Glossary in F (Celtic)

Here is a glossary of mythology Celtic : Failimis, Fand, Ferdiad,
Fergus Mac Roeg, Fingen, Finn Mac Cumaill, Fintan, Fir Bolg, Fomoires, Fuamnach

Celtic Glossary

Queen Fand, whose name means "swallow", appears mainly in the story Serglige ConCulaind which tells of Cúchulainn's illness and Emer's jealousy.

She is the daughter of Aed Abrat (a Tuatha Dé Danann) and the wife of Manannan Mac Lir, a sovereign god of Sidh. She leaves her husband following a quarrel and, attacked by Fomorians, she appeals to Cúchulainn, the hero of Ulster. Other versions claim that it was Cúchulainn who injured her in flight, when she had taken on the appearance of a bird. In the Other World, they become lovers for a month.

Emer, the lawful wife of Cúchulainn, driven by jealousy, leaves with fifty servants armed with knives to kill the lover. A quarrel ensues between Fand, Cúchulainn and Emer who finally returns with Manannan. This one uses his cloak of invisibility so that she disappears definitively in the eyes of her lover. The Druids make Cúchulainn and Emer drink a "drink of oblivion", so that he forgets his feelings for his mistress and she, her jealousy.

The lovers' breakup means that the hero cannot transcend his status and assume sovereignty.

Ferdiad, in Irish Celtic mythology, is a hero, companion of Cúchulainn. His full name is "Ferdiad mac Damain mac Dare", that is to say "son of Damain, son of Dare", with the meaning: son of smoke, he is related to the Fir Bolg (occupiers of Ireland before the landing of the Tuatha Dé Danann).

He accompanies his friend during his warrior initiation in Scotland, at the magician Scáthach. They receive exactly the same instruction except for the handling of the gae bolga, a weapon reserved for Cuchulainn. In the epic tale of the Táin Bó Cúailnge (Razzia of the Cows of Cooley), he is on the side of Queen Medb during the invasion of Ulster. At first, he refuses to confront Cúchulainn, who is alone in defending the attacked kingdom, but the queen manages to convince him by threatening him with a druidic satire, then by getting him drunk and promising him the hand of her daughter Findabair.

The single combat lasts three days during which the two heroes are unable to decide. Finally, Cúchulainn kills Ferdiad with a gae bolga blow. His skin being made of horn, only this blow could bring him down. The hero of Uster then begins a long poem in which he mourns the death of his friend.

Note: it is also found under the spellings of Fer Diad, Ferdia or Ferdeah.

Fergus Mac Roeg (son of Roeg) is, in Irish Celtic mythology, the king of Ulster before the reign of Conchobar Mac Nessa.

He is described as a giant, as strong as seven hundred men. His meals consist of seven oxen and seven pigs and he needs seven women every night (his testicles are the size of sacks of flour).

In return for his marriage to Ness, she demanded that he entrust the sovereignty of his kingdom to his son Conchobar, for a period of one year. But, past this time, the Ulates (inhabitants of Ulster), satisfied with the new king, refuse the return of Fergus. The two adversaries fight for a whole day and the king dispossessed of his kingdom must go into exile in Connaught with Queen Medb and King Ailill, of which he becomes the chief of the army, after having burned Emain Macha the capital of the Ulates. He marries Deichtire, Conchobar's sister.

During the Táin Bó Cúailnge (Cooley's Cow Raid), he is alongside Medb, whose lover he has become. But Ulate himself, his sympathy goes to Cúchulainn and his compatriots.

Ailill, in a fit of jealousy, has him assassinated by one of his henchmen.

Fingen, in Irish Celtic mythology, is one of the Druids of Conchobar Mac Nessa, King of Ulster. He is particularly renowned for his knowledge and practice of magic and medicine. He is an expert in all three forms of medicine: magical, herbal, and blood.

By examining the smoke rising from the roof of a house, he is able to determine the number of its occupants and to tell what illnesses they are suffering from.

During a war against the kingdom of Connaught, Conchobar is wounded in the head by the projectile of a sling, a projectile made with the brains of Mesgegra. Fingen warns him: if he withdraws the bullet, he dies, if he heals him, he remains crippled. The king chooses to live, but with prohibitions: running, horse riding, anger, abuse of food and sex. After seven years, Mesgegra's brains burst in his head and he dies.

During the Cooley Cow Raid (Táin Bó Cúailnge), he is required to heal Cethern Mac Fintan. At the end of the examination, he offers two solutions: either he completely heals the wounded man, but the care will last a whole year, or he puts him back on his feet quickly, ready to fight, but in this case he dies three days later. This second option is chosen. The treatment consists of immersing it in a marrow barrel for three days and three nights. Provisionally cured, the warrior of Ulster can resume the fight, his viscera are retained by the planks of his chariot. He resumes killing until he dies.

Fintan mac Bóchra, in Irish Celtic mythology, is a primordial druid, whose name origin, Vindo-senos, has the meaning of "White-Elder" (referring to the white hair and age of the oldest druids). eminent). It is associated with the epic of the people of Cesair. After the Deluge, it underwent various animal metamorphoses which should allow it to cross the millennia, to transmit its science and its history to the Irish.

