Medieval Irish sources and later bibliographical compilations present Adna mac Uthidir as a leading professional poet and scholar (Chief Ollam) who lived during the reign of the Ulster king Conchobar mac Nessa. Later antiquarian accounts (e.g., Edward O'Reilly's Chronological Account of Irish Writers) and manuscript traditions place him in the early first millennium AD and associate him with the collection of legal axioms alongside the sages Forchern and Atharne. He appears in narrative tradition (notably the tale Immacallam in dá Thuarad, 'The Colloquy of the Two Sages') which treats his life and death within the literary-historical corpus linking learned men to royal courts.
The surviving summaries and bibliographical notices supply no physical description. Medieval sources treat Adna as a human poet and scholar rather than a supernatural being; his presence in narrative is as an institutional figure (Chief Ollam, law-collector) rather than ascribed distinctive physical traits in the extant summaries.
Sources attribute to Adna the social and professional capacities of a highest-grade poet/scholar: holding the office of Chief Ollam of Ireland (and in some accounts Chief Poet of Ulster), composing or compiling legal material, and participating with contemporaries Forchern and Atharne in collecting the axioms of Irish law into a single volume. He is presented as a human learned authority rather than as possessing supernatural powers.
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]Adna mac Uthidir — Wikipedia. Wikipedia: 'Adna mac Uthidir, Irish poet, fl. 1st-century AD.' 'Adna mac Uthidir held the post of Chief Ollam of Ireland during the reign of King Conchobar mac Nessa.' 'Fragments of laws attributed to Adna are to be found in the library of Trinity College.'wiki
- [2]Wikidata: Adna mac Uthidir. Wikidata entry for Adna mac Uthidir (Q4683840) providing linked identifiers and summary metadata.other
- [3]Immacallam in dá Thuarad (The Colloquy of the Two Sages) — referenced in secondary sources. The tale 'Immacallam in dá Thuarad' ('The Colloquy of the Two Sages') is cited in summaries as telling of Adna's death and situates him in narrative tradition.literary
- [4]Edward O'Reilly, Chronological Account of Irish Writers — referenced in summaries. Edward O'Reilly's Chronological Account of Irish Writers is cited in secondary summaries as mentioning Adna mac Uthidir.other