Accounts do not record a detailed cosmogonic origin for Abarta. In the surviving narrative he appears as an otherworldly individual who approaches Fionn mac Cumhaill soon after Mac Cumhaill succeeded his father as leader of the Fianna. He is presented variously in different versions as either one of the Tuatha Dé Danann or as a Fomorian; the sources do not resolve this discrepancy.
No specific personal physical description of Abarta is preserved in the cited material; the tale emphasizes his actions. The notable material object associated with him is a 'wild grey horse' which required fourteen Fianna to mount before it would move and which then carried the warriors into the Otherworld.
In the tale Abarta uses deception—offering himself as a servant to Fionn and gifting the Fianna a supernatural mount that transports them into the Otherworld. The narrative depicts him as having the agency to cause or effect transport of human warriors into the underground Otherworld where the Tuatha Dé Danann dwell. After pursuit by the Fianna he is compelled to free the prisoners and to undergo a humiliating act (holding the horse's tail while being dragged back to Ireland) to satisfy honour.
Weaknesses
- conditionsubject to compulsion and restitution as narrated (forced to release prisoners and to hold the horse's tail while dragged)
Wards
- otheractive pursuit into the Otherworld using a magical ship and a skilled guide (story-specific countermeasure)
Abandinus
Abandinus is a locally attested Romano‑Celtic theonym known from a single inscribed bronze feather (votive object) dedicated at Godmanchester (the Roman fort Durovigutum) in Cambridgeshire. Scholars interpret him as a local god or male spirit tied to a specific place and possibly associated with a nearby spring or stream; this association is tentative and based on etymological readings of the name.
Abcán (Abhcán)
Abcán (modern spelling Abhcán) is a named dwarf poet and musician of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish myth. He appears in a small number of narratives as a musician whose art has soporific power and as the ferryman who brings the goddess Ruad from the Otherworld to the human world.
Abhean
Abhean is a named poet of the Tuatha Dé Danann in medieval Irish literature, described as a poet in particular of Lugh and recorded as having been killed by Óengus before Midir in a poem by Fland Mainistreach preserved in the Lebor Gabála Érenn.
Abnoba
Abnoba is a Gaulish theonym and toponym attested in Roman-era sources and inscriptions: a localized deity associated with woods, springs and the sources of rivers (notably the Danube) and simultaneously the name applied to a mountain or mountain range in the Black Forest/Baar/Odenwald region. Roman altars equate her with Diana, reflecting syncretic cult practice in frontier provinces.
Accolon
Accolon is a mortal knight of the Arthurian court, presented in the Post-Vulgate Merlin tradition and Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as Morgan le Fay's paramour and instrument in a plot to supplant King Arthur; his tale centers on enchanted weapons (Excalibur and its scabbard), love-manipulation, and a tragic duel with Arthur.
Achall
Achall is an eponymous mortal woman in the Ulster Cycle of early Irish literature whose grief-induced death is given as the origin of the hill-name Achall (identified with the modern Hill of Skryne). She appears as a genealogical and etiological figure tied to Tara and later legendary events at the hill, rather than as a recurring supernatural agent.
Achtland
Achtland is a figure from Irish tradition who, according to the surviving account, was a mortal woman famed for rejecting mortal suitors who married a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann and crossed into the síde to become immortal as his wife.
Adar Llwch Gwin
Legendary large, intelligent birds from Welsh tradition said to understand human speech and obey their master's commands; best known for tearing their master Drudwas ap Tryffin to pieces when bound by a literal order in an Arthurian battle narrative. The term later came to be applied to raptors and metaphorically to brave men in medieval Welsh poetry.
Adar Rhiannon
Adar Rhiannon ('birds of Rhiannon') are a set of three magical birds in medieval Welsh narrative (the Mabinogi) whose song can 'wake the dead and lull the living to sleep.' They appear as otherworldly song‑beings tied to the figure Rhiannon and function within tales as providers of enchanted music that sustains and consoles characters.
Aderyn y Corff
Aderyn y Corff (literally 'bird of the corpse') is a bird-like death-porter in Welsh folklore said to call outside the door of a person about to die. Described as an avian portent that may lack feathers or wings and as existing on another plane when not manifesting, it is treated in Welsh ghost lore and sometimes naturalized as a screech owl in modern accounts.
Adhene
A class of Manx fairies (Cloan ny moyrn) described in Isle of Man tradition as a social people of beings said to be "fallen angels cast from heaven but too good for hell," who interact with human livelihoods and families, sometimes benevolent but often mischievous.
Adna mac Uthidir
Adna mac Uthidir (also spelled Adhna) is attested in early Irish tradition as a historical or legendary poet and sage who held the office of Chief Ollam of Ireland (and in some accounts Chief Poet of Ulster) and who is credited, with Forchern and Atharne, with collecting the axioms of Irish law into a single volume. He is placed by medieval tradition around the time of King Conchobar mac Nessa (traditionally c. 1st century AD), and fragments of laws attributed to him are reported in later manuscript collections.
Community Record
- [1]Abarta — Wikipedia. Wikipedia entry 'Abarta'.wiki
- [2]Ábartach — Wikidata. Wikidata item Q305580 (Ábartach).other