The Celts were a group of people who lived across a great deal of Europe during the early middle ages. They were a pretty self-sufficient group who had their own pantheon of gods and great respect for the land in which they inhabited. They were also notorious for being ferocious in battle – to the point where they could intimidate their enemies just by their presence alone – so it should come to no surprise that they also had tales of great warriors and heroes in their mythology.
Over the years I’ve come to research some of these heroes and found some of them were actually pretty cool and would make excellent subjects for epic films. But who are some of these warriors, and why do they deserve their own shout-outs and recognition? Well, I’ll share some of my favorite Celtic heroes and let you decide.
Cú Chulainn
Out of all the Celtic heroes, Cú Chulainn is the only one people might recognize if they tune in to certain cartoons or anime. Also known as the Hound of Ulster, he was born the child of Deichtine and Lug, the Celtic god of oaths, truths, and law. In some versions, Deichtine disappears from home and isn’t found until the King of Ulster and his party seek shelter from a storm. She acts as their hostess and gives birth that night to a son, who is named Sétanta. The nobles all argue about who is to be the foster father of this child until it is decided that each would help raise the child; probably the source of the expression, “it takes a village to raise a child.”
During Sétanta’s childhood, the king was invited to a feast held by Culann the smith. He invited Sétanta to join him while he was playing with some of the boys in the field but forgot to inform his host that another guest would be coming. As a result, Sétanta was attacked by a large guard dog when he arrived, but he was able to kill the hound. Culann was upset at the loss of his pet, so Sétanta promised he would raise another hound for the smith, but until it was old enough to do the job, he would guard Culann’s house. From that moment the druid Cathbad proclaimed that from that day forth Sétanta would be known as Cú Chulainn – “Culann’s Hound”.
While he was seven years old, Cú Chulainn heard Cathbad giving a prophecy that whoever took arms that day would receive everlasting fame. However, what the lad did not hear from the prophecy was that even though he would receive everlasting fame, his own life would be a short one. Rushing home, he demanded to be given the weapons of the king. After getting his weapons, he rushed out and ended up killing three sons of Nechtan Scéne, for boasting that they killed more Ulstermen than the amount who were currently alive. This, in turn, put him in a ríastrad, or battle frenzy (think like when the Hulk loses control), and was only quelled after the women of his home distracted him long enough for the men to catch him and dump him in a barrel of water, which exploded from the heat. He was dumped into a second barrel which boiled, but the third barrel finally cooled him off and restored his mind.
Cú Chulainn grew into a young man so attractive the men began to fear their wives would run off to be with him. To avert this, he was sent off to the land of Alba, to us known as Scotland, to train under the warrior woman Scáthach. He found her home, Dún Scáith, or Fortress of Shadows, on the Isle of Skye. She taught him about the art of war, and eventually gave him his signature weapon: The Gáe Bulg, a barbed spear that was said to only be capable of being removed from a person if the part of them it was stuck into was cut out. Some legends say it had seven heads with seven barbs each, but regardless it was believed that to be attacked with the spear was your death.
During his training, Cú Chulainn faced Scáthach’s rival Aífe in battle. She tried to cheat by giving him a sleeping potion to make him miss the fight, but due to his strength, he woke up after an hour and rushed to face her. Cú Chulainn defeated her, and only agreed to spare Aífe’s life if she called off her grudge against Scáthach, and if she slept with him. Hey, I never said he was a perfect guy, and this would come back to bite him in the butt.
Eventually, Cú Chulainn returned to Ulster and tried to marry the woman he loved, but her father refused him because he was afraid of the great hero. Enraged, Cú Chulainn stormed the fortress, killing twenty-four men, and took his love. When Aífe got word of this, she plotted a way to get revenge on the hero.
Fast forward to eight years later, and a stranger arrived in Ulster who refused to identify himself. Believing the intruder to be a threat, Cú Chulainn challenged him to a battle, and he accepted. However, upon learning that his opponent is none other than Cú Chulainn himself, the stranger missed his shot with his spear while the Hound of Ulster impaled him upon the Gáe Bulg. As the stranger lay dying, he revealed his name to be Connla, and he was sent to Ulster by his mother, Aífe, to find his father. She had instructed him to reveal his name to no one and to accept any challenge he was given.
