In medieval Irish narrative sources she appears as a daughter of the tuatha dé Danann (named in the Book of Lismore as 'Cleena Fairhead, daughter of Genann mac Treon of the tuatha dé Danann') and as an otherworld woman encountered by legendary figures. She is recorded in Acallam na Senórach (the Colloquy of the Ancients) in a story often called 'Clíodna's Wave' and in the Book of Lismore where she interacts with Teigue and companions; later folk tradition in Munster attaches her to particular families and place‑names (Carrig‑Cleena, Tonn Chlíodhna) in County Cork (sources: Book of Lismore summary; Acallam na Senórach summary; Wikipedia).
Textual descriptions in the extant summaries are limited. Medieval material gives her an epithet rendered as 'Cleena Fairhead' or 'Cleena of the Fair Hair' (Book of Lismore summary) but supplies no sustained physiognomic inventory. Repeatedly associated visual motifs include her three brightly coloured birds that eat apples from an otherworld tree and whose song heals sickness, and a palace 'in the heart of a pile of rocks' near Mallow called Carrig‑Cleena; beyond these motifs the provided sources do not give detailed clothing, stature, or monstrous features (source: Wikipedia summary of Book of Lismore and local tradition).
Across the recorded narratives she functions as a powerful otherworld leader and benefactor: she is called queen of the sióga and of the banshees of South Munster (Desmond). Specific abilities in the cited tales include provision of enchanted aids (the Book of Lismore reports she gives three birds to guide and provide music and an emerald cup that transforms water to wine and carries the warning that parting the cup from Teigue will cause his death), a healing function (the birds' song is said to heal sickness), transformation magic (an O'Keeffe legend summary describes a Cleena who could 'transform creatures to any form she pleased' and who used sleep mixtures and curses), and agency in sea/otherworld events (the 'Clíodna's Wave' episode in Acallam na Senórach in which music and the sea conspire to sweep her away in some versions). She thus acts as benefactor, lover, and dangerous otherworld power depending on the narrative (sources: Book of Lismore; Acallam na Senórach; O'Keeffe legend summary; Wikipedia).
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]Clíodhna — Wikipedia. Wikipedia: 'Clíodhna' article (summaries of Book of Lismore, Acallam na Senórach, and regional tradition).wiki
- [2]Clíodhna — Wikidata. Wikidata entry for Clíodhna (identifier and linked data).other