Pictish Mystic · Lore · Fomorians
Ethniu – Balor's Daughter, Lugh's Mother, the Bridge Between Two Peoples
Last time: Cethlenn, the queen who foresaw her grandson. Today the daughter who bore him. Legend from Cath Maige Tuired (Stokes, on CELT, and on Mary Jones's site), Lebor Gabála Érenn (Macalister), the Banshenchus "Lore of Women" and the Fate of the Children of Turenn (Mary Jones), plus Keating (CELT). Not history. Told from their side.
The Name
The texts write her Ethne or Eithne. Lugh is called "Lug son of Ethliu" in the Lebor Gabála poems and "Lugh, son of Ethlinn" in Turenn. His father was Cian, so that is a mother's name. Careful though: Cath Maige Tuired also calls Ogma "son of Ethliu", so the name is not hers alone. One bracketed line in the Banshenchus even says "Feada was the real name" of noble Ethne.
A Marriage of Peoples
Cath Maige Tuired: "Now the Tuatha Dé made an alliance with the Fomorians, and Balor, grandson of Nét, gave his daughter Ethne to Cian son of Dian-cecht, and she brought forth the gifted child, even Lugh." Not a raid, not a theft. An alliance, sealed with a Fomorian princess. Her husband's father was Dian Cécht, the great healer of the Tuatha Dé. Kin by marriage, both ways.
Her Line
The Banshenchus remembers her as "noble Ethne", "mother of Lug the impetuous superman, and daughter of swift smiting Balor son of Dod son of mighty Net". Granddaughter of Nét, daughter of the Strong Smiter. A royal Fomorian woman.
Her Name at the Door of Tara
When Lugh comes to Tara, he is announced as "son of Cian son of Dian-cecht, and of Ethne daughter of Balor". The Fomorian half is said out loud at the gate of the Tuatha Dé. Then the doorkeeper turns him away, art by art, until he proves he holds every art at once.
Raised by Another
The texts say Lugh was fostered by Tailtiu, daughter of the king of Spain. Lebor Gabála: Cian "gave her his son in fosterage, namely Lugh, whose mother was Eithne daughter of Balar". Lugh held yearly games for her, and Keating (CELT) says Lughnasadh takes its name from them. His mother's own voice? Not one line of it survives in these texts.
“The Other Half of Yourselves”
In the Fate of the Children of Turenn, Fomorian druids see a light in the west and Bres thinks the sun is rising there. "It is the shining of the face of Lugh, son of Ethlinn," they say. Lugh tells them: "there is but one half of me of the Tuatha de Danaan, and the other half of yourselves."
The Hardest Part
At the second battle of Mag Tuired, Lugh's sling-stone "carried the eye through his head" (Cath Maige Tuired). Lebor Gabála says it plainly: "his grandfather Balar the Strong-smiter fell at his hands". Her son killed her father. The two peoples she joined met in her own family.
Two Ethnes
Don't mix her up with a different Ethne in the same tale. In the Fate of the Children of Turenn, Ethne is also the sister of Brian, Iuchar and Iucharba, the sons of Turenn who killed Cian, Lugh's father. She tells her brother: "it was a bad thing you did, to kill the father of Lugh of the Long Hand". So Lugh's Fomorian mother lost her husband to Tuatha Dé hands too.
A Note on Sources
Every quote here comes from CELT or Mary Jones's site, listed below. The name form Ethniu is not used in these texts. They write Ethne or Eithne. If you have heard other stories about her, such as a tower on Tory Island, they are not in the CELT or Mary Jones texts used here, so we leave them out.
From Their Side
Ethniu is the reason Lugh, the brightest of the Tuatha Dé, was half Fomorian. The winners' greatest hero carried Balor's blood, and the poems kept his mother's name on him.
These are legends from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
Sources
- Cath Maige Tuired: The Second Battle of Moytura, tr. Whitley Stokes (CELT)
- The Second Battle of Mag Tured, in Cross & Slover, Ancient Irish Tales (Mary Jones)
- Lebor Gabála Érenn, part 4: the Tuatha Dé Danann, tr. R. A. S. Macalister (Mary Jones)
- Banshenchus: The Lore of Women, ed. Maighréad Ní C. Dobbs (Mary Jones)
- The Fate of the Children of Turenn, in Cross & Slover, Ancient Irish Tales (Mary Jones)
- Geoffrey Keating, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn: The History of Ireland (CELT)
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