Editing Manannán mac Lir (section)

== Folklore ==
=== County Monaghan ===
There are many oral folktales about conflicts between Manannán and St. Patrick in County Monaghan. In many of them Manannán invites St. Patrick to his castle for a feast; however, Patrick is warned by a butler or servant not to eat the food because it is poisoned. In retaliation for the crime, Patrick turns Manannán into a giant eel or salmon,<ref>{{Cite web |title=St Peter's, Phibsboro {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4428244/4388010|access-date=25 December 2021|website=dúchas.ie}}</ref> and in some stories he is placed in a bottle and sent to the bottom of a lake to guard his iron treasure chest (or barrel) until the end of time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Manann Castle |url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4723817/4716065/4743504 |access-date=25 December 2021 |website=dúchas.ie}}</ref><ref name="Manann Castle">{{Cite web |title=Manann Castle |url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4758587/4756881/4936445 |access-date=25 December 2021 |website=dúchas.ie}}</ref> The treasure is chained to a team of white horses, and the chain can be seen at the top of the lake.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Caisleán Mannan |url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4742041/4730189/4950954 |access-date=25 December 2021 |website=dúchas.ie}}</ref> In one story from County Monaghan, Manannán's castle was built with mortar from the blood of slaughtered animals, which allowed it to resist weathering for centuries.<ref>{{Cite web |title=St Peter's, Phibsboro {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4428244/4388009|access-date=25 December 2021|website=dúchas.ie}}</ref> When the top of the castle toppled over, the bottom part sank into the ground, but the ruins could still be seen owing to the power of Manannán. In some stories, Manann was said to ride a flying white steed and could transform himself into a dove and could be heard crying every seven years.<ref name="Manann Castle" />

In another story, Manann was a druid who challenged St. Patrick over whose god was more powerful. Manann covered the land in darkness, but St. Patrick placed his crozier in the ground, prayed to God, and dispelled the darkness. At the spot where St. Patrick placed his crozier, a well called ''Tobar Lasar'' sprang from the ground.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Taplach {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4758587/4756934/4936540|access-date=25 December 2021|website=dúchas.ie}}</ref>

In another story, villagers searching for Manann's treasure attempt to drain his lake, but just before they complete their task, a man on a white steed appears before them to send them on an errand. When they return a large rock is placed in the spot where they were digging, and no chisel or hammer can break it.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Composition - Hidden Treasure |url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5162735/5159791/5163887 |access-date=25 December 2021 |website=dúchas.ie}}</ref> In a variant of this story, all the men's horses are killed, and the work they had completed to dig the channel was filled with silt.<ref>{{Cite web |title=St Peter's, Phibsboro {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4428244/4388011/4510330|access-date=25 December 2021|website=dúchas.ie}}</ref>

In another story, Manann was said to live in a castle and own a fabulous cow and calf that gave milk to everyone in the parish who wanted it. Some of the older people were jealous of the cow's abundance, and an old Protestant woman went to milk the cow into a sieve. When the cow saw what has happening, it was enraged and she and her calf ran to Dunany Point in County Louth, where they were turned to stone.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Inniskeen {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4758588/4757093|access-date=25 December 2021|website=dúchas.ie}}</ref>

=== County Mayo ===
In County Mayo, a pot of treasure was supposed to be buried in Manann's wood, and this treasure was guarded by a serpent.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Naomh Colmcille {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4427908/4356634|access-date=25 December 2021|website=dúchas.ie}}</ref>

In a variant to the story about the formation of [[Lough Cullin]] and [[Lough Conn]], Manann was said to have a huntsman named Cullen who had two hunting dogs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Scoil na mBráthar, Cathair na Mart {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4428017/4368492/4471848|access-date=25 December 2021|website=dúchas.ie}}</ref> The dogs chased after a ferocious boar, and when they overtook the boar, the boar turned and killed the dogs in Lough Conn. Cullen was then drowned at Lough Cullin.

