Balor- Celtic GiantGiant"King of the Fomorians"

The Eye

Balor was not born with the killing eye. As a youth, he spied through a window on his father's druids as they brewed a poison over a magical fire. The fumes rose from the cauldron and entered through his eye. From that moment his gaze brought death to everything it fell upon, and the eye grew so heavy with accumulated venom that it could not open without help. Four men strained at a polished handle threaded through the lid. When they raised it on the battlefield, warriors fell dead where they stood, scorched by the gaze as if by invisible fire. Balor kept the eye shut at all times except in war.

He ruled the Fomorians from Tory Island off the coast of Donegal. Cath Maige Tuired names him the grandson of Net, a Fomorian war god. His people came from beneath the sea or from islands beyond the northern horizon, and they had contested Ireland through every age recorded in Lebor Gabála Érenn.

The Tower

A druid prophesied that Balor's own grandson would kill him. Balor had one daughter, Ethniu. He locked her in a crystal tower on Tory Island called Tor Mór, set high on the sea-cliffs, and assigned twelve women to guard her. She was raised without ever learning that men existed.

Then Balor stole the Glas Gaibhnenn, a cow of extraordinary milk-giving power, from a smith named Cian. Cian enlisted a druidess called Biróg, who raised a wind and carried him to the top of Ethniu's tower. Ethniu conceived triplets. When Balor discovered the births, he ordered the three infants wrapped in a sheet and thrown into the whirlpool off Tory Island. A pin came loose as the bundle was carried to the sea, and one child tumbled free into the water. Biróg pulled him out. The surviving child was fostered in secret and grew to become Lugh.

Tribute

Under Balor's rule, the Fomorians extracted crushing tribute from every people that held Ireland. When the Tuatha Dé Danann governed the land, the half-Fomorian king Bres served as Balor's instrument. The Dagda was forced to dig ditches. Ogma carried firewood. The divine craftsmen went unhonored and unfed. Bres denied every courtesy due to guests: no grease shone upon the knives at his table, and no visitor left his hall with the smell of ale upon his breath.

The poet Cairbre composed the first satire ever spoken in Ireland, and it raised blisters upon Bres's face. His rule became untenable. When Bres was deposed, he fled to Balor and raised an army for reconquest.

Mag Tuired

Balor gathered the full strength of his people and marched south to meet the Tuatha Dé Danann on the plain of Mag Tuired. The Tuatha Dé Danann had the Well of Sláine, which restored their wounded, and weapons forged by Goibniu that never missed. But when Balor's attendants raised his lid, death swept across the field. King Nuada fell. His queen Macha fell beside him.

Lugh had been held back by kinsmen who feared losing him. He broke free and advanced across the battlefield. As the four attendants strained at the handle to raise the lid once more, Lugh cast a stone from his sling with such force that it struck the eye and drove it through the back of Balor's skull. The eye, now facing backward, turned its killing gaze upon the Fomorian ranks. Their own warriors died in swathes. Balor collapsed on the plain, killed by the grandson he had tried to drown.

The surviving Fomorians fled into the sea. Bres was captured and begged for mercy. Lugh spared him in exchange for the secrets of agriculture: when to plow, when to sow, when to reap. In folk tradition, a lake in County Sligo called Loch na Súil, "Lake of the Eye," formed where the terrible eye struck the ground. Its venom burned a hollow that filled with dark water.

Tory Island

On Tory Island, the rocks still carry Balor's name. A promontory on the eastern end is called Dún Bhaloir, identified as the site of his stronghold. A dramatic rock formation is pointed out as the tower where Ethniu was confined. Local fishermen avoided certain rocks and tidal pools, and stories persisted of holes in the cliff face called "Balor's Eye," which brought ill health to anyone reckless enough to peer through them.