Beings

The beings index. Gods, heroes, and creatures, each with an entry of its own, browsable by cycle.

Folklore The Changeling The changeling is the wizened substitute the fairies of Irish folklore leave behind when they steal a healthy child or a new mother, known in Irish as an iarlais or síofra.
Cross-cycle The Dagda The Dagda is the father-god and king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the 'Good God' of Irish mythology who wields a club of death and life, an inexhaustible cauldron, and a harp that commands sorrow, joy and sleep.
Folklore The Fear Gorta and Féar Gortach The fear gorta is the emaciated famine-phantom of Irish folk belief who begs along the roads and rewards the giver, and the féar gortach is the hungry grass, a cursed patch of ground that strikes a walker with sudden killing hunger.
Cross-cycle The Merrow The merrow is the Irish mermaid and merman of folklore, a dweller in Tír fo Thuinn, the Land Beneath the Waves, who crosses between worlds by means of a magical cap, the cohuleen druith.
Cross-cycle The Morrígan The Morrígan is the shape-shifting Irish goddess of sovereignty, battle, fate and prophecy, one of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
Cross-cycle The Nine Hazels of Wisdom The nine hazels of wisdom are Otherworld trees whose nuts feed the Salmon of Knowledge and carry imbas, poetic inspiration, into Ireland's rivers.
Cross-cycle The Púca The púca, anglicised pooka, is Ireland's shapeshifting night-spirit: a trickster of November and Samhain that appears as a dark horse with fiery eyes, a goat, an eagle or a bull, speaks with a human voice, and carries unwary travellers on terrifying wild rides.