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 born with. When Balor was young, he crept up to a window and looked through it while his father’s druids were preparing a poisonous potion inside. The fumes rose into his eye and contaminated it — turning it from an eye into a weapon. After that, the lid had to stay shut at all times. When it was opened, everything in its path died. It took four men with hooks to haul the lid up.
A prophecy told Balor he would be killed by his own grandson. His response was to lock his daughter Ethniu in a crystal tower on Tory Island, off the Donegal coast, where no man could reach her. Cian mac Cainte of the Tuatha Dé Danann got through anyway, using a disguise arranged by a druidess. Ethniu gave birth to three sons. Balor ordered all three drowned. Two died. The third was rescued by Manannán mac Lir, raised in the Otherworld, and grew up to be Lugh.
At the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, Lugh faced Balor across the battlefield. As Balor’s men began to haul open the lid of the Evil Eye, Lugh fired a sling-stone straight through it, driving it backward through Balor’s skull. The gaze that had killed everything in front of it now faced backward — into the Fomorian army behind him. The prophecy was fulfilled exactly as it had been foretold.
Balor’s wife Cethlenn had warned him before the battle that it would go badly for the Fomorians. He didn’t listen. Dún Bhaloir — Balor’s Fort — still stands at the eastern end of Tory Island, one of the most geographically specific mythological locations in Ireland.
Key facts about Balor
Names: Balor; Balor of the Evil Eye (Balor Béimnech)
Rules over: The Fomorians; destruction through the Evil Eye
Weapons: The Evil Eye (Súil Bhaloir)
Animals: Not recorded
Other Symbols: Tory Island; Dún Bhaloir
Parents: Buarainech (“cow-faced”)
Siblings: Not recorded
Spouse: Cethlenn (prophetess)
Children: Ethniu (imprisoned on Tory Island)
Killed by: Lugh Lámhfhada (his own grandson, by sling-stone through the eye)
Greek equivalent: Cyclops Polyphemus (one-eyed giant); aspects of Kronos (the tyrant undone by his own offspring)
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