Beings by cycle
Ulster Cycle
The heroic literature of the Ulaid, the people who gave Ulster its name, set around the time of Christ. Its world is Conchobar’s court at Emain Macha, queen Medb’s rival Connacht, and the boy-warrior Cú Chulainn, who holds the province alone in the Táin Bó Cúailnge.
- Ulster Conall Cernach Conall Cernach is the foremost head-taking champion of the Ulster Cycle after Cú Chulainn, foster-brother and avenger of Cú Chulainn, who ends his days a leprous pensioner among the very Connacht enemies he had spent a lifetime destroying.
- Ulster Cú Chulainn Cú Chulainn, born Setanta, is the supreme hero of the Ulster Cycle: a semi-divine warrior fated from boyhood to undying fame and an early death, who defends Ulster single-handed in the Táin Bó Cúailnge.
- Ulster Deirdre Deirdre is the tragic heroine of the oldest Ulster Cycle sorrow-tale, a woman foretold before birth to ruin Ulster, who chooses love over captivity and is destroyed when a king's treachery kills the man she fled with.
- Ulster Emer Emer is the wife of Cú Chulainn and the most fully voiced woman of the Ulster Cycle, the heroine of the six gifts who riddles her suitor before she will consent and speaks the cycle's sharpest lines on love and loss.
- Ulster Fergus mac Róich Fergus mac Róich is a tragic hero of the Ulster Cycle, a former king of Ulster driven into Connacht exile after his honour was betrayed, who becomes Queen Medb's lover and, as a ghost, dictates the whole Táin Bó Cúailnge from his grave.
- Ulster Medb of Connacht Medb is the queen of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle, ruling from Cruachan (Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon) and instigating the Táin Bó Cúailnge, with her legendary grave on Knocknarea in Co. Sligo.