The gate of the year

Bronze statuette of a boar (length 4 cm.), dating to the II-I century B.C., now in the Liechtensteinisches Landesmuseum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein.
Animal symbolizing the wild areas and the woodlands, the boar incarnated strength, tenacity and sexual potency. Its skin was employed for warrior robes and his image was frequently represented on weapons and helmets. Symbol also of abundance and wealth, its meat was the privileged food for the epic heroes.
Its presence occurs often in the Irish legendary cycles. Among the first deeds of the great Irish hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill, brought up by a warrior woman in the forest of Sliab Bladma, there is the killing of the sow called Beo, that ravaged the countryside (Agrati-Magini 1993). Also another hero, Diarmaid, was able to slaughter a great boar which terrorized the neighbourhood, but he died because of the poisoned bridles of the animals he had inadvertently trampled. In the Welsh epic collection, the Mabinogion, the boars originated in the Otherworld, and this is the reason of their extraordinary fierceness and strength.
The Irish tradition attributed to the god of abundance and fertility, Dagda, the ownership of a pair of magical pigs, which could be killed, butchered and eaten, and then regenerated themselves each time. An analogous theme is reported in Snorri’s Edda, regarding the heroes who had died in battle and were admitted in Odin’s great hall, the Valhöll: “But never is there so great a band of men in Valhalla, that the flesh of the boar that is called Sæhrímnir is not left over and above to them. He is sodden every day and whole again at evening” (Gylfaginning, 38). In the Germanic world the boar was associated particularly with the goddess and god of fertility, Freyja and Freyr, who are often represented riding or accompanied by a golden boar.

[Image: http://www.electrummagazine.com/2012/07/liechtenstein-landesmuseum-vaduz/]




Animals

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Bronze statuette of a boar (length 4 cm.), dating to the II-I century B.C., now in the Liechtensteinisches Landesmuseum, Vaduz, Liechtenstein. Animal symbolizing the wild areas and the woodlands, the boar incarnated strength, tenacity and sexual potency. Its skin was employed for warrior robes and his image was frequently represented on weapons and helmets. Symbol also of abundance and wealth, its meat was the privileged food for the epic heroes. Its presence occurs often in the Irish legendary cycles. Among the first deeds of the great Irish hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill, brought up by a warrior woman in the forest of Sliab Bladma, there is the killing of the sow called Beo, that ravaged the countryside (Agrati-Magini 1993). Also another hero, Diarmaid, was able to slaughter a great boar which terrorized the neighbourhood, but he died because of the poisoned bridles of the animals he had inadvertently trampled. In the Welsh epic collection, the Mabinogion, the boars originated in the Otherworld, and this is the reason of their extraordinary fierceness and strength. The Irish tradition attributed to the god of abundance and fertility, Dagda, the ownership of a pair of magical pigs, which could be killed, butchered and eaten, and then regenerated themselves each time. An analogous theme is reported in Snorri’s Edda, regarding the heroes who had died in battle and were admitted in Odin’s great hall, the Valhöll: “But never is there so great a band of men in Valhalla, that the flesh of the boar that is called Sæhrímnir is not left over and above to them. He is sodden every day and whole again at evening” (Gylfaginning, 38). In the Germanic world the boar was associated particularly with the goddess and god of fertility, Freyja and Freyr, who are often represented riding or accompanied by a golden boar. [Image: http://www.electrummagazine.com/2012/07/liechtenstein-landesmuseum-vaduz/]