Certainly, not one of these Goddesses or aspects of the Morrígan can be neatly identified with a Maiden, Mother or Crone archetype.