Lady Godda - Goddess Of Mercia

by Chris Jenkins
(from White Dragon magazine, first published at Lughnasa 1996)
Wild Edric is a well-known figure in Shropshire folklore, and there are
sufficient historical records which attest to his being a real historical
person. Richard Walker covered many of the known references to him in his
article in WHITE DRAGON published at Beltane 1995.
However, though he is an historical figure, Wild Edric is a fine example of a
lord or king in sacred marriage with the Queen of the Faeries. This is a common
occurence in folklore and mythology, but in this case his fairy wife, Godda, is
also a good example of the folk memory of reverence for the Earth Mother in all
Her different guises, and in particular that of the Goddess Sovereignty. The wor
ld which she inhabits is often called "Faery" and is essentially a state of mind
which humans more rarely are aware of than once they were but which is always a
vailable for those with eyes to see.
Examples of the various fairy queens abound: in western France, Melusine gave
her name to the town of Lusignan and her cult was strong in ancient Poitou. In L
anguedoc and eastern France she is La Reine Blanche (the White Queen) and also L
a Reine Pedauque (the Goose-footed Queen) who is the Mother Goose of nursery rhy
me. In Brittany she is Dahud or Ahs, who appeared as a deer to a Breton king. To
the Basques she is the Goddess Mari, in Christianity Mary, in England Maid Maria
n, in Wales Modron, in Arthurian myth Morgana, Demeter in Greece and so on. In S
cotland and Ireland she is the Cailleach and in Ireland there are also well-know
n fairy queens such as Cliodna in Munster and Aine in Limerick. In the north of
England she is the Goddess Brigantia (not to be confused with St Bridgit) whose
name means The High One and who gave her name to the Brigantes tribe. There are
also numerous 'saints' such as St Bridgit and St Morwenna who are really Goddess
es or fairy queens in other guise.
Most of these cults have survived remarkably well into modern times, as I hope t
o show in future articles. Consequently I would like to counter Ronald Hutton's
assertions in his Pagan Religions of the British Isles and his notion that pagan
cults did not survive into modern times. He uses a minimal amount of evidence t
o expound his theory from amongst the wealth of evidence available. I have to sa
y that many pagans don't help with their vague references to 'The Goddess', for
if we wish to ascertain her local names we only have to refer to local myth and
folklore. After all, paganus in Latin means country-dweller or local, for in eac
h locality is a local spirit or genius loci.
Fairies are generally female. In Welsh they are 'Y Mamau', or the Mothers, and f
airy kings or male fairies are comparatively rare. In Faerie, all is
complementary to the material world. There is also time distortion, so that a
hundred years in the human world may be only one year in Faerie.
Another point to remember is that, traditionally, most fairies wear green. Green
was considered an unlucky colour to wear in the mortal world but for fairies it
was the norm. A number of writers have pointed out the fact that Robin Hood wor
e Lincoln Green, as do his Merrie Men, and have taken this as evidence for a fai
ry or other worldly origin for Robin and his followers. The Green Man representi
ng nature in all its greenery is another example.

So when we read that Wild Edric was seen, by a miner's daughter from Minsterley,
wearing a green cap, green cloak and green coat and mounted on a white horse, a
nd his consort Lady Godda also dressed in green, we are expected to realise that
they are from Faerie.
Again, Wild Edric's connection with the monster fish of Bromere Pool (while
searching for his lost wife Godda, he gave his sword to the fish for
safekeeping) may be a memory of the fairy links with water, of which Melusine
and the Lady of the Lake are notable examples.
Wild Edric loved to hunt, making him the classic "Lord of the Hunt" of myth.
Richard Walker quoted other well-known Shropshire folklore, that when Edric was
hunting he captured Godda who told him that she was Queen of the Fairies and tha
t she had six sister fairies (the usual seven of mythology). Morgana, sister to
Arthur, was one of nine fairy sisters, of whom she was High Queen, and the Morri
ghan in Ireland were three sister Goddesses.
But what of Godda? Is not her name itself of great interest in this regard? The
words Godda and Goddess are obviously linked. Another form of her name is
Godiva, whose cult was strong in Mercia, especially at Coventry and Southam,
where effigies of Godiva were carried in procession and at Southam she appeared
as both Black and White Godiva.
Godiva's name was originally godgifu, meaning God's gift, and the historical
Lady Godiva was never recorded as living in Coventry, for her husband Earl
Leofric lived at King's Bromley in Staffordshire. This indicates that the Godiva
of Coventry is not necessarily the same as the historical 'great beauty' and th
e cult is clearly older than the 11th century.
There are many places in England connected with Godda and Godiva. Good Easter in
Essex was called Godithestre, or Godda's sheepfold (Estre); Goodnesstone in Ken
t links to the myth of the Goodwin sands which became confused with Earl Godwin.
Fair Rosamund, another historical figure who has clear fairy origins, retired t
o Godstow nunnery by Oxford in one version of her death, the place name element
stow being an Old English word denoting a holy place.
There is little space in this article for further investigating all the links
between Godda, Godiva and Fair Rosamund. This will have to wait until future
articles, but for now here is a fine Mercian example. Returning to Shropshire, t
he local Godda cult was inherited by St Millburgha.
Like Godda, she was chased on horseback, though this time it was by a gang of
rough men. She was riding a white horse, reminding one of Lady Godiva, and it is
worth noting that the famous "Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross" is also told
of Coventry: "Ride a Cock Horse to Coventry Cross".
St Millburgha caused a miracle reminiscent of fairy time distortion for she
caused the barley which was being sown by labourers as she passed to be fully
grown and ready for cutting within a day, instructing the workmen to tell her
pursuers, truthfully, that they had only just sown the seed when she passed by.

