Lugh, Balor, and the greatest battle in Irish mythology
If the First Battle of Mag Tuired was the Tuatha Dé Danann winning Ireland, the Second Battle of Mag Tuired was them almost losing it. This is the greatest conflict in all of Irish mythology — the war between the gods and the fomorians, the ancient dark forces who had dominated Ireland since before any people arrived. It ends with one of the most dramatic moments in the tradition: the young god lugh facing the terrible Balor of the Evil Eye across the battlefield — a grandson facing the grandfather who had tried to prevent his birth.
The Problem of Bres
The trouble began with a king. When nuada was wounded and could no longer rule, the Tuatha Dé Danann chose a new king: Bres mac Elatha — handsome, strong, the son of a Fomorian father and a goddess mother. He seemed like a perfect bridge between the two peoples. He was a disaster.
Bres mac Elatha was stingy where a king should be generous — the great warriors of Ireland had to work as servants at his court, and the poets went hungry. The god Ogma carried firewood. The Dagda dug ditches. When the poet Cairbre was given a single dry biscuit as his hospitality and composed a blistering satirical poem about it, Bres mac Elatha was finished. A king who could not survive a poet’s criticism could not survive at all. He was deposed — and he ran straight to his Fomorian grandfather to raise an army for revenge.
The Arrival of Lugh
At exactly this moment, a young man arrived at the gates of the Tuatha Dé Danann court. The doorkeeper asked him what skill he had — no one without a skill could enter. “I am a carpenter,” said the young man. “We have one,” said the doorkeeper. “I am a smith.” “We have one.” “I am a warrior, a harper, a poet, a historian, a sorcerer, a physician.” One by one, every skill was already taken.
Then the young man asked: “Do you have anyone who is all of these things at once?” The doorkeeper went to ask the king. The king came out to look at this remarkable young man — and let him in. He was lugh, the son of cian of the Tuatha Dé Danann and ethniu daughter of Balor of the Fomorians. He was the master of every skill because he was the child of both worlds. And a prophecy had said that Balor’s own grandson would kill him.
The Battle
The Fomorians came with a vast army, led by Balor of the Evil Eye — whose one eye, when its great eyelid was lifted by four men with a hook, could destroy an entire army with its burning gaze. The Tuatha Dé Danann prepared every magical resource they had. The Dagda’s cauldron would restore the dead. The wounded were healed in Dian Cecht’s magical well. The Morrígan flew over the field as a crow, turning the battle with her presence.
Grandson Against Grandfather
The decisive moment came when Lugh and Balor faced each other. The great eyelid began to open. Lugh drove his spear straight through it — driving the eye backwards through Balor’s skull so that it now faced the Fomorian army, burning them with its own terrible power. Balor fell dead. The prophecy was complete. The Fomorians broke and fled into the sea, and the Morrígan sang a great victory poem over Ireland. The gods had held their island.
Key facts about Second Battle of Mag Tuired
- Irish title: Cath Maige Tuired (“The Battle of Mag Tuired”)
- Combatants: Tuatha Dé Danann vs Fomorians
- Cause: Bres mac Elatha deposed as king; flees to Fomorians for revenge
- Key arrival: Lugh — master of every skill; son of a Tuatha Dé father and Fomorian mother
- Most feared weapon: Balor’s Evil Eye — its gaze destroyed armies; required four men to lift the lid
- Decisive moment: Lugh drove his spear through Balor’s eye — killing his own grandfather
- Fomorian leader killed: Balor of the Evil Eye
- Result: Tuatha Dé Danann victory; Fomorians driven from Ireland forever
- Source: Cath Maige Tuired (preserved in a 16th-century manuscript)
- Cycle: Mythological Cycle
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