Abarta (Ábartach)

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.