In the mythic aftermath of the Second Battle of Magh Tuiredh (Moytura), the healer Miach is killed by their father Díán Cécht. From Miach's body a profusion of healing herbs springs forth; Airmed weeps over her brother's grave, gathers and arranges the herbs on her cloak, and becomes the remembered custodian of the full lore of those plants. Díán Cécht scatters the plants out of jealousy, leaving only Airmed with the living memory of their secrets.
Primary sources give only brief scene-based details: Airmed is described as sitting at Miach's grave, weeping, collecting the healing plants that arose from his body, and spreading them on her cloak. Modern artistic retellings sometimes depict her with a yellow cloak, but the core tradition provides no sustained anthropological description (height, complexion, or age).
Airmed is portrayed as the keeper and organiser of healing herbs and as the sole rememberer of the complete herbal lore after Díán Cécht scatters the plants. She participates with Díán Cécht, Miach, and others as an enchanter whose incantation sung over the well of Sláine aided in restoring the wounded or resurrecting the dead. Her grief is narratively linked to the emergence of the herbs, tying emotional response to regenerative effect.
Weaknesses
- otherNo recorded weaknesses in provided sources
Wards
- otherNo warding practices recorded in the cited material
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.
Abarta (Ábartach)
Abarta (also Ábartach) is a figure of Irish myth who, in surviving accounts, tricks Fionn mac Cumhaill's warriors by giving them a supernatural grey horse that bears them into the Otherworld. Sources variably identify him as a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann or as a Fomorian; after the incident he is compelled to release the captured warriors and is refused entry to the Fianna.
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.
Community Record
- [1]Airmed - Wikipedia. Wikipedia entry summarising Airmed's role as a Tuatha Dé Danann healer, daughter of Díán Cécht, sister of Miach; notes the well of Sláine incantation and the scattering of herbs.wiki
- [2]Airmed (Wikidata). Wikidata bibliographic entry for Airmed/Airmid as a figure in Irish mythology.other
- [3]Airmed’s Story – Story Archaeology. Modern retelling and artistic interpretation describing Airmed weeping, spreading herbs on her cloak, and being the keeper of healing plants.other
- [4]Airmed and the Origin of Healing Plant Knowledge – Climate Museum UK. Contemporary exhibition text and retelling summarising the myth of Airmed, Miach, and the 365 herbs; comments on artistic depictions and cultural meaning.other
- [5]Mythical Women 4 - The Story of Airmed (archive). Recorded retelling of Airmed's narrative used as a secondary narrative source for the story elements.other