=== County Donegal ===
In a folktale from Donegal, St. Colum Cille broke his golden chalice and sent a servant to the mainland to have it repaired. While returning to the mainland in his currach, the servant met a stranger in a currach (later identified as Manannán), who blew his breath on the chalice, which then became whole again. Manannán then asked for a response from Colum Cille, who relayed that there would be no forgiveness for the man responsible for such works. When Manannán heard this, he said he would provide no more help to the Irish until they are "as weak as water", and then retired to the gray waves in the Highlands of Scotland.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fitzgerald |first1=David |url= https://archive.org/details/revueceltiqu04pari/page/176/mode/2up?view=theater |title=Popular Tales of Ireland |date=1880 |publisher=Revue Celtique |page=177 |access-date=6 November 2021}}</ref> In a variant of this story,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cor Críochach {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4723815/4715997|access-date=25 December 2021|website=dúchas.ie}}</ref> Manann was said to live in a castle near a lake, and at night, he would draw the lake around the castle like a moat, but each morning he would return the lake to its proper place. A boy gathering water from a well ran into Manann and accidentally broke his Delft pitcher. Manann offered to put the Dellft pitcher back together using witchcraft if the boy would ask Colum Cille what sort of people go to hell. Colum Cille told the boy that people such as Manann go to hell, and when he returned to report this to Manann, Manann was so enraged that he packed up his gold in a barrel and enchanted both the gold and himself. A diver from Dublin later went down into the lake and found Manann's barrel of gold with a monstrous serpent chained to it. Men from the village then tried to drain the lake, but the morning after drilling the drain, they found it all closed up with grass growing over it.

Manann was king of the faeries and coveted a beautiful meadow in Carndonagh owned by Neill na hAirde (in some versions another faery king). Manann bought the land from Neill with pearls from the ocean and built a beautiful castle there. Neill's wife grew jealous, and she compelled her husband to go to war over the castle. Neill's army was defeated Manann's, but in retribution, Neill (or in a variant, Manann<ref>{{Cite web |title=Málainn {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4493809/4422986|access-date=25 December 2021|website=dúchas.ie}}</ref>) rode out to Bar Mouth; there he removed three enchanted rods that held back the ocean. The castle and land were subsequently submerged, but the gardens and castle can still be seen beneath the waves in Straghbregagh.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Clochar na Trócaire, Carn Domhnaigh {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4493773/4418844|access-date=25 December 2021|website=dúchas.ie}}</ref>

According to Donegal folklore, Manannán is said to be buried in the Tonn Banks off the coast of [[Inishowen]], which form part of a Triad called the Three Waves of Erin. When [[Cú Chulainn]] struck his shield, the three waves of Erin echoed the sound and roared across the ocean. Manannán's spirit is believed to ride the storms that occur when ships are wrecked. The three legs of Manannán "paradoxically" make up the [[Coat of arms of the Isle of Man|heraldic arms of Man]], and are said to represent the "storm-god careering over land and sea with whirling motion".<ref>{{Cite web |title=St Columb's Moville {{!}} The Schools' Collection|url= https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4493791/4420791|access-date=25 December 2021|website=dúchas.ie}}</ref>

=== Merchant Orbsen ===
The 9th century {{lang|sga|[[Sanas Cormaic]]}} ('Cormac's Glossary') [[Euhemerism|euhemerizes]] Manannán as "a famous merchant" of the Isle of Man and the best sailor in western Europe, who knew by "studying the heavens" when the weather would be good and bad.<ref name="odonovan-cormacs-gl" /> O'Donovan's annotation remarks that this merchant went by another name, Orbsen, son of Allot,<ref name="odonovan-cormacs-gl" /> and it is stated thus in [[Roderick O'Flaherty]]'s ''Ogygia'' (1685).<ref name="oflaherty-ogygia-eng" />

