In the mythic chronology the Fomorians are represented as an earlier, nether or otherworldly power present in Ireland before or alongside later groups of settlers and the Tuatha Dé Danann. Medieval summaries indicate they were regarded as malevolent spirits dwelling underwater and in the nether regions of the earth; they confront and sometimes enslave newcomers, exact tribute, and are defeated in pitched battles (e.g., episodes associated with Nemed and the Battles of Mag Tuired). Scholarly discussion of their name emphasizes fo- 'under/below' and offers competing readings of the second element (maritime 'mur', great 'mór', or a term meaning 'demon/phantom' akin to the etymology proposed for 'mare'), which respectively support maritime, giant, or phantom/demonic conceptualizations in different traditions.
Descriptions vary across medieval texts. Some passages (for example an 11th‑century text in Lebor na hUidre and related medieval material) portray grotesque physiognomy such as a man's body with a goat's head or beings with a single eye, arm and leg in some accounts. Other figures who intermarry with the Tuatha Dé (for example Elatha, father of Bres) are described as darkly beautiful. Overall appearance is inconsistent and depends on narrative role and source.
Narratives depict the Fomorians as hostile socio‑political supernatural agents: sea‑raiders who command fleets and maritime power, enslavers who exact heavy tribute (e.g., Conand and Morc demanding two‑thirds of children, grain and cattle from Nemed's people), and participants in major battles for sovereignty (Mag Itha, Mag Tuired). They are associated with destructive natural forces (sea, darkness, blight, drought) and in some scholarly readings are ambivalently linked to primitive or technical knowledge that may be transmitted to other groups even when the Fomorians are defeated.
Weaknesses
- conditionDefeated by opposing armies and champions (e.g., Tuatha Dé Déannan in battles such as the Second Battle of Mag Tuired)
Wards
None recorded.
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]Fomorians (Wikipedia). Wikipedia contributors, 'Fomorians', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopediawiki
- [2]The Second Battle of Moytura (translation). The Second Battle of Moytura, translation (CELT, University College Cork)literary
- [3]The Second Battle of Mag Tured (ancienttexts.org). Translation of The Second Battle of Mag Tured (AncientTexts.org)literary
- [4]Part 17 of The History of Ireland (CELT). Part 17, The History of Ireland (CELT, University College Cork)literary
- [5]Archive: The Fomorians and Lochlanns. Pedigrees of MacCabe of Ireland and MacLeod of Scotland. Archive entry on genealogical and historical references to Fomorians/Lochlannsother