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” — a physical deformity that marks him as Fomorian in the most direct way possible. The Fomorians were consistently depicted as physically abnormal, misshapen, incomplete in ways that the incoming peoples were not. Cichol is the first example of this.
He led the Fomorians against the people of Partholón — the second mythological people to settle Ireland — in what was the first armed conflict in all of Irish mythological history. The people of Partholón won. The Fomorians were driven back but not destroyed. That is the key detail about Cichol and about the Fomorians in general: they were never entirely eliminated. They kept coming back, contesting every new settlement, losing every decisive battle, and persisting underneath the new order regardless. Cichol established that pattern.
Key facts about Cichol Gricenchos
- Names: Cichol Gricenchos (“Cichol the footless/flat-footed”)
- Rules over: The Fomorian presence against the earliest Irish settlers
- Weapons: Not recorded
- Animals: Not recorded
- Other Symbols: Not recorded
- Parents: Not recorded
- Siblings: Not recorded
- Spouse: Not recorded
- Children: Not recorded
- Greek equivalent: Not recorded
Link/cite this page
If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.
Link will appear as Cichol: https://irishgodsandgoddesses.net - Irish Gods & Goddesses, March 22, 2026