Lug mac Ethnenn
Also spelled: Lugh, Lug, Lugh Lámhfhada, Lug Lámfhota, Lugh mac Ethlenn
A prince of the síde who says in a dream that Cúchulainn is his son, and who later heals him and holds off the armies for three days.
Overview
In the tale of Cúchulainn's begetting, Deichtine dreams of a man who says he brought her to the Brug to sleep with her, that the boy she reared was his and is planted in her womb again, to be called Sétanta, and that he is Lug mac Ethnenn. The men of Ulster guess it may have been Conchobor in his drunkenness, and Deichtine is then given to Sualdam mac Roich, so the text gives Cúchulainn three possible fathers and does not choose. Later, alone against four provinces, Cúchulainn is visited by a warrior only Laeg can see, who names himself as "your father from the síde", sings him to sleep for three days and nights at Lerga, packs his wounds with herbs and stands against the armies meanwhile. He will not stay to help further, since the glory of any deed done in Cúchulainn's company goes to Cúchulainn.
I am Lug mac Ethnenn, your father from the síde.
Connections
Related characters
- Cúchulainn (says he is his father from the síde)
- Deichtine (the woman he says he brought to the Brug)
- Laeg mac Riangabra (the charioteer who sees him crossing the camp)
- Sualdam (the husband Deichtine is given to)
Places
Appears in chapters
Appears in
- Deichtine dreams that a man tells her he brought her to Brug to sleep with her there, and that he is Lug mac Ethnenn. At Brug. In How Cúchulainn was Begotten.
- A man nobody else can see crosses the camp toward him and says he is Lug mac Ethnenn, his father from the síde, and tells him to sleep three days and three nights while he stands against the armies. At Lerga. In Chapter IX: The Pact is Broken: The Great Carnage.
- While Cúchulainn sleeps, Lug cleans each wound and puts healing herbs in it, and the boy-troop of Ulster comes down under Follamain and is wiped out except Follamain. At Lerga. In Chapter IX: The Pact is Broken: The Great Carnage.
- Cúchulainn wakes at the gravemound, learns how long he has slept and what the boy-troop did, and Lug refuses to stay and fight beside him because the glory would all go to Cúchulainn. At Lerga. In Chapter IX: The Pact is Broken: The Great Carnage.