The Jealous Enchantress
Fuamnach was the first wife of Midir of Brí Léith. When Midir brought home Étaín Echraide as his beloved second wife and made no secret of how completely he loved her, Fuamnach used everything she had to destroy her rival.
She had been trained by the druid Bressal Etarlám and her magical abilities were real and powerful. She struck Étaín with a rowan wand and transformed her into a pool of water. Then a worm. Then a scarlet fly of extraordinary beauty whose humming was sweeter than music. When Óengus Mac Óg sheltered the fly-Étaín in a glass tower, Fuamnach sent a magical wind that blew her away and kept her in exile for seven more years — blown across Ireland until she fell into a drinking cup, was swallowed by a noblewoman, and was reborn as a mortal woman with no memory of anything she had ever been.
Óengus Mac Óg eventually killed Fuamnach in revenge for what she had done.
Her position before the end was genuinely painful. Midir had been completely and publicly in love with Étaín. Fuamnach had been his first wife, her marriage legitimate, her place established. Then it wasn’t. What she did was wrong. You can still understand why she did it.
Key facts about Fuamnach
- Names: Fuamnach
- Rules over: Druidic magic; jealous transformation
- Weapons: Rowan wand; magical wind
- Animals: Not recorded
- Other Symbols: Rowan wand; the magical wind; successive transformations
- Parents: Not recorded
- Siblings: Not recorded
- Spouse: Midir of Brí Léith
- Children: Not recorded
- Killed by: Óengus Mac Óg
- Greek equivalent: Hera (the divine first wife whose jealousy drives transformative punishment)
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