However, the ''[[Yellow Book of Lecan]]'' (written c.&nbsp;1400) separates these figures, stating there were four individuals called ''Manandán'' who lived at different times. They were: ''Manandán mac Alloit'', a "druid of the Tuath Dé Danann" whose "proper name was Oirbsen"; ''Manandán mac Lir'', a great sailor, merchant and druid; ''Manandán mac Cirp'', king of the Isles and Mann; and ''Manandán mac Atgnai'', who took in the [[Deirdre|sons of Uisnech]] and sailed to Ireland to avenge their deaths.<ref name="Skene">[[William F. Skene|Skene, William F.]] (1868) "[https://books.google.com/books?id=YN5fAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA78 Chapter VI. Manau Gododin and the Picts]", ''The Four Ancient Books of Wales'' '''1''', pp. 78–79. [https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/fab/fab008.htm#page_78 e-text] via Internet Archive</ref>

Tradition has it that Orbsen engaged in the Battle of [[Moycullen]] in Co. Galway, and fell on the brink of Lake Orbsen;{{sfnp|O'Flaherty|1793|pp=26–27}} the lake, named after him, is the present-day [[Lough Corrib]].<ref name="odonovan-cormacs-gl" /> The conflict in which Manannan mac Alloid was slain by Ullinn was recorded in verse by 11th century poet [[Flann Mainistrech]].{{sfnp|O'Flaherty|1793|pp=26–27}} There is a great stone pillar erected in the field of Moycullin, possibly marking the battle location.{{Refn|group-lower-alpha|Borlase makes Orbsen and Ullinn who fought here as "two giants", but that was not stated by his source, O'Donovan.}}<ref>{{harvp|Borlase|1897|p=795}} and note ††, citing O'Donovan, O.S.L. [Ordnance Survey Letters] <math>\tfrac{14}{D. 3}</math> {{URL|1=http://places.galwaylibrary.ie/letters/a18390727.html#pageAnchor_152|2=p. 152, 157, 164}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=July 2024|reason=Borlase's is a 3-volume work, so the vol. no. is needed.}}

Oirbsen is also mentioned in the Lebor Gabala Erenn, where it gives his genealogy as follows: Galia s. Oirbsen s. Elloth s. Elada s. Delbaeth s. Net.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Lebor Gabala Erenn pt 4 |url= http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/lebor4.html |access-date=10 June 2024 |website=www.maryjones.us}}</ref>

It goes on to state: "Orbsen was the name of Manannan at first, and from him is named Loch Orbsen in Connachta. When Manannan was being buried, it is then the lake burst over the land, [through the burial]."<ref name=":0" />

=== O'Neill's Horse Race ===
There is a folk tale that an English horse racer challenges one of the [[O'Neill dynasty|O'Neills]] to a horse race. Manannán wants to defend the character of the Irish and knows that none of O'Neill's horses stands a chance against the Englishman's, so he appears in the form of a beggar and challenges the Englishman to a race that he himself runs from [[Shane's Castle]] to [[Dublin]]. By his enchantments, he wins the race and defends the pride of Ireland and the O'Neill clan.<ref>{{harvp|Borlase|1897|p=825}}, citing O'Donovan, O.S.L. [Ordnance Survey Letters] Co. Londonderry <math>\tfrac{14}{E. 12}</math> p. 30.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=July 2024|reason=Borlase's is a 3-volume work, so the vol. no. is needed.}} The tale bears some resemblance to the horse race of [[Macha]] and also the Roman tradition in which [[Neptune (mythology)|''Neptune Equester'']] oversaw horse races.

=== O'Donnell's Kern ===
In the story "O'Donnell's Kern", Manannan appears as a kern or serving man at the courts of various historical personages from 16th Century Ireland. As a kern, Manannan is repeatedly described as wearing thinly striped clothing and leather brogues (shoes) soaking with water, having ears and half his sword protruding from his mantle, and carrying three scorched holly javelins (elsewhere described as a single javelin) in his right hand. In this guise, he again appears as a trickster, walking into his hosts' homes uninvited and undetected by the guardsmen.