Yeah. Aífe tricked Cú Chulainn into killing his own son as payback for marrying the love of his life.
One of Cú Chulainn’s greatest feats came when he defended Ulster from the army of Medb, the queen of Connacht. She invaded in order to steal a mystical bull known as the Don Cúailnge, and unfortunately, the Hound of Ulster was head over heels for another girl, and as a result, was not watching the border. The men of Ulster were put out of commission by a curse that gave them labor pains. Cú Chulainn stalled the army by challenging them to single combat. He managed to defeat champion after champion, and the contest lasted for months.
At some point, Cú Chulainn was rendered unconscious, and when he awoke, he found out his friends from his youth had been killed. As a result, he flew into another ríastrad and killed so many men that the corpses ended up piling high enough to pass as walls. Finally, the Ulstermen were able to get back on their feet and the army of Medb was routed back to Connact.
Eventually, Medb gathered the sons of the many men who fell to the hero, and they conspired to kill Cú Chulainn by making him break his geasa or taboo. Because Cú Chulainn acted as a guard dog for so long, his geasa was that he could never eat dog meat. However, in early Ireland, it was also considered taboo to refuse hospitality, so as a result, Cú Chulainn found himself in an impossible situation. Out of the blue, an old crone offered him the meat of a dog, and because of the no-refusing-hospitality geis, he was left with no choice but to break his own no-dog-meat geis. This resulted in his spirit being weakened, and Medb with her conspirators were able to ambush Cú Chulainn and deal him a fatal blow. However, he simply tied himself to a rock (which is said to be the Clochafarmore near Dundalk) because he wanted to die on his feet facing his enemies, and he continued fighting them. It was only when a raven landed on his shoulder that they realized he was truly dead, but even then, the man who beheaded him lost both arms. According to legend the year of his death was 1 A.D.
Cú Chulainn is one of the coolest heroes to exist in Celtic mythology. Yeah, he came across as arrogant a great deal of the time, but that was how a hero was supposed to be. Despite his strength and fearlessness in battle, he still had his own flaws, just as we all do, but we do not have to let them hold us down. Even when we are at our weakest, we can still stand strong and give life our all.
Fionn Mac Cumhaill
The next Celtic hero I find awesome is Fionn Mac Cumhaill (or Finn McCool). Born the son of Muirne and Cumhall, leader of a band of warriors known as the Fianna. The strange thing was, Cumhall abducted Muirne when her father refused to allow them to marry and wound up getting killed by his successor Goll mac Morna. By this time Muirne was already pregnant, and her father disowned her by ordering the people to kill her.
However, the high king Conn intervened and sent her to her sister-in-law, where she gave birth. Originally, he was named Delme, which means “sureness” or “certainty”, but obviously, it did not stick.
Unfortunately, Delme didn’t have a good childhood. He spent several years being hunted by Goll, during which he ended up being separated from his mother. Delme was then placed in the care of Bodmall and Liath Luachra, who secretly raised him in a forest known as Silabh Bladma. They taught him how to hunt and be a warrior until he had to leave at the age of six due to the efforts of Goll.
Delme spent years serving kings in secret until they found out who his father was and then had him leave to avoid the ire of his enemies. During this time, he came across a poet named Finn Éces, who was trying to catch the legendary Salmon of Wisdom living in Fec’s Pool for seven years. According to a prophecy the poet had been given, if he ate the fish, he would gain unlimited knowledge.
Finn was able to catch the salmon at long last and ordered the boy to cook it. Unfortunately, he burned his thumb, and when he stuck it in his mouth, he unwittingly gave himself the wisdom. The poet then had him eat the salmon, then gave him the name Fionn, which means “white” or “fair” in Irish Gaelic, because Delme’s hair had just turned white from the ordeal. Also, he had to stick his thumb in his mouth and recite the teinm láida in order to gain the answers he sought, and as a result, this ability became known as the Thumb of Knowledge.
