Fedlimid mac Daill

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Feidhlimidh Mac Daill (sometimes Felim mac Dall [1] ) was the father of Deirdre in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. He was the bard of King Conchobar mac Nessa, whom he was entertaining when the news arrived of Deirdre's birth; the king's chief druid, Cathbad, was then asked to cast her horoscope and made his tragic prophecy about the daughter of Feidhlimidh. [1]

Deirdre heroine in Irish mythology

Deirdre is the foremost tragic heroine in Irish legend and probably its best-known figure in modern times. She is known by the epithet "Deirdre of the Sorrows". Her story is part of the Ulster Cycle, the best-known stories of pre-Christian Ireland.

The Ulster Cycle, formerly known as the Red Branch Cycle, one of the four great cycles of Irish mythology, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the traditional heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly counties Armagh, Down and Louth, and taking place around or before the 1st century AD.

Irish mythology

The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity. However, much of it was preserved in medieval Irish literature, though it was shorn of its religious meanings. This literature represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology. Although many of the manuscripts have not survived and much more material was probably never committed to writing, there is enough remaining to enable the identification of distinct, if overlapping, cycles: the Mythological Cycle, the Ulster Cycle, the Fenian Cycle and the Historical Cycle. There are also a number of extant mythological texts that do not fit into any of the cycles. Additionally, there are a large number of recorded folk tales that, while not strictly mythological, feature personages from one or more of these four cycles.

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Conchobarmac Nessa is the king of Ulster in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. He rules from Emain Macha. He is usually said to be the son of the High King Fachtna Fáthach, although in some stories his father is the druid Cathbad, and he is usually known by his matronymic, mac Nessa: his mother is Ness, daughter of Eochaid Sálbuide, King of Ulster.

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Leabharcham

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References

  1. 1 2 Ellis, Peter Berresford (1987), A Dictionary of Irish Mythology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 115, ISBN   0-19-282871-1