Goddess of poetry, healing, and smithcraft, daughter of the Dagda, whose worship later merged with the Christian Saint Brigid.
Brigid is a daughter of the Dagda and one of the Tuatha Dé Danann most associated with skill and craft rather than war. Early sources describe her as a goddess of poetry (filidecht), and by extension of learning and inspiration generally, but she is also linked to healing wells and springs, and to smithcraft — the working of metal into useful and beautiful things.
Some medieval sources describe Brigid as having two sisters who share her name, each governing a different craft — one healing, one smithwork, one poetry — effectively making "Brigid" a title for skill itself as much as a single individual. She is married in some accounts to Bres, a half-Fomorian king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and their son Ruadán's death in battle is said to prompt the first keening (ritual mourning lament) in Ireland, performed by Brigid herself.
Brigid's cult proved remarkably durable. Her feast day, Imbolc (February 1st), marking the start of spring, survived into the Christian calendar essentially unchanged in date, and her mythological attributes — healing wells, perpetual flames tended by attendants, association with livestock and early spring — were carried directly into the veneration of Saint Brigid of Kildare, to the point that many scholars regard the saint's story as substantially built on top of the earlier goddess's. Holy wells dedicated to Brigid, and the tradition of Brigid's crosses woven from rushes, remain part of Irish folk custom today.
Tales of Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors, the Fianna, set generations after the Ulster Cycle in a world of hunting, romance, and roaming adventure.
Both, historically layered — Brigid began as a pre-Christian goddess of poetry, healing, and smithcraft, and her attributes and feast day carried over almost unchanged into the veneration of Saint Brigid of Kildare after Ireland's conversion to Christianity.
What is Brigid the goddess of?
Poetry and learning, healing (especially through wells and springs), and smithcraft — skill and craft generally, rather than war or kingship, which sets her apart from more martial figures like the Morrígan.
Why is Imbolc associated with Brigid?
Imbolc, marking the first stirrings of spring, was her feast day in the pre-Christian calendar, and the date survived the transition to Christianity essentially unchanged as Saint Brigid's Day.