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Spirits of the Isles

The Tuatha Dé Danann and the otherworldly beings of Irish and Welsh legend.

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14 entries

A

Aengus (Oengus, Angus Og)God of Love and YouthThe young god of Brú na Bóinne — conceived in a stolen day, owner of a house won by a pun, and the lover who followed a dream into a lake of swans.Deity

B

BansheeHerald of DeathHerald of death — the "woman of the mound," heard rather than seen, whose keening outside a house announces that someone of the family is about to die.CreatureBrigid (Brigit, Brighid)Goddess of Poetry, Smithcraft and HealingGoddess of poetry, smithcraft and healing — a triple Brigit in the glossaries, a saint at Kildare, and the figure Imbolc still belongs to.Deity

C

The Celtic Otherworld and the SidheThe Land Beyond the MoundNot an afterlife but a parallel country — the sid mounds, the islands west of the sea, and the aos si who kept Ireland after they lost it.RealmCernunnosThe Horned GodThe horned one — an antlered Gaulish god known from images alone, whose name survives on exactly one damaged stone and who has no surviving myth at all.DeityCu ChulainnThe Hound of UlsterThe Hound of Ulster — a boy-hero who holds an entire army at a ford, warps into a monster when he fights, and dies standing up, tied to a stone.Hero

D

The DagdaThe Good GodThe good god — not morally good but good at everything: the club-bearing, cauldron-owning father figure of the Tuatha De Danann, and their crudest comedian.DeityDanuMother of the Tuatha De DanannThe mother goddess of the Tuatha De Danann — and the most famous Irish deity who may never have existed under that name.Deity

F

Finn McCool (Fionn mac Cumhaill)Leader of the FiannaWarrior-poet, leader of the Fianna, and the hero who burned his thumb on the Salmon of Knowledge — Ireland's most widely told legend.HeroThe Fomorians (Fomoire)The Powers Beneath the SeaIreland's monstrous sea-people — raiders, tribute-takers and kin to the gods they fight, led by Balor of the destroying eye.Creature

L

LughMaster of All SkillsMaster of every skill — the young god admitted to Tara because he alone could do all the crafts at once, and who killed his own grandfather Balor.Deity

M

Manannan mac LirGod of the SeaThe Irish sea god — ferryman between worlds, master of illusion and the mist of invisibility, and the presiding figure of the Otherworld voyages.DeityThe MorriganGoddess of War and FateThe great queen of war and fate — a shape-shifting Irish goddess who takes crow form above the battlefield and decides its outcome before it is fought.Deity

T

Tir na nOgLand of the YoungThe land of the young — the Irish otherworld across the western sea where no one ages, and where a year away can cost a returning traveller three centuries.Realm