Ernmas appears in medieval Irish compilations of myth (notably the Lebor Gabála Érenn) and in material associated with the Cath Maige Tuired cycles as a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann generation. Sources list her genealogical position variably: several manuscripts identify her as daughter of Etarlam, while some traditions incorporate Nuada Airgetlam into her pedigree (sources differ on whether Nuada is presented as ancestor or parent). Textual attestations emphasize her role as progenitor—mother or grandmother—of prominent goddess triads and of several sons. One set of summaries and local retellings reports that Ernmas 'was killed during the first battle of Mag Tuired,' placing her death within the mythic sequence of the Tuatha Dé Danann’s wars; manuscript variants preserve small differences in names and relationships across traditions.
The surviving excerpts and listings provide no sustained physical description or iconography for Ernmas. Attestations are primarily genealogical and epithetical: she is named as a mother of several goddesses and is called in one source the 'she-farmer' (a phrase recorded in the Lebor Gabála Érenn). Beyond such epithets and her placement in kin-lists, the sources quoted do not describe her bodily appearance, dress, or symbolic attributes.
Primary attestations credit Ernmas with generative, genealogical significance: she is the mother of Ériu, Banba, Fódla (eponymous goddesses of Ireland) and of Badb, Macha, and Mórrígan (a war-goddess triad), as well as multiple sons (commonly Glonn/Glon, Gaim/Gnim, and Coscar). The corpus does not ascribe to her independent, active feats or magical powers in the excerpts provided; the epithet 'the she-farmer' suggests a possible association with land, fertility, or productive power in at least one source, but the texts do not enumerate specific agricultural or other supernatural abilities. Her reported death in the first battle of Mag Tuired indicates she is present within the martial and dynastic narrative context of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
Banba
Banba (modern spelling Banbha) is a matron goddess of Ireland in Irish mythology, daughter of Delbáeth and Ernmas of the Tuatha Dé Danann. She forms a triad of matronal personifications of the island with her sisters Ériu and Fódla, is associated with sovereignty and the land, and appears in origin and heroic narratives linked to specific Irish landscapes.
Badb
Badb is an Irish supernatural female figure associated with warfare, death, and prophecy. She commonly appears as a crow or raven and as a wailing omen, acts on battlefields to sow confusion and foretell slaughter, and is often treated as one member of the triadic Morrígna.
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]Lebor Gabála Érenn (part 4) - genealogies and lists. Lebor Gabála Érenn, genealogical passages listing Ernmas and her children (as presented on Mary Jones' Celtic texts site).literary
- [2]Lebor Gabála Érenn (part 4) - online transcription (ancienttexts.org). Transcription of Lebor Gabála Érenn passages naming Ernmas and listing daughters and sons.literary
- [3]Macha and associated materials (ancienttexts.org / Mary Jones). Contextual material on Macha and related Tuatha Dé Danann figures; includes cross-references to Ernmas as mother of Macha and sisters.literary
- [4]Ernmas (Celtsite summary). Summary entry noting Ernmas' role as mother of goddess triads and reporting she 'was killed during the battle of south Moytura'; includes variant material noted in modern summaries.other
- [5]Ernmas — Wikipedia. Modern encyclopedia summary referencing Lebor Gabála Érenn and Cath Maige Tuired attestations and noting the epithet 'the she-farmer.'wiki