Boann (Old Irish, "white cow") was the Irish goddess of poetic inspiration and the personification of the River Boyne. Wife of Nechtan, she defied his command and approached the sacred Well of Wisdom — which surged up against her and pursued her to the sea, becoming the Boyne River. Mother by the Dagda of Aengus Óg, the god of love — to hide their affair she held the sun in the sky for nine months so a single day could pass. The Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange) Neolithic complex stands on her river.
Featured throughout the Irish Dindshenchas (place-name lore).
Boann reduces to three — the number of Boyne river-goddess.