The…Other Children of Lir
Lost princes || A family dynasty || Judgment
Continuing my (very very slooow and overly specific) journey through Irish tradition, I wanted to talk about some of the more mysterious personages.
Tw for two (brief) mentions of assault/dubious consent, without detail.
Manannan mac Lir is probably one of the better known figures (which is why he’s the jumping off point for so much of my writing) alongside his foster son Lugh and his pupil Aengus - but he’s also given an extensive family of children, including Mongan, Eachdond Mor, and Gaidiar. None are quite as well-known or have stories so well-preserved (apart from possibly Niamh of the Golden Hair) but what we do know about them is interesting. Niamh could probably do with her own post so I’ll respectfully leave her out of this one. Aine is also given as Manannan’s daughter in certain sources but I couldn’t verify this and she would also need her own feature.
Mongan is interesting in that in most stories of his birth he’s half human, half tuatha de - if such a division can be considered clear cut. In The Voyage of Bran, Manannan stops Bran (another appearance of Lough Foyle) at sea to tell him that he’s going to concieve a son who’ll be a great hero. Stories vary but generally, Mongan’s father Fiachna (meaning crow) is fighting in Scotland. He’s losing, until Manannan shows up and says he’ll help, for a price. Fiachna makes the old mistake - “I’ll give anything” - and Manannan asks for his wife. In other (nicer) versions, Fiachna’s wife is well aware and the all three people involved consent. Mongan is raised in the Otherworld until his late teens, when he returns to start his job as King. Interestingly, he doesn’t seem that interested in ruling and spends his time drinking wine and playing games. He has to be prompted into making decisions by his father, and even then he retains a sense of ennui and longing to return to the Otherworld. He shapeshifts into children, a washerwoman, a priest - he has as many faces and is as fluid as you’d expect.
Eachdond Mor, Mongan’s older brother, is pictured sitting as Manannan’s left hand, accompanied by his ally Abartach, a trickster who shares a name with a character from the story of the Gilla Decair and a “wizard”/sidhe lord/creature from Garvagh in Ulster, and may be connected with Midir.
Gaidiar is Eachdond’s brother, and commits “adultery” with Becuma, a “woman of the sidhe” (in some tellings he assaults her, in others it is consensual) while they are both in prior relationships, for which she is expelled from Tir na Nog beginning a saga involving a king falling in love with her and accidentally cursing Ireland. Becuma, as the woman, is treated as solely responsible while Gaidiar - and the king - seemingly avoid repercussions.
Both brothers in their very brief appearances are portrayed as powerful lords or kings in their own right, rubbing shoulders with Aengus, the Dagda, Finbhara and Bodb Derg.
((I’ll probably come back and edit this since I know there’s a story I’m forgetting, but I’m too tired to remember it properly now, but hopefully somebody finds it interesting!))
