Fenian Cycle

rock formation on the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland

Irish mythical hero

thumb|250px|Fionn mac Cumhaill|Fionn and Goll seated in a banquet hall as their rival bands of Fianna fight. Illustration by [[Arthur Rackham in Irish Fairy Tales (1920).]] Fianna ( , ; singular Fian; ) were small warrior-hunter bands in Gaelic Ireland during the Iron Age and early Middle Ages. A fian was made up of freeborn young men, often from the Gaelic nobility of Ireland, "who had left fosterage but had not yet inherited the property needed to settle down as full landowning members of the túath". For most of the year they lived in the wild, hunting, cattle raiding other Irish clans, trai

body of prose and verse on the mythical hero Fionn mac Cumhaill

thumb|250px|Ossian playing his harp, by François Gérard|François Pascal Simon Gérard, 1801 thumb|Oisín and Niamh on their way to Tír na nÓg, illustration by Albert Herter, 1899 Oisín (), Osian, Ossian ( ), or anglicized as Osheen ( ) was regarded in legend as the greatest poet of Ireland, a warrior of the Fianna in the Ossianic or Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He is the demigod son of Fionn mac Cumhaill and of Sadhbh (daughter of Bodb Dearg), and is the narrator of much of the cycle and composition of the poems that are attributed to him.

In Irish mythology, Abarta (also Ábartach, possibly meaning "doer of deeds"), was in some accounts one of the Tuatha Dé Danann and in others a Fomorian, and is associated with Fionn mac Cumhaill.

creature/character in Irish mythology

female figure in Irish mythology

Irish sovereign

legendary High King of Ireland

demigod in Irish mythology

thumb|"Grania questions the druid", illustration by Henry Justice Ford in The Book of Romance (1903) Gráinne (), sometimes anglicised Grania, is the daughter of king Cormac mac Airt in the Fianna Cycle of Irish mythology. She is one of the central figures in the Middle Irish text Finn and Gráinne, as well as the 17th-century tale The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne, which tells of her betrothal to Fionn mac Cumhaill, leader of the Fianna, and her subsequent elopement with Fionn's warrior Diarmuid Ua Duibhne.

thumb|Illustration of Sadhbh by Arthur Rackham, 1910

Irish sovereign

Irish mythical character

thumb|upright|Fionn mac Cumhaill fighting Aillen, illustration by [[Beatrice Elvery in Violet Russell's Heroes of the Dawn (1914)]] Aillen or Áillen is an incendiary being in Irish mythology. He played the harp or timpán and would lull his victims into a deep sleep with his music.

The Enbarr (Énbarr) or Aonbharr of Manannán () is a horse in the Irish Mythological Cycle which could traverse both land and sea, swifter than wind-speed.

figure in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology

character from Irish mythology

Muirne or Muireann Muncháem ("beautiful neck") was the sister of Uirne and the mother of Fionn mac Cumhail in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology.

Cumhall (; ) or Cumhall mac Trénmhoir ("son of Trénmór/Tréanmór" meaning "strong-great") is a figure in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology, a leader of the fianna and the father of Fionn mac Cumhaill.

Middle Irish narrative cycle

literary work

mythological Irish seer

fian warrior and son of Liath Luachra

early Modern Irish prose narrative

maternal Grandfather of Fionn Mac Cumhail

figure in Irish mythology

Bodhmall (or bodhmann, Bómall, Bodmall, or Bodbmall) is one of Fionn mac Cumhaill's childhood foster mothers in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology and the daughter of Tréanmór mac Suailt. She is a druid and the sister of Fionn's father Cumhall, and both she and her female partner Liath Luachra are known as great warriors.

fian warrior