Sovereignty goddess is a scholarly term, almost exclusively used in Celtic studies (although parallels for the idea have been claimed in other traditions, usually under the label hieros gamos).
[2][3][4][5] It has also, however, been criticised in recent research for leading to "an attempt to prove that every strong female character in medieval Welsh and Irish tales is a souvenir of a Celtic sovereignty goddess".
Most luridly, Giraldus Cambrensis, in his 1188 Topographia Hibernica, claimed that at the inauguration of the king of the Cenél Conaill, the successor to the kingship publicly sexually embraced a white mare.
[9] However, the type-text for the idea of the sovereignty goddess is the medieval Irish Echtra Mac nEchach ('the adventures of the sons of Eochaid'), in which a hideously ugly woman offers the young men water in return for a kiss.
[13] For example, the protagonist of the Welsh Canu Heledd is sometimes read in this way,[14] and figures as diverse as Guenevere;[15][16][17] the Cailleach Bhéirre;[18] Medb;[19] Rhiannon;[20] warrior women such as the Morrígan, Macha and Badb;[21] and the loathly lady of Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale[22] have been viewed in the same light.