The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Gaiman loves fantasy, fables, and myths, and draws on old European folktales for his stories. One myth from the ancient Celtics of Ireland is the banshee, a Triple Goddess—the maiden, the mother, and the crone—and Gaiman embeds this concept into The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Three of the novel’s main characters are the Hempstocks—a girl, Lettie; her mother, Ginnie; and her grandmother, Old Mrs. Hempstock. All three have unusual powers and abilities. At the story’s end, it’s revealed that the three female characters are aspects of one woman, centered on Old Mrs. Hempstock.

The Triple Goddess is similar to the old Celtic idea of the Morrigan, goddess of fate, war, and death. The Hempstocks discuss death and fate with the story’s narrator, and make war against his childhood enemies. Another European version of the Morrigan is the Matres, whose three members presided over fertility, life, and death, and were depicted in small statues common in homes. (Beckett, Mickayla. “How Banshees Relate to Triple Goddesses.” University of Cincinnati, 2023). Triple Goddesses have roots in ancient Indo-European cultures. The Greeks, for example, saw one of their deities, Hecate, as a combination of Artemis, goddess of the hunt and nature; Persephone, goddess of springtime and the underworld; and Selene, goddess of the moon.