day, can return the stroke. “Bricriu’s Feast” is, in fact, an early version of the Green Knight story that became part of the medieval sagas of Arthur.

Muirthemne, Plain of

[I] Cúchulainn dwelt there in his fortress of Dún Dealgan (Dundalk). Lady Gregory’s retelling of the Cúchulainn saga was entitled Cuchulain of Muirthemne [John Murray, London, 1902].

Munster

[I] The southwest province of Ireland, originally called Mumham, with the addition of the ster during the Norse settlement. Like Dyfed in Wales, it is associated with the Otherworld. Tech Duinn, the gathering place of the dead, lies just off its coast, as Annwn lies off the coast of Dyfed. Munster is associated with more female gods than any other place, and it appears in the ancient stories as a primeval world, a place of origin.

Murias

[I] One of the four great cities of the Dé Danaan. It was from Murias that the magic cauldron of the Dagda, a gift from Lugh, came.

Murna of the White Neck

[I] A descendent of Nuada and Ethlinn, the daughter of Balor of the Evil Eye. She elopes with Cumal, son of Trenmor of the Clan Mascna. Her father, a druid, incites Goll Mac Morna to kill Cumal. Murna flees to the forests and gives birth to Cumal’s son, Demna. But the boy grows up to be called “The Fair One”—Fionn. He goes on to seek vengeance for his father’s death.

Mur y Castell

[W] Lleu Llaw Gyffes’ fortress at Bala Lake.

Music

Music always plays its part in the myths. Heroes and heroines, even the deities, all seemed to be accomplished. Various instruments—harps, stringed instruments, bagpipes, and timpani—are mentioned by name. In Ireland, the earliest surviving example of Irish musical notation and composition is contained in an eleventh century manuscript. Irish musicians were celebrated from earliest times.

Mynwy

[W] St. David’s. The principal shrine of Dewi Sant, patron saint of Wales. One of four bishoprics—the others being Llandaff, Bangor, and St. Asaph.

Mynyddawn Mwynfawr

Lord of Dineiddyn (Edinburgh) who led the Gododdin (the Votadini of the Roman occupation) to recapture Catraeth (Catterick) from the Anglo-Saxons in the sixth century. The event is recorded in a sixth century poem by Aneurin.