Manannán mac Lir- Celtic GodDeity"Son of the Sea"

The Sea as a Flowering Plain

In the Immram Brain, the voyaging prince Bran mac Febail was sailing the open ocean when Manannán appeared, driving his chariot across the waves as if crossing dry land. He sang a poem of fifty quatrains explaining what he saw. The waves were a flowering meadow to him. The fish were calves and lambs grazing in the fields. The wave-crests were his chariot horses, and the salmon leaping from the surf were racing steeds. What mortals saw as ocean was, for Manannán, solid ground covered in blossoming trees and fragrant grass.

He told Bran he was riding toward Emain Ablach, the Island of Women, and that Bran would find delight there. But he warned them not to set foot on Irish soil when they returned. When one of Bran's men later leaped ashore, he crumbled to dust, as though the centuries of their absence struck him all at once.

The Hiding of the Gods

When the Milesians defeated the Tuatha Dé Danann and took the surface of Ireland, it was Manannán who organized the retreat. He distributed the síd mounds among the gods. The Dagda received Brú na Bóinne. Bodb Dearg received Síd ar Femhin. Then Manannán raised the féth fíada, his cloak of mist, around them all. The veil hid the Tuatha Dé Danann from mortal sight and separated the world of gods from the world of men.

He also fostered the infant Lugh after the child was endangered by his grandfather Balor of the Evil Eye. Manannán raised him in the Otherworld and, when Lugh came of age, armed him with his own sword Fragarach, which cut through any armor and forced the truth from whoever felt its edge. The Altram Tige Dá Medar tells how the child grew beyond the measure of mortal children, nourished on the food of the immortal realm.

The Silver Branch

The Echtrae Chormaic tells how Manannán appeared to the High King Cormac mac Airt as a grey-haired warrior carrying a silver branch with three golden apples. When shaken, the branch made music sweet enough to ease any pain. He offered it to Cormac in exchange for three wishes: on successive visits he took Cormac's children and then his wife.

Cormac pursued them into a magical mist and found himself in the Otherworld. He saw a palace with bronze pillars and a fountain fed by five streams. Manannán revealed his true identity, reunited the family, and gave Cormac a golden cup that shattered when three lies were spoken over it and was restored whole when three truths were told. The cup became one of the treasures of Tara.

The Cloak Between Lovers

Manannán's wife Fand appears in the Serglige Con Culainn. Manannán had left her, and she became entangled with the hero Cú Chulainn, who fought Otherworld enemies on her behalf. When Cú Chulainn's wife Emer arrived with fifty women carrying knives to confront her rival, Fand was moved by Emer's grief and prepared to leave.

Then Manannán returned. He shook his great cloak between Fand and Cú Chulainn, and each forgot the other utterly. They would never seek each other again. The druids of Ulster gave Emer and Cú Chulainn drinks of forgetfulness as well. Fand went back to Manannán willingly, saying he was a worthy husband and that she had lacked for nothing when they were together.

The Bargain on the Battlefield

The Compert Mongáin tells how Manannán fathered Mongán mac Fiachna, a semi-historical king of the Dál Fiatach in Ulster. Fiachna was losing a battle in Scotland when Manannán appeared and offered to turn the fight in his favor. The price was a single night with Fiachna's wife. Fiachna agreed. Manannán went to her in her husband's form.

The child born from that night, Mongán, was taken to the Otherworld for fostering and returned with the ability to shift his shape and knowledge of past lives. He once corrected the poet Forgoll about the death of the hero Fothad Airgdech, proving through Otherworldly knowledge that the accepted account was wrong.

Manawydan in Dyfed

The Third Branch of the Mabinogi gives Manannán a Welsh form: Manawydan fab Llŷr, brother to Brân the Blessed. An enchantment fell upon Dyfed, stripping it of all people and livestock. Manawydan worked patiently as a craftsman, first a saddler, then a shoemaker, driven away each time by rivals who could not match his skill. He finally tracked down the sorcerer Llwyd fab Cil Coed, who had cursed the land in revenge for an old wrong, and outwitted him to break the spell and restore the kingdom.