Bélchú appears in the Ulster Cycle episode preserved under manuscript titles such as Argain Belcon Breifne / Togail Bruidne Bélchon Bréifne ("Massacre/Slaughter of Belchu of Breifne"). In the narrative sequence recorded in medieval manuscript tradition (references include Glenmasan manuscript lists and saga compilations), the episode follows Conall Cernach's final combat with Cet mac Mágach: Conall is found close to death, taken by Bélchú to his house in Breifne, tended, and then the household drama of plotted betrayal and counter-betrayal unfolds. The tale is transmitted in the corpus of Ulster death-tales and is summarized and excerpted in modern editions and secondary accounts cited in the source material.
The sources offer no sustained physical description of Bélchú (no details of stature, hair, clothing, or marks). He is attested and characterized by social role and action: a warrior and local lord of Breifne (associated in later place-name lore with the modern village of Belcoo) whose Old Irish name is glossed in modern secondary sources as Bélchú (rendered in English as Belchu or Bealchu) and is glossed there as literally "dog-mouth." Beyond the name-meaning gloss and his role as a martial lord, the textual fragments and summaries do not supply bodily detail.
Bélchú exhibits the capabilities of a martial lord in the saga: he can shelter and tend a wounded enemy, command and instruct his sons, and plan a calculated betrayal. The narrative records his initial honourable behaviour in receiving and nursing Conall, his subsequent regret and decision to have his sons kill the guest, and his participation in the household deception that leads to his own death when Conall forces him to exchange places in the bed. No supernatural powers or magical abilities are attributed to Bélchú in the cited sources; his capacities are social and martial.
Weaknesses
- conditionvulnerability to counter-deception (overheard plotting leads to his death)
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]Bélchú. Wikipedia entry 'Bélchú' (accessed via research notes)wiki
- [2]The Death-Tales of the Ulster Heroes — Part 11 (text011). Edited/translated fragment in 'The Death-Tales of the Ulster Heroes', Part 11 (text011) at CELT, UCCliterary
- [3]Aided Cheit maic Mágach (text and background). Text of Aided Cheit maic Mágach and background material at ISO (UCC)literary
- [4]The Death-Tales of the Ulster Heroes (overview). Overview page for 'The Death-Tales of the Ulster Heroes' at CELT, UCCliterary
- [5]Conall Cernach (Wikipedia). Wikipedia entry 'Conall Cernach' (contextual reference in research notes)wiki
- [6]Conall Cernach (Citizendium). Citizendium article 'Conall Cernach' (contextual summary used in notes)other