One of these names, Sirona, probably meant the long-lived one, and was applied to the earth-mother.

In Welsh one or two names have survived which, by their structure, appear to have been ancient names of goddesses; these are Rhiannon (Rigantona, the great queen), and Modron (Matrona, the great mother).

The other British deities will be more fully treated by another writer in this series in a work on the ancient mythology of the British Isles.

It is enough to say that research tends more and more to confirm the view that the key to the history of the Celtic deities is the realisation of the local character of the vast majority of them..