This almost rings similarly to how Sigurd gained the ability to hear what animals were saying when he burned himself cooking the heart of Fafnir.
Using his newfound ability, Fionn found the way to defeat Goll and end the torment which plagued him all his life. The first thing he did was slay the fire-breathing Áillen of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, the Celtic gods. For over twenty-three years, Áillen had been ruining the holiday Samhain for the city of Tara by having everyone fall asleep before committing grand arson on the city and its treasures. Volunteering himself to face the fire-breather, Fionn received a magical spear called the Birga, which would protect him from the powers of Áillen’s dulcimer (a type of musical instrument). Fionn was able to defeat the supernatural being, and his parentage became public knowledge. His deed was so impactful that Goll stepped down and gave Fionn leadership of the Fianna.
As he grew older, Fionn did find love, but that came with its own complications, as he married a few times. He met his best-known wife, Sadhbh, while he was out on a hunt. What made this encounter unusual was that she had been turned into a deer by a druid when she refused his hand in marriage. His hounds, whose mother used to be human before she was turned into a dog, realized this deer was a human herself. After Fionn brought her back home, Sadhbh’s human form was restored and the two were married.
Tragedy struck again when Fionn had to go away to war. The druid who had cursed Sadhbh before, Fear Doirich, came back and cursed her into a deer again! Unfortunately, this time she was not found again, despite Fionn looking for her. His hounds did find his child, who had been born as a fawn. Eventually, the child regained his human form, was named Oisín and grew to join the Fianna.
As he got on in years, Fionn sought to take another wife. He was promised Gráinne, the daughter of the high king Cormac mac Airt, but she fell for another of the Fianna: Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, who had been given a curse by a fairy that made any women who looked upon him fall madly in love with him. She ended up forcing Diarmuid to run away with her, which caused the Fianna to help in their escape.
Enraged by this (understandably), Fionn spent several years chasing them down until Diarmuid’s foster father Aengus, the god of youth, love, and poetry, called an end to the chase. Fionn forgave Diarmuid and admitted him back into the Fianna. However, one day the two of them were on a hunt when a boar attacked them. Diarmuid was gored by the animal, and only Fionn could save him by giving him water from his hands (long story short, he could heal anyone by having them drink water out of his hands), but several times he let the water flow through his fingers before he could get it to Diarmuid. Fionn’s grandson Oscar had enough and scolded him to the point where he intended to give Diarmuid the water, but by then it was too late and the hero succumbed to his wounds.
According to legend Fionn never died. Instead, he rests in an enchanted sleep within a cave with the Fianna. When Ireland enters its darkest hour, someone will find the hunting horn of the Fianna, the Dord Fiann, and blow it three times. When that happens, Fionn will be revived in his prime and will lead the Fianna in saving Ireland from whatever threatens her.
It’s kind of hard to not learn about someone like Fionn and realize his name can also be McCool. The abilities he had at his disposal made him an ancient mythological superhero, and he lived up to that reputation. He went from being hunted like an animal to leading a band of the greatest warriors the Celts had ever known. The tales regarding him returning when Ireland would need him do echo what I’ve heard about King Arthur resting on Avalon until England needs him again. It is kind of cool to hear that there is another hero is resting until his strength is needed again.
As you can see even talking about one Celtic hero brings up others, as their legends tended to cross with each other. They had a rich mythology full of heroes that included women like Scáthach and Medb (who in some legends was a hero, and in others an actual goddess). What I gather from such figures present in their myths and legends, was that strength was essential for everyone. I find it quite sad that this mythology has a rich pool of powerful heroes that seem to have, for the most part, been overlooked by pop culture, as I think several of these characters deserve to be as loved as other names, like Hercules or Perseus, or even knights like Lancelot or Tristan. I hope in the very least that people will be encouraged to read into these myths and find out which heroes they like from the Celtic world.