An Chraobh Airgid

Person

Ailill Ánguba

Ailill Ánguba · also Ailill Anglonnach

Eochaid Airem’s brother, sick with love for Étaín.

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He saw Étaín at the Feast of Tara at Samhain and wasted for a year rather than speak. She promised to heal him, and three times he slept through their meeting while Midir came in his shape. He woke cured, and her honour whole. The Egerton text calls him Anglonnach, which Leahy renders “of the Single Stain”: the only stain on him was his love for his brother’s wife.

Kin and bonds

In the tales

  • The Wooing of Étaín A fly on the wind drops into a golden cup and is born again, remembering nothing. A thousand years on, her first husband comes to Tara to play for a kiss.

See also

  • Midir Lord of the síd of Brí Léith, who came back for the wife he had lost.
  • Samhain The start of winter. The night the mounds stand open.
  • Teamhair The Hill of Tara. Seat of the high kings, and of the stone that cried out.

Sources

Medieval manuscript. Written down by Irish scholars between the eighth and seventeenth centuries.

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