The Illuminating Spark: The Question of Brigantia’s Eternal Flame

A look into claims surrounding Brigantia’s sacred flame.

(Image description: A photo of a flame within a container. Numerous embers float in the air above and around the flame.) Credit: Photo by Joshua Newton on Unsplash

Recently, a post was shared in the Clann Bhride Facebook group from a content creator stating that Brigantia had an eternal flame within a temple in Northern England with no sources to back it up. Given how rampant misinformation about any topic can be, I decided to give the subject a deeper look than going with an automatic no. The search for answers to this query is more nuanced and speculative, but I hope it clarifies the matter.

I recalled reading about the mention of Brigantia’s eternal flame in Morgan Daimler’s Brigid: Meeting the Celtic Goddess of Poetry, Forge, and Healing Well, and the location was somewhere within Yorkshire, where the Brigantes were centered. The reference to the flame itself was rather vague. A significant portion of Daimler’s works are based around Irish Paganism, so the author may not have felt the need to delve further into it and left it up to devotees to follow the metaphorical bread crumbs, if they wished to do so. Puhvel’s specific quote in Comparative Mythology comments,

The transfunctional goddess has here come into her own. “Minerva” had a temple with “eternal flame” in third-century C.E. Britain and is identifiable with the British Celtic theonym Brigantia, formally identical with the Sanskrit feminine adjective brhatī ‘great, lofty’ and with the Irish Brigit, the later saint with her feast day of Imbolc (1 February) and her monastery with perpetual fire in Kildare. (174)

Puhvel is speaking somewhat generally with regards to Brigantia, as there were other Brythonic goddesses who were equated with Minerva, with Sulis and Senuna/Sena being relevant. Sulis Minerva’s temple in Bath, England did have an eternal flame and healing waters. Solinus in his Colletanea Rerum Memorabilium writes,

...there are many great rivers and hot springs richly adorned for the use of men. Over these springs the Minerva is patron goddess and in her temple the eternal flames never whiten to ash, but when the flame declines it turns to rocky lumps. (22.10)

Solinus was referring more to Sulis’s temple and but also more generally to Minerva or Celtic Minerva-type goddesses having connections with healing rivers and an eternal flame.

Now, Brigantia has a total of seven inscriptions (with an eighth one dedicated to Bregans, a masculine form of Brigantia’s name), some with only Her name and others combined with the epithets Victoria, Caelestis, or Goddess-Nymph. The first and the last epithets will be relevant further in the discussion. Three of the inscriptions are located in West Yorkshire, and two are dedicated to Victoria Brigantia, which was dedicated by Aurelius Senopianus and found in the River Calder (RIB 628). The Dea Brigantia inscription was found at the Roman site at Adel, also in West Yorkshire (RIB 630); the third West Yorkshire one to Victoria Brigantia was found in Greetland (RIB 627).

The inscription found in the River Calder was located near Lagentium, which itself was positioned between the River Calder and the River Aire. For the sake of simplicity and ease of access to research materials, I’m focusing on Lagentium as a possible (and certainly not definite) location for an eternal flame for Brigantia. It stood within Brigantian territory, and the findings from the excavations could support the idea of an eternal flame being there.

Before I get into the discussion about the Lagentium findings, I want to clarify a point about the possibility of a syncretized Brigantia being a purely Roman invention. When including the term Dea in an inscription, Joliffe indicates that this was most likely a native deity; additionally, including Victoria (Victory) could have had the Romans raising an eyebrow when the Brigantes had revolted against them in the past (40-41). Any Brigantes who had gained Roman citizenship wouldn’t have wanted to rock the boat, so this could also indicate a form of syncretism on their part that might have been fine with Roman authorities.

Also, some of the dedicants on the inscriptions had Celtic names mingled with Latin ones, such as Aurelius Senopianus. I asked around the Banssus Brittonon server to see if there was a way of translate the Celtic name on the River Calder inscription, and an approximate translation could be Aurelius the Elder/Haggard (Senop-elderly/ancestor/grandfather/one who looks old +(i)āno or (i)ānu-).

As for Lagentium, there were a few things to note in regards as a possible location for an eternal flame. Firstly, the city was involved in producing pottery and glassworks. While Brighid was known as a smith, Brigantia would’ve governed over all types of crafts, like Minerva. A large building that could have functioned as a market and/or a temple was located in Lagentium (“Excavations”). Brigantia’s flame could have been located next to other deities’ altars within this building, while craftspeople sold their wares. Glass bottles were indicated to have been used as part of offerings, and clay tazze could have held incense; within the residential buildings, hearths were found (“Excavations”). Banking a fire to keep it lit was important so as not to waste resources and could have been considered as a form of eternal flame.

