[Today we sit down for a quick chat with author Kelle ban Dea. Here, she discusses her new book Pagan Portals: Aine, the work that went into it, and her upcoming projects.]

Forests Haunted by Holiness: Your latest book, Pagan Portals: Aine — Goddess of the Sun, Fairy Queen of Ireland, has just been released. First, congratulations! Second, why a book about Aine? What draws you to her?

KbD: Thank you! Aine is a goddess closely linked to the very land of Ireland, very possibly pre-existing the Celts themselves in some form, as I explore in the book. I’m of dual nationality (Britain and Ireland) and my ethnicity is predominantly Irish Traveller, so I’ve always felt a strong connection with Aine as the embodiment of the land itself. 

FHBH: Aine is closely associated with the sun, but also with justice and revenge. Are there particular injustices that especially attract her attention? If so, why?

KbD: I personally find Aine to be explicitly associated with sexual trauma due to the content of much of her folklore. In one of her most famous tales she is raped by King Ailill and in revenge bites off his ear, thus removing his Kingship and right to rule. There is another folkloric and more recent tale that has her as a mother, weeping for the assault and trauma her daughters endured at the hands of their husbands. With these tales in mind, a role as protectress of those suffering domestic and sexual violence would make sense.

FHBH: You describe Aine as a “dark muse in Victorian fairy tales.” How is she a dark muse? Can you give us some examples of her place in Victorian-era literature?

KbD: Lady Gregory, among others, associates her with the leanan-sidhe, a type of fairy who seems particularly attracted to poets and musicians and boosts their talents while draining their energy. Yeats reimagined the leanan-sidhe as exclusively female, and as a type of energy vampire, or vampiric muse. She’s also often associated with mermaids as a type of siren figure.

FHBH: What advice would you offer someone who wants to develop a relationship with Aine? And do they have to be in Ireland or of Irish descent to do so?

KbD: If you can, visit one of the sites in Ireland associated with her, especially Lough Gur, her lake. Research her folklore … there’s plenty of it! Although Aine has only a tiny part in the more widely known mythological cycles written by and for the elite, her folklore, particularly in the local area, is abundant. It’s another reason I feel called to her; she’s very much a goddess of the people and the land rather than the ruling elite.

FHBH: What other projects are you working on?

KbD: I’m taking an extended break right now due to illness and disability, but I have been working on a Pagan Portals book on Airmid, Irish goddess of herbal healing, and I have a project in mind on female nature mystics, that will hopefully come to fruition!