Goll mac Morna

Goll mac Morna is presented in the Fenian Cycle as a son of Morna (patronymic of the Morna clan) whose given name is Áed (Aedh) — also attested as Áed mac Fidga. In the narratives he attains prominence by killing Cumhal, father of Fionn mac Cumhail, and taking over leadership of the fianna; later, when Fionn proves his worth, Goll is said in the sources to have willingly stepped aside in Fionn's favour. Variant traditions attach different episodes to him: one links his lost eye to wounds from Cumhal or, in alternative versions, Luchet; another recounts his death, pursued by Fionn and slain on a rock off the Donegal coast called carraig ghoill, giving the surrounding peninsula the name Ros Goill. The sources also note the existence of another mythic figure called Goll (a Fomorian) in other cycles, indicating the epithet occurs elsewhere in Irish myth.

The supplied sources give a single explicit physical trait: he is one-eyed — the epithet 'Goll' is glossed as 'one-eyed', and the narratives state he 'gained the name Goll when he lost an eye' (with versions attributing the wound to Cumhal or to Luchet). Beyond the epithet and the wound-story variants, no other consistent physical description is recorded in the provided material.

No supernatural powers are ascribed to Goll in the supplied sources; he functions as a capable and consequential human warrior and political actor within the fianna. Recorded actions include killing Cumhal and seizing fianna leadership, stepping aside for Fionn when Fionn proved his worth, taking part in factional defection at the battle Cath Gabhra (fighting for High King Cairbre alongside his followers), slaying the witch Irnan when she transformed into a monster (for which he was permitted to marry Fionn's daughter), and being pursued and slain in variants of his death. He also figures in an anecdote in which he accidentally killed his mother with a bone, preserved in a Scottish Gaelic proverb.