The Fomorians
The Fomorians were the ancient powers that preceded the Tuatha Dé Danann in Ireland — older, darker, associated with the sea, the underworld, and the forces of chaos and blight. They are not simply the villains of Irish mythology. Several of the most important figures in the tradition have Fomorian blood, and the two races were bound together by alliance and intermarriage as much as by war. Bres mac Elatha was king of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Lugh himself was half-Fomorian through his mother Ethniu, daughter of Balor.
The Fomorians are most fully documented in the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, which is both the definitive account of their defeat and the richest source for their individual figures. Many of their names appear only in that text or in the genealogical lists that surround it. Some of the later figures in this list are known primarily from those lists — named members of the Fomorian host whose individual stories were not preserved.
They are presented here in alphabetical order.
Fomorians
Ainglech
Fomorian Warrior Ainglech is a Fomorian warrior whose name appears in the battle-lists of the Second Battle of Mag Tuired. He has no extended story of his own — he is one of the named fighters recorded in the accounts of the battle’s participants, preserved because the Irish mythological tradition kept careful rosters of the […]
Balor
The Evil Eye of the Fomorians Balor is the most feared figure among the Fomorians — the one-eyed king whose poisonous gaze could kill an entire army, and whose death at the hand of his own grandson was the turning point of the Second Battle of Mag Tuired. The Evil Eye wasn’t something he was […]
Bolg
Fomorian Ancestor Figure Bolg is a Fomorian figure whose name is the same word as the “Bolg” in Fir Bolg — the “bag people” or “lightning people,” one of the earliest mythological peoples to settle Ireland. Whether that shared name is a coincidence or a deliberate connection is one of Irish mythology’s more interesting open […]
Bres mac Elatha
The Half-Fomorian King Bres mac Elatha is the most instructive failed king in Irish myth. He was beautiful — the most physically striking candidate available — and his background was impeccable: son of the Fomorian king Elatha and the sovereignty goddess Ériu, which made him simultaneously the most legitimate and the most structurally impossible choice […]
Cichol
The First Fomorian Cichol Gricenchos is the first named Fomorian leader in Irish myth — the original instance of a pattern that would repeat through every settlement of Ireland until the Tuatha Dé Danann finally broke it at the Second Battle of Mag Tuired. His epithet Gricenchos means “without feet” or “on flat feet” — […]
Dé Domnand
The God of the Deep Dé Domnand is the name that gives the Fomorian king Indech his title — mac Dé Domnann, “son of the god of the deep.” The name means “the divine deep” or “god of the abyss,” and it points to the foundational darkness from which the Fomorians draw their power. The […]
Elatha
Fomorian King of Beauty and Darkness Elatha mac Delbaeth is unlike every other Fomorian king in Irish myth. He is beautiful. Golden-haired, richly dressed, arriving at the shore in a silver vessel — not the monstrous, blighting power that the Fomorians usually represent, but something more complicated and harder to dismiss. He came from the […]
Goll mac Domnaill
Fomorian Warrior Goll mac Domnaill’s name means “one-eyed son of Domnaill.” The one-eyed characteristic places him in the same symbolic register as Balor — the Fomorian king whose single terrible eye was the most feared weapon in Irish myth. Goll mac Domnaill is a minor warrior figure, but the one eye connects him to something […]
Indech
Fomorian King and Son of Domnu Indech mac Dé Domnann was one of the principal Fomorian kings at the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, and the one the Morrígan singled out for herself. Before the battle, the Morrígan met the Dagda at a river ford and lay with him, securing her support for the Tuatha […]
Loscenn Luchair
Fomorian King of the Oceans Loscenn Luchair was a Fomorian king whose power was rooted in the sea — the ocean that was always the Fomorian world’s most fundamental domain. He appears in the invasion-cycle accounts as one of the named Fomorian leaders who contested the successive peoples settling Ireland. His name may combine elements […]
Morc
Fomorian Sea-Lord Morc mac Deled was a Fomorian sea-lord active in the earliest period of Ireland’s mythological history — before the great battles between the Fomorians and the Tuatha Dé Danann, when the first peoples to settle Ireland were trying to establish themselves against the Fomorian powers already there. He appears in the accounts of […]
Octriallach
Fomorian Warrior, Son of Indech Octriallach mac Indech was a Fomorian warrior at the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, and the one who came closest to winning it without ever picking up a sword. The Tuatha Dé had a secret advantage: a healing well called Loch Sláine, where Dian Cécht and his children chanted incantations […]
Robach
Fomorian Figure Robach is a Fomorian figure preserved in the battle-lists and genealogical records of the Irish mythological tradition. No individual story survives for him. His name appears in the rosters of the Fomorian world, confirming his place in a community that was far larger than just its most famous kings. Key facts about Robach
Rúadán
Son of Bres and Brigid Rúadán was the son of two completely opposite parents: Bres mac Elatha, the deposed half-Fomorian king, and Brigid, the greatest goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann. His dual nature made him the ideal spy. His death made his mother’s grief the founding act of lamentation in Ireland. During the Second […]
Searbhán
The One-Eyed Guardian of the Rowan Tree Searbhan was a Fomorian giant who survived the Second Battle of Mag Tuired and was given a single task: guard a magical rowan tree in Dubros forest in Connacht. He was one-eyed, one-armed, and one-legged, and he carried an iron club. The berries of the tree he guarded […]
Sinnach
The Fox of the Fomorians Sinnach’s name means “fox.” In Irish myth, the fox meant cunning, concealment, and the ability to move through the world without being seen coming. Most Fomorian figures wielded their power through raw destruction — Balor‘s eye, the blighting of the land, the force of the sea. Sinnach’s name suggests something […]
Tethra
Fomorian King and Lord of the Dead Tethra was one of the three principal Fomorian kings at the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, alongside Balor and Indech. He was killed in the battle by Ogma, the Tuatha Dé’s champion and god of language — and what happened next is one of the most unusual moments […]