At Black Hugh O'Donnell's home in Ballyshannon, Manannan challenges the court musicians to a competition, and with a harp plays music so sweetly melodious that it can put anyone to sleep – including the suffering and dying. O'Donnell declares he has never heard such beautiful music and offers the kern new clothing; the kern refuses O'Donnell's gift and also refuses to stay in his court (indicating he must go to Cnoc Aine the next day), so O'Donnell has his men surround the kern to prevent his departure. Manannan again plays music, but this time the strain causes O'Donnell's men to hack each other to pieces with axes. When he leaves O'Donnell, Manannan extracts a fine of twenty cattle and land, and in exchange, rubs a magic herb on the gums of O'Donnell's slaughtered men that revives them to life.

At the kern's next stop near Limerick, Shane Mac an Iarla invites the kern into his home, having heard of Manannan's reputation with reading and music, to which Manannan declares he is not impotent. However, when Shane brings the kern an instrument and a book, the kern is unable to read or play until Shane lampoons him. When Shane asks Manannan whether he has visited Desmond before, he declares that he was there with the Fianna, several millennia earlier.

Next, the kern travels to Leinster to visit MacEochaidh, who is incapacitated with a broken leg and blood poisoning. When asked about his art, the kern declares that he is a healer and tells MacEochaidh that if he will put his stingy, churlish behavior past him he would be healed. Manannan then dresses MacEochaidh's leg with a healing herb, who immediately recovers from his affliction. MacEochaidh then throws a feast for Manannan and offers him his buxom daughter along with three hundred each of cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs. Before he can receive his reward, however, the kern flees MacEochaidh's house to his next destination.

He goes to Sligo where he encounters O'Conner, who is about to make war with Munster. After some ridicule from O'Conner's men, the kern offers his military services to O'Conner if he agrees that nothing unfair will be done to the kern. O'Conner's men engage in cattle raiding, and when the men of Munster attempt to steal them back, Manannan kills them with a bow and 24 arrows. He then drives all the cattle across the Shannon and back to O'Conner in Sligo. At a feast to celebrate the victory, O'Conner slights Manannan by drinking the first toast without a thought to the kern, so Manannan recites some verses indicating his displeasure and then vanishes from the company.

Then, the kern goes to Teigue O'Kelly's home and describes his art as conjuring. He bluffs O'Kelly with two spurious tricks (wagging an ear and making a reed disappear), then from a bag conjures a thread that he throws into the air and fixes to a cloud, a hare, a beagle, and a dog boy. From another bag he pulls a woman, and all the characters go running up the thread into the clouds. The king remarks that something bad will happen, such as the boy ending up with the woman, and the dog eating the hare. When Manannan reels in his thread, this is indeed, exactly what the men discover has happened, and O'Kelly, in anger, beheads the dogboy. The kern then replaces the dog boy's head backward, but after O'Kelly's complaints turns it back to the right side.

Finally, the kern visits the King of Leinster, whose musicians he declares sound worse than the sledgehammer's thunder in the lowest regions of hell. The King's musicians and men then jump the kern, but each blow they make on the kern inflicts the same wound on themselves. In retaliation, the King has the kern taken out 3 times to the gallows to be hanged, but each time, they find in the kern's place one of the king's confidants at the end of the rope. The following day at sunrise, the kern returns to the king's castle and offers to heal all the men who were killed the previous day, which he revives with a healing herb.

