Celtic Legends
Balor: the Fomorian king with the destroying eye
The Fomorian king whose single destroying eye could unmake an army — and who dies exactly as prophesied, at the hand of…
Section
Category: <span>Myth & Folklore</span>
Celtic legend, gods, heroes and spirit beings — each story traced to the tradition it belongs to, the text it was first written down in, and its date.
Celtic Legends
How to mark Samhain: a seasonal guide
Samhain, kept honestly: what the medieval Irish sources actually say, how Halloween braided in, what modern paganism added — and how to…
Myth & Folklore
The Dullahan: the headless rider of Irish folklore
The headless death-herald of Irish folklore, with his glowing head and silent death-coach. A great monster, honestly young: 19th-c. collection, not medieval…
Myth & Folklore
The Cailleach: the divine hag of Gaelic tradition
The divine hag of Scottish Gaelic and Irish tradition: maker of mountains, queen of winter. Honest about a thin medieval record and…
Celtic Legends
The Children of Lir (Oidheadh Chloinne Lir)
Fionnuala and her brothers, swans for 900 years: Ireland's tenderest sorrow-tale. It stars the Tuatha Dé, but the text is Early Modern…
Celtic Legends
Oisín and Tír na nÓg: the Land of Youth
Niamh, the white horse over the sea, and the three hundred years: the great Irish Otherworld tale. The version everyone knows is…
Celtic Legends
Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool): the hero of the Fenian Cycle
Leader of the Fianna and hero of the Irish Fenian Cycle: the boy who tasted the Salmon of Knowledge. The Giant's Causeway…
Celtic Legends
Manannán mac Lir: the sea-god of Ireland and the Isle of Man
The sea-god of the Irish and the Manx: the rider who sees a flowering plain where we see waves, husband of Fand,…
Celtic Legends
The Tuatha Dé Danann
The old gods of Ireland — the pantheon of Lebor Gabála Érenn and Cath Maige Tuired — who won Ireland in two…
Celtic Legends
Fairy forts (ráth and lios): the taboo that re-routed a road
Irish fairy forts (ráth, lios) are early-medieval ringforts held to be homes of the good people — and the taboo against disturbing…