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[I] A king of Leinster with two possessions coveted by others—a hound and a boar. To prevent an attack on his kingdom he agrees to sell the hound, but both to Connacht and Ulster. Ailill and Medb of Connacht and Conchobhar Mac Ness of Ulster arrive to feast and take possession of the hound. They find Mac Da Thó has slaughtered his boar for the feast. An argument then breaks out as to how the boar should be divided, with the point of contention being the hero’s portion. Finally, the Ulstermen and Connachtmen engaged in battle. Mac Da Thó loses his boar and his hound, but he is able to keep his kingdom by setting his enemies against each other.
[I] A son of Ogma. He was the husband of the goddess Éire, who gave her name to Ireland. He was slain by the Milesian druid Amairgen.
[I] A triune goddess of war. As the wife of Nemed, she makes her first appearance. Then, as the wife of Nuada, she is killed by Balor of the Evil Eye at the second battle of Magh Tuireadh. Thirdly, as the wife of Crunniuc Mac Agnomain of Ulster, she utters a curse that the men of Ulster would suffer the pangs of childbirth for five days and four nights in times of Ulster’s greatest difficulty. The curse would last for nine times nine generations. Mac Mong Ruadh, or Macha of the Red Tresses, is not a war goddess, though her traditions seem to have inherited those of the triune goddess. She is listed as the seventy-sixth monarch of Ireland, reigning in 377 b.c. She built Ard Macha (Macha’s Height = Armagh), established Emain Macha (Navan) as the capital of Ulster, and is credited with building the first hospital in Ireland, called Bron-Bherg (House of Sorrow), which was in use until its destruction by fire in a.d. 22.
[I] He succeeded the Dagda as father of the gods. In folklore, however, he became a short-lived “king of the fairies,” succeeded by Fionnbharr.
James MacPherson of Kingussie, Scotland (1736–1796), published Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands (1760), which he maintained was a translation of authentic Scottish Gaelic poetry, written by Ossian (Oisín), constituting the Fenian sagas. MacPherson extended this with Fingal (1762) and Temora (1763), the three volumes constituting Ossian. It made a
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