The gate of the year

Three stone sculptures in the shape of bears, realized probably in the pre-Christian period, found near the Cathedral of Armagh, Northern Ireland.
The bear was an animal regarded as symbol of strength and fierceness, often associated, among the Germans, with the warrior. Several names of epic heroes originate from that for “bear”, like Arthur or Cormac mac Art. The latter was an Irish hero, whose father had been foretold, before his child’s birth, that the newborn should become king. Cormac was born when his mother was in a forest, during a thunderstorm. The newborn, abandoned under a hedgerow, was suckled by a wolf, and adopted and raised by the animal. Grown up, he married the queen Medb, personification of sovereignty, and obtained the throne (Monaghan 2004).

[image: http://www.mcmahonsofmonaghan.org/the_name_mathghamhna.html]




Animals

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Three stone sculptures in the shape of bears, realized probably in the pre-Christian period, found near the Cathedral of Armagh, Northern Ireland. The bear was an animal regarded as symbol of strength and fierceness, often associated, among the Germans, with the warrior. Several names of epic heroes originate from that for “bear”, like Arthur or Cormac mac Art. The latter was an Irish hero, whose father had been foretold, before his child’s birth, that the newborn should become king. Cormac was born when his mother was in a forest, during a thunderstorm. The newborn, abandoned under a hedgerow, was suckled by a wolf, and adopted and raised by the animal. Grown up, he married the queen Medb, personification of sovereignty, and obtained the throne (Monaghan 2004). [image: http://www.mcmahonsofmonaghan.org/the_name_mathghamhna.html]