Amergin mac Eccit

Amergin is presented in the Ulster Cycle as the son of the smith Eccet (Eccet Salach). He 'grew to the age of fourteen without speaking or washing himself' until, when a servant called for an axe, he unexpectedly uttered a 'precocious, cryptic poem.' This revealed his poetic gift. The established chief poet Athirne, fearing displacement, attempted to have the boy killed; Eccet used a lifelike clay replica to deceive Athirne. After the Ulaid besieged Athirne and forced compensation, Athirne took Amergin as his foster-son and taught him poetic skills, after which Amergin rose to be chief poet of the Ulaid.

Sources record an unusual childhood state — he 'grew to the age of fourteen without speaking or washing himself' — but give no detailed adult physical description. Narratives of his deeds (killing a monster, hurling enormous stones) attribute exceptional martial capability without specifying ordinary physical features, dress, or likeness.

Amergin's primary distinguishing faculty is his poetic gift: a spontaneous, cryptic poem at fourteen leads to formal training and his role as chief poet (ollamh). In martial narrative he performs extraordinary feats: he kills the Ellén Trechend, described as a three-headed monster raiding from the cave of Cruachan, and during the Táin Bó Cúailnge he 'held up the advance of the Connachta army by pelting them with enormous stones for three days and nights.' In combat with Cú Roí the stones of both heroes are said to have collided in mid-air, showering the area with fragments until Medb begged them to stop. He also displays cunning in social/legal matters (the clay replica episode) and a careful/technical approach to agreements (he later interprets a mediated stoppage narrowly in his own favor).