When Noah prepares the Ark before the Flood submerges the earth, Cesair takes command of a troop of fifty women, accompanied by three men: his father Bith, Ladra and Fintan. They embark on a seven-year journey that will take them to Ireland. The three men marry all the women, seventeen for Bith, sixteen for Ladra, the seventeen wives of Fintan are Cesair, Lot, Luam, Mall, Mar, Froechar, Femar, Weak, Foroll, Cipir, Torrian, Tamall, Tam, Abba, Alla, Baichne, Sille and Ebliu. Of all these unions, he has only one son, Illann. On the death of Ladra, then that of Bith, he marries their widows.

When the Flood floods Ireland, all of Cesair's people drown, except for Fintan, who turns into a salmon. He thus remains under water for a whole year, having established his residence in a cave. He survives for 5,500 years, transforming into an eagle, a falcon, and finally returning to human form.

He then became the adviser to the Ard ri Érenn (Supreme King of Ireland). During the Cath Maighe Tuireadh (First Battle of Mag Tured), he is at the side of the king of the Fir Bolg, Eochaid Mac Eirc, during the invasion of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He left earthly life in the 5th century AD. BC, once Ireland is converted to Christianity.

In the story Suidugud Tellach Temra (Foundation of the Domain of Tara), it is he who defends the organization of the island into four provinces (kingdoms), plus a central fifth, Meath, whose capital is Tara, residence of the kings supreme.

The oral tradition of myth de Fintan was strongly Christianized, during its transcription, by clerics in the Middle Ages. In particular, the reference to the Deluge and the relationship of Cesair with Noah have been added. Fintan is a primordial and omniscient druid who only transmits his knowledge through oral teaching. This peculiarity of the priestly class of Celts is confirmed by Julius Caesar in The Gallic War, who further notes that Druidic studies could last 20 years.

The Fir Bolg, in Irish Celtic mythology, are an inhuman people, whose name means "sack-men" or "lightning-men". According to the Lebor Gabála Érenn (Book of the Conquests of Ireland), they arrived after the Nemedians, who had been driven out by the Fomorians. They arrived in three groups: that of Fir Bolg who would come from Belgium, that of Fir Domnann who would come from the island Domnonée, and that of Fir Gailoin, founder of the kingdom of Leinster. They are the first to use iron spearheads.

The reign of King Eochaid Mac Eirc is reputed to be the first to have applied justice, and made lies disappear. There is no more rain in Ireland, only dew. His wife is Tailtiu (the land), daughter of Mag Mor, and adoptive mother of Lug, she is the personification of the island.

New invaders land in Ireland, they are the Tuatha Dé Danann, people of the goddess Dana, a race of gods. A merciless war will oppose them, King Nuada of the Tuatha will lose an arm which will disqualify him for the exercise of sovereignty. The Fir Bolg refuse a truce, so the druids of the enemy camp will use their magic and conceal the springs and rivers. King Eochaid loses his life during this "First Battle of Mag Tuireadh" along with 100,000 of his subjects. The Fir Bolg are defeated and must flee while the Tuatha Dé Danann take possession of Ireland.

The Fomorians (or Fomores, Fomorii) are inhuman and evil beings. According to the Lebor Gabála Érenn (Book of the Conquests of Ireland), the Fomorians landed in Ireland after the Deluge, they are sometimes called "Giants of the Sea". In fact, they are present throughout the mythical history of Ireland.

Countless, they are described as being extremely hideous, with a single eye in the middle of the face, a single arm, a single leg and the head of an animal (goat, horse or bull). Inhuman and demonic, they are endowed with magical powers and represent chaos and destruction. Enemies of everything and everyone, they will fight the successive peoples of Ireland: Partholoniens, Nemediens, Fir Bolg, and Tuatha Dé Danann.

All the gods are related to them, which shows their roots in the island. The Formori Bres will even temporarily be the king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, after the forfeiture of Nuada. Folklore likens them to the Scandinavian invaders.

Fuamnach, in Irish Celtic mythology, is the legitimate wife of Midir, the sovereign god of the Otherworld (see article Sidh) of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Goddess, she is however not sovereign, but she is an expert magician, her father being the druid Bresal Etarlam.

Midir decides to meet the goddess Étain, whose beauty has been praised to him (according to some versions, it was in compensation for an injury to Oengus that he claimed the most beautiful girl in Ireland). He falls in love with her on the spot and makes her his mistress, which causes extreme jealousy in Fuamnach. She will pursue the intruder using the most powerful spells of her magic, but she does not have the power to kill her.

She transforms it into a pool of water by touching it with a mountain ash branch, then into a fly that a druidic wind carries in the air for seven years. She becomes a tiny earthworm and falls into a cup. In this form, she is swallowed and then "delivered" by the wife of the King of Ulster, Etar. This is how she can be reborn. Fuamnach cannot reconquer Midir who, tired of these adventures, has her assassinated.