It is only at the end of the tale that the kern is revealed as Manannan, who is offered a dish of crabapples and bonnyclabber at Shane O'Donnellan's house in Meath. As the kern, Manannan repeatedly calls himself sweet one day and bitter or sour the next and describes himself as a stroller or traveler who was born in "Ellach of the kings". He also gives the following names for himself "Duartaine O'Duartaine", "Cathal O'Cein", "Gilla de", and "Gilla Decair" during his travels. O'Donnell's Kern is an example of the folk memory of the Irish gods long after Christianization.<ref name="MacCulloch">MacCulloch, John Arnott (1916-1932) [[wikisource:The Mythology of All Races/Celtic Mythology/Chapter 4|online "Chapter 4: Mythic Powers of the Gods"]] in ''The Mythology of All Races''.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170829111719/http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/boneill/index_files/kern.html ''O'Donnell's Kern'']</ref>

=== The Pursuit of the Gilla Decair and His Horse ===
As the Gilla Decair, a name also referenced in "O'Donnell's Kern", Manannán appears in the Fenian story "The Pursuit of the Gilla Decair and his Horse". In this tale the Fianna encounter the Gilla on [[Samhain]] while pursuing the hunt through the forests of Ballachgowan in [[Munster]]. The Gilla is described as a gigantic, virile ruffian with black limbs, devilish, misshapen, and ugly, leading a gaunt horse with grey hindquarters and thin legs with an iron chain. Additionally, the Gilla is dressed as a warrior with a convex, black shield hanging from his back, a wide grooved sword at his left thigh, two long javelins at his shoulder, and a limp mantle about him, all reminiscent of Manannan's description in "O'Donnell's Kern". After greeting Finn with a lay that begins, "May the gods bless thee, [[Fionn mac Cumhaill|Finn]], O man of affable discourse&nbsp;...", the Gilla tells Finn that he is a [[Fomorians|Fomorian]] who visits the kings of Christendom to earn a wage, and that his name was given because of the great personal sacrifices he makes on behalf of his retainers. The Gilla then asks Finn if he will hire him as a horseman, to which Finn assents, and then asks to release his horse to graze with those of the Fianna. When Finn grants his permission, the Gilla unbridles his horse to graze with the others and proceeds to mutilate and kill all the horses of the Fianna.

After seeking the Fianna's counsel, Finn tells [[Conán mac Morna]] to mount the Gilla's horse and ride him to death, but though he tries violently to make the horse move, he won't budge. Thirteen other Fianna then mount the horse in an attempt to weigh the horse down as much as the Gilla, but still the horse refuses to budge. The Gilla then tells Finn and the [[Fianna]] that were he to serve the rest of his term under Finn's contemptuous frivolity, he would be pitied and mocked, so he tells them that he will be parting, and leaves the [[Fianna]] with such a fierce, thundering rapidity that it is compared to the speed of a swallow and noise of a March wind over a mountain. As soon as the Gilla's horse loses sight of his master, he speeds off after him with fourteen of the [[Fianna]] on his back. Finn and the remaining Fianna then track the Gilla and his horse until they arrive at the sea, where another of the Fianna grabs the horse's tail as it alights over the water with the fifteen men.

Finn then travels to Ben-Adar, where the [[Tuatha Dé Danann]] promised the [[Goídel Glas|children of the Gael]] that should they ever need to leave Ireland, they would encounter a ship outfit for them. As the Fianna approach the sea, Finn encounters a pair of men, described as "bulkiest of heroes, most powerful of fighting men, hardiest of champions". Both men bear shields with lions, leopards, and griffins, "terrible" swords, crimson cloaks with gold fibulae, gold sandals, and gold bands on their heads. They bow to Finn and tell him they are the sons of the King of India, who have the ability to create ships with three fells of the axe and can carry the ships over land and sea. One of the brothers tells Finn that his name is Feradach.

