Aimend

[I] A sun goddess who was daughter of the king of Corco Loigde.

Áine

[I] Goddess of love and fertility. She was the daughter of Eogabail, foster son of the sea god Manannán Mac Lir. She has also been identified with Anu, mother of the gods as well as the Mórrígán, goddess of battles. These identifications seem suspect. Áine was continually conspiring with mortals in passionate affairs. One tale has her being raped by Ailill Olom. There are many later tales of Áine, and even during the last century the love goddess was worshipped on Midsummer Eve [D. Fitzgerald, “Popular Tales of Ireland,” Revue Celtique, vol. IV].

Ainlé

[I] Sometimes Ainnle. Son of Usna and one of the two brothers of Naoise who followed him into exile and was eventually slain at the Red Branch Hostel.

Airgtheach

[I] The White House, one of the islands of earthly paradise seen during the Voyage of Bran.

Alaw

[W] Ynys Mon. Where Branwen dies.

Alba

Sometimes Albu or Albain. Scotland. The modern Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland is still Alba. The name came into general use when Coinneach Mac Alpín became High King of the united kingdoms of Dál Riada and the Tuatha Cruithin in a.d. 844. Later after the victory of Carham, it included the Strathclyde kingdom and Cumbria.

Albion

An ancient Celtic name for Britain, referred to by Greek geographers. It was ousted by the Celtic “Britannia.” The Romans thought Albion was connected with albus, Latin for “white”and referring to the cliffs of Dover. More likely it comes from the same root as the Celtic for “heights” or “high hills,” which is found in the Alps, Albania, and so on. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, claiming a Celtic tradition, Albion was a giant, begotten by a sea god, who ruled on the island, while Holinshed, in his Chronicle, makes Albina into a princess who arrived on the island with a band of 50 women banished for killing their husbands.

Ale of Goibhniu

[I] Whoever drank it gained immortality.

Alisanos

Gaulish god of stones.

Allen, Hill of

[I] Anglicised from the dative form Almain of the name Almu. Nuada, chief druid of Cahir Mór, built the fortress there, “its ramparts enclosing many white-walled dwellings and a great hall towering high in its midst.” Fionn Mac Cumhail, a descendant of