An Chraobh Airgid

God or goddess

Bodb Dearg

Bodhbh Dearg · Old Irish Bodb Derg

Say it: bove DAR-ug

Son of the Dagda, chosen king of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Open it on the full site There every name opens, and a web shows who is kin to whom.

Chosen king over Lir, he would not let his people punish Lir’s anger, and won him over with kindness and a marriage. When he learned what Aoife had done, he turned her into a demon of the air. In the Lir tale his síd stands above Loch Deirgdheirc; other tales place him at Síd ar Femen, Slievenamon.

Kin and bonds

In the tales

  • The Children of Lir A jealous stepmother, a druid’s wand, and four children who must live nine hundred years as swans.
  • The Fate of the Children of Tuireann Three brothers stone Lugh’s father to death. His price sounds small: three apples, a pigskin, a spear, a hound’s whelp, and three shouts on a hill.
  • The Dream of Aengus For a year a girl plays to Aengus in his sleep. When he finds her, she is one of thrice fifty girls on silver chains, and every other year she is a swan.

See also

Sources

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

Each tale above lists the sources it is retold from. Every source the site draws on is listed on the full site.