After three days on [[Feradach|Feradach's]] ships without seeing any land or coastline, the Fianna reach a craggy island where they spot the Gilla's tracks. Here it is determined that [[Diarmuid Ua Duibhne|Dermot]], who was fostered by Manannan and Aengus Og, is shamed into vaulting onto the island using the javelins of Manannan, which he possessed. Dermot leaves the Fianna behind and ventures a beautiful forested land, filled with buzzing bees and birds. In the midst of the forested plain, Dermot beholds a massive tree with interlacing branches, beneath which is a well of pure water with an ornamented drinking horn suspended above it. Dermot lusts after the water in the well, pursues it and is confronted with a loud rumbling noise indicating that none should drink of its waters. Dermot drinks the water, and a hostile wizard appears who upbraids Dermot for roaming his forests and drinking his water. Dermot and the wizard battle each other, and the wizard jumps into the well, leaving Dermot behind. Dermot then kills a stag with his javelin, cooks it, and falls asleep. The next day, he finds the wizard, and the two continue their fight for three days with the wizard jumping into his well at the end of each day. On the third day, Dermot follows the wizard into the well and finds upon his emergence, a wide open flowery plain with a regal city. He follows the wizard into the city where he fights the host until he is bleeding, injured, and on the ground. When Dermot awakens, a burly wizard kicks him in the back and explains that he is not there to do Dermot harm but to explain that he is in a dangerous place of enemies. The wizard then takes Dermot on a long journey to a towering fortress, where his wounds are healed with herbs, and he is taken to feasting with the wizard's men.

When Dermot asks where he is and whom he is, the wizard tells him he is in [[Tír na nÓg|''Tir fo Thuinn'']], that he is the Wizard of Chivalry who is an enemy of the Wizard of the Well, with whom Dermot had fought, and that he was hired o work under Finn for a year. While Dermot is detained with the Wizard of Chivalry, Finn and the Fianna craft rope ladders and also scale the cliffs onto the island. There they encounter a king on horseback who takes them to his kingdom where they enjoy feasting. The Fianna wage war with the king against the King of Greece, who is attempting to invade the island. After winning the war, there is a great celebration with the kings of other lands, and there Finn is reunited with Dermot. Dermot explains that the Gilla's true name is Abartach son of Allchad, and he lives in the Land of Promise.

The daughter of the King of Greece promised herself to Finn prior to the King's defeat, so the Fianna split into groups again, one to pursue Abartach, and the other to Greece. The Fianna retrieve the King of Greece's daughter Taise for Finn, and return to the Land of Promise. There they reunite with Finn, who has found Abartach. Abartach challenges Finn to determine what debt is owed for the long journeys, adventures, and victories of the Fianna, to which Conan demands payment in the form of fourteen women from the Land of Promise along with Abartach's own wife, who are to ride on his horse, as the Fianna had, back to Ireland. Abartach agrees to the terms, vanishes before the Fianna, and the company returns to Ireland.

Although none of the characters in the story are explicitly called Manannan, the setting of the tale in ''Tir fo Thuinn'', the use of the name Gilla Decair, which is explicitly one of Manannan's bynames in O'Donnell's Kern, and the description of the Gilla's behavior all clearly point to his being the central character on the island.<ref name="Gilla" /> Additionally, the name Abartach is used in the context of Manannan's family as the right-hand man of Manannan's son Eachdond Mor.<ref name="dobs-altram" /> In the ''Book of Lecan'' Abartach and Manannan are listed together as two celebrated chiefs of the Tuatha De known for being, respectively, a great musician and a great navigator.<ref>{{harvp|Borlase|1897|p=826}}, citing the [[Book of Lecan]]</ref>{{full citation needed|date=July 2024|reason=Borlase's is a 3-volume work, so the vol. no. is needed.}} Elsewhere Abartach, whose name means dwarf, and who also goes by the name Averty, was a magician of dwarfish size that terrorized part of Ireland. Abartach was only vulnerable in one part of his body, and [[Fionn mac Cumhaill]] was able to slay him by sticking his thumb into his mouth to determine the vulnerable spot before spearing him. Abartach was then buried upside down in his grave to prevent his rising from the dead.