An Chraobh Airgid

Being of the sídhe

Balor

Balar · Old Irish Balor

The Fomorian champion whose evil eye no army could face; Lugh’s grandfather.

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In Cath Maige Tuired he is Balor grandson of Nét, king of the Isles, and his daughter Ethne is the mother of Lugh. His eye was opened only on a battlefield: four men lifted its lid, and no army that looked into it could stand against a handful. At the second battle of Mag Tuired he killed Nuada, and Lugh’s sling-stone drove the eye through his head onto his own host. In folklore collected in the nineteenth century he lives on Tory Island, off Donegal.

Kin and bonds

In the tales

  • The Coming of the Tuatha Dé Danann They burned their ships on the shore, and for three days a druid’s mist hid them. Then they sent word to the people who held Ireland: half the land, or a battle.
  • The Second Battle of Mag Tuired A beautiful king who gives nothing, a stranger with every art, an eye no army can face, and a harp that plays sorrow, laughter and sleep.

See also

  • Bres The beautiful king of the Tuatha Dé who gave nothing, son of a Fomorian king.
  • Elatha King of the Fomorians, and father of Bres.
  • The Fomorians Old enemies of the gods. In folklore, giants.
  • Indech King of the Fomorians at the second battle of Mag Tuired.
  • Mag Tuired Moytirra, above Lough Arrow. The high ground above Lough Arrow where the gods fought the Fomorians.

Sources

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

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