The Dark Champion
Celtchar mac Uthechair was one of the great champions of Conchobar mac Nessa’s Ulster — a warrior of the first rank whose career was shaped by blood-debt, penance, and a death that came from his own weapon.
He killed the husband of a woman who had shamed him. The killing required three impossible quests to expiate, assigned by Conchobar. The first was Conganchnes mac Dedad — a warrior with skin so hard it was impervious to weapons, who could only be killed by driving stakes through his feet into the ground and then cutting off his head. The second was the Hound of Mesroeda — a supernatural dog that killed thirty warriors a night. The third was the Luchtigern, the “Lord of Mice” — a creature whose blood was so venomous that it dripped back down the spear shaft and burned through Celtchar’s thigh into his body. He died of the blood of the last thing he killed, channelled back through the instrument he had used to kill it.
His spear — the Lúin of Celtchar — is one of the great weapon-treasures of Ulster. It was so bloodthirsty that when not in use it had to be kept head-down in a cauldron of poisonous liquid to prevent it from killing on its own. The weapon’s hunger for blood was the outward expression of its owner’s career: Celtchar was a warrior whose violence always cost more than it resolved. His spear killed him in the end.
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