When she reached Stoke St Milborough she fell from her horse and struck her head
on a rock. Finding no water there to bathe her wound, she bade her white horse
to strike the ground three times, whereupon water gushed out to form St
Millburgha's spring.
The historical St Millburgha was daughter to Penda, the pagan king of Mercia,
and her link to Godda is immediately clear when we realise that the Domesday
name for Stoke St Milborough in 1086ce was Godestoch, meaning Godda's Stoke, and
it only became Stoke St Millborough in 1291ce.
Furthermore, St Millburgha was protectress of the nearby river Corve, which she
made to flow miraculously, as well as protectress of birds and crops - hence her
control over the barley crop mentioned earlier.
The plot thickens when we find that Fair Rosamund (of Godstow, or the sacred
place of Godda, in Oxfordshire) had a well sacred to her name at Corfham on the
river Corfe, a few miles west of Stoke St Millborough, and the site of her now f
illed-in well is just south west of her father's stronghold at Corfham Castle (G
R 518844).
It thus seems likely that Corfham once belonged to Godda, but this must also be
true of St Millburgha's priory at Much Wenlock, which in Welsh was called Gwen L
loe or white/sacred hollow, and where there is a St Millborough's well from wher
e she began her ride to Stoke St Millborough. And who do we find responsible for
restoring Much Wenlock priory after the Danish raids? Who but the beautiful Lad
y Godiva herself.
Again, on the River Corve at Bourton there is mention of a St Milborough's Thorn
in 1541ce. When I visited the village recently none of the locals had heard of
this thorn, but some workmen who were laying a drain near the Shepherd's well (a
t GR 597962) told me that the water of that well could not be stopped, and one o
f them proudly showed me his cut finger which he said had healed remarkably quic
kly after repeated immersions in this well. I couldn't help wondering if the won
derful feeling there was because it was once the site of Godda's well, and indee
d just behind the well is an old thorn tree in a hedgerow which, though it is no
t the original St Millborough's Thorn, could be its daughter. It is worth rememb
erng that sacred thorns, on which rags and so on were hung, often grew over sacr
ed wells.
There is a local tradition at Fivehead (Five Hides) in Somerset that Lady Godiva
once lived there, which given the unlikeliness of this historically must once m
ore refer to Godda; and the St Catherine's well there was possibly once Godda's
well. I then wondered if The Five Springs, like Fivehead, sited north west of St
oke St Millborough, was also sacred to her.
Indeed The Five Springs are on Brown Clee Hill, and Leland noted in the 16th
century that the Clee Hills 'be holy', for they were noted for being the haunt o
f fairies. Some time ago I noticed that the three hillforts on the three peaks o
f the Clee Hills align exactly. Furthermore, a line through these three forts, T
itterstone Clee Fort, Clee Burf Fort and Abdon Burf Fort align exactly on the Sh
epherd's Well at Bourton. By then aligning the other sites I mentioned, the layo
ut shown in the map is discovered. The reader will see that there is also an int
eresting alignment between The Five Springs, Godda's Well at Stoke St Millboroug
h and the mouth of the River Corve at Ludlow and serve to bring together some of

the strands discussed above.

I hope that this short article has shown some of the connections surrounding
Godda and her cult and that the reader will be encouraged to go and visit for
him or herself the sites connected to Shropshire's local Goddess.