Cermait is presented in the sources as a son of the Dagda and (in the supplied texts) as brother of Aed and Aengus. He is chiefly known in narrative as the man whose affair with Buach, the wife of Lugh, led to his being killed by Lugh. His death, the Dagda's mourning and revival of him, and the subsequent vengeance of his sons form his surviving narrative arc in the medieval material.
The supplied sources do not provide a physical description of Cermait (no details of clothing, stature, coloration, or distinctive bodily features are recorded in the provided texts).
The sources do not ascribe independent supernatural powers or functions to Cermait himself beyond his membership among the Tuatha Dé Danann. The narratives record that after his death the Dagda 'cried tears of blood' for him and later revived him 'with a healing staff' while travelling in the east; the healing and revival are actions performed by the Dagda rather than described as Cermait's own powers. Cermait's primary role in the corpus is familial and dynastic: he is father of Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, and Mac Gréine, who avenge him and later become joint High Kings of Ireland.
Lugh
Lugh is a prominent figure of Irish myth, a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann variously portrayed as a warrior, king, master craftsman and saviour. Epithets (e.g., Lámfada, Samildánach) stress his long arm and polyvalent skill; medieval texts place him centrally in the mythic history of Ireland (notably the Battle of Mag Tuired) and later comparative traditions identify him with the pan‑Celtic Lugus and, by interpretatio romana, with Mercury.
Aengus
Aengus (Óengus, Aonghus) is a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish myth, portrayed as a youthful, attractive figure associated with love, youth, poetic inspiration and seasonal/solar symbolism; he is linked to Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange) and appears as fosterer, protector, enchanter and avenger in multiple tales.
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]Cermait — Wikipedia. Wikipedia: Cermaitwiki
- [2]Cermait — Wikidata entry Q1055318. Wikidata: Q1055318wiki
- [3]Archive document cited in research notes. Archive: cited in research notesother