Besides the river-based inscription, a dedication with “To the nymphs” was also found (Martyn et. al). The specific number of nymphs, names, or the possibility of Brigantia being included in this inscription is not known. While not found on any of inscriptions based in West Yorkshire, one of Brigantia’s epithets was Goddess-Nymph. How the exact nature of this epithet would have worked is unclear. She could’ve been seen as having dual functions as a nymph or a goddess, similar to Amphitrite as a Greek nereid who was also the wife of Poseidon and a sea goddess. Perhaps She had a retinue of water nymphs or spirits who accompanied Her in the defense of the two rivers. Solinus’ earlier quote could apply to the relation between healing waters and an eternal flame, however that fire was viewed or kept.

Lastly, an important factor in not finding any tangible remains related to an eternal flame was that a lot of the religious and funerary stoneware found on the Lagentium site was reused in building the later defended settlement (Martyn et. al). If there was a specific place an eternal flame was kept, whatever contained the flame was most likely repurposed.

Now, it’s not uncommon for devotees within the Brythonic and Gaulish Polytheism communities to turn to divination when academic sources leave a void for devotees. Asking a deity directly can fill in some holes left behind in history.

I used ogam to ask Brigantia, “Did You have an eternal flame in Roman times, and if You did, what was the purpose of it?” The answer I received were the letters Muin, Onn, and Gort.

Muin can represent a wide range of emotions and communication overall. This could reflect how humans have to handle various kinds of emotions while living in a city, whether that involves love or conflict. With Brigantia as a patroness of wisdom, having the necessary insight to make civilization and precarious alliances work seems like it would fall under Her domain to ensure peace and limit violent conflict unless it was absolutely necessary.

Onn could entail movement toward an improved society. Additionally, the idea of rotation and movement made me think of a potter’s wheel and the way molten glass is rotated in order to give it different shapes, and both materials requite fire to solidify their shapes. This could have been another expression of an eternal flame through creativity.

Gort’s presence is the most telling of the reason behind a possible eternal flame for Brigantia. This letter represents a place of peace and safety, of beauty and growth. Overall, Brigantia can be seen as watching over civilization in general, which requites peace and cooperation. Perhaps the purpose of an eternal flame was meant to nurture that, which ties in nicely with the next point. Some Brythonic and Gaulish Polytheists view Brigantia as a hearth goddess, and a common theme surrounding Brigantia is the creation and protection of safe spaces that allow for communities to grow and flourish.

Whether the ancient Brigantes would have seen Brigantia as a hearth deity is unknown, but the modern viewpoint could have led to the initial post I mentioned before. It’s not unheard of modern stories filtering into ancient lore about a deity, especially when a deity has no surviving mythology surrounding them. Another note is that a couple of Brigantia’s inscriptions were found near or in Scotland, along Hadrian’s Wall. Any references to an eternal flame in Scotland would stem form hearth tending within a home, and prayers for this task are found within the Carmina Gadelica. Additionally, there is the possibility that a branch of the Brigantes could have moved into Ireland and brought Brigantia with them, who might have evolved into Brighid.

Much of the confusion stemming from the content creator’s initial post is due to blanket statements and conflating the modern with the ancient. Any sort of Celtic-based flamekeeping may have varied between locations and groups. Whether Brigantia had an eternal flame in Northern England falls into the “possible” category, and it’s really up to devotees to decide on whether that potential has any relation to Brigidine flamekeeping as we know it today.

Works Cited

Joliffe, Norah. “Dea Brigantia”. The Archaeological Journal Vol. 98, 1941, pp 40-41. ADS Archive. https://doi.org/10.5284/1068547, Accessed 12 Aug 2024.

Martyn Allen, Nathan Blick, Tom Brindle, Tim Evans, Michael Fulford, Neil Holbrook, Lisa Lodwick, Julian D Richards, Alex Smith, 2018. The Rural Settlement of Roman Britain: an online resource [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1030449. Accessed 7 Aug 2024.

Puhvel, Jaan. Comparative Mythology, p. 174. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987. Internet Archive [contributor]. Accessed 14 Aug 2024.

Roman Inscriptions of Britain. RIB 627, Altar to Victoria Brigantia and the Divinities of the Emperors. https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/627. Accessed 7 Aug 2024.

Roman Inscriptions of Britain. RIB 628, Altar to Victoria Brigantia. https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/628. Accessed 7 Aug 2024.

Roman Inscriptions of Britain. RIB 630. Altar to Dea Brigantia. https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/630. Accessed 7 Aug 2024.

Gaius Iulius Solinus, the Polyhistor, translated by Arwen Apps, Gaius Iulius Solinus and his Polyhistor, (PhD diss., Macquarie University, 2011), Copyright Arwen Apps, used in ToposText. https://topostext.org/work/747 Accessed 14 Aug 2024.

Wakefield Council.“Excavations-the vicus”, Roman Castleford, Mar. 2014, https://romancastleford.blogspot.com/p/excavations-vicus.html. Accessed 7 Aug 2024.