A2A World · Field Guide 10 of the World’s Mythologies
Gaelic · Welsh · Breton
Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany and the Atlantic edge of Europe
Names, attributes, and narratives from Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Breton tradition — the invasions of Ireland, the gods of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the beasts and otherworld beings, and the stranger tales — organised so each entry can be used as a search target in deliberate pareidolia practice.
Celtic lore is full of place-stories: in Irish tradition the dinnseanchas, the ‘lore of places’, explains how hills, lakes and rivers got their names from the deeds of gods and heroes.
© A2A World LLC 2026
Context
‘Celtic’ covers several related traditions rather than one. The ancient Celts left few written words, and the surviving myths were written down by Christian monks in Ireland and Wales from the early medieval period onward, sometimes recast as history. Folklore of the fairies, selkies and giants survived orally into modern times.
Principal Sources
The Lebor Gabála Érenn (Book of Invasions, 11th century). The Ulster Cycle, including the Táin Bó Cúailnge. The Fenian Cycle of Fionn mac Cumhaill. The Dinnseanchas (lore of places). The Welsh Mabinogion, preserved in the White Book of Rhydderch and the Red Book of Hergest (14th century).
A Celtic precedent
The Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, a field of basalt columns, is told as a road Fionn mac Cumhaill built across the sea to fight the Scottish giant Benandonner. The dinnseanchas tradition gives story-origins to hundreds of Irish places. Landscape as story is native to these lands.
The two best first targets
1. Fionn mac Cumhaill as a giant — reclining giant figures in hills and headlands suit him. 2. The salmon of knowledge — a simple, strong fish silhouette. Strong alternates: the selkie, Cú Chulainn’s hound, and the Dagda’s cauldron.
I · Origins & Invasions
Waves of arrivals, divine races and the retreat into the hills.
Lebor Gabála Érenn
Key Attributes
Ireland’s mythic history.
Story
Successive peoples arrive in Ireland — among them the Partholonians, the Fir Bolg and the Tuatha Dé Danann — each struggling against the monstrous Fomorians.
Look For in the Land
Ships arriving on a coast.
Key Attributes
The divine race of Ireland.
Story
They arrive in dark clouds bringing four treasures: the Stone of Fál, the Spear of Lugh, the Sword of Nuada and the Cauldron of the Dagda.
Look For in the Land
Four objects — stone, spear, sword, cauldron.
Cath Maige Tuired
Key Attributes
Gods against Fomorians.
Story
Lugh slays the Fomorian Balor, whose single eye destroys whatever it looks upon, with a sling-stone.
Look For in the Land
A giant with one great eye; a slinger.
Key Attributes
The ancestors of the Irish.
Story
They defeat the Tuatha Dé Danann, who withdraw into the sídhe — the hills and mounds — and become the Otherworld people.
Look For in the Land
A round mound or hill with an entrance.
Key Attributes
Three goddesses of the land.
Story
Each asks the Milesians to name Ireland after her; Ériu’s name prevails as Éire.
Look For in the Land
Three female figures; a land shaped as a woman.
II · Gods & Goddesses
Gods of plenty, craft, fire and sovereignty.
Key Attributes
‘The good god’; club, harp and cauldron.
Story
His cauldron never empties; his club kills with one end and restores life with the other.
Look For in the Land
A large figure with a club; a cauldron.
Brigït
Key Attributes
Goddess of poetry, healing and smithcraft.
Story
Honoured at Imbolc (1 February); her tradition continues in the saint of Kildare and her perpetual flame.
Look For in the Land
A woman with a flame; a woven cross.
Key Attributes
Master of all arts; spear and sling.
Story
Gains entry to Tara by showing he has every skill. The harvest festival of Lughnasadh bears his name.
Look For in the Land
A warrior with a long spear.
Key Attributes
Goddess of war and fate; appears as a crow.
Story
Foretells doom and perches on the dying Cú Chulainn’s shoulder as a crow.
Look For in the Land
A crow on a standing figure.
Mabinogion
Key Attributes
Welsh queen on a white horse; her birds sing the dead awake.
Story
Appears to Pwyll riding a white horse that no rider can overtake, though it seems to move slowly.
Look For in the Land
A woman on a white horse; three birds.
III · Creatures & Otherworld Beings
Shape-shifters of sea and hill.
Bradán Feasa
Key Attributes
Fish holding all the world’s wisdom.
Story
The poet Finnegas catches it after seven years; young Fionn, cooking it, burns his thumb, sucks it, and gains its wisdom.
Look For in the Land
A salmon; a figure with thumb to mouth.
Key Attributes
Seal-people of Scottish and Irish coasts.
Story
Seals that shed their skins to walk as humans; a man who hides a selkie’s skin may keep her as his wife until she finds it.
Look For in the Land
A seal on a rock; a figure holding a skin.
Each-uisge
Key Attributes
Water-horse of Scottish lochs.
Story
A beautiful horse that lures riders onto its back and plunges into the water.
Look For in the Land
A horse at a loch’s edge.
Bean sí
Key Attributes
Woman of the sídhe whose wail foretells death.
Story
Heard keening for members of old Irish families.
Look For in the Land
A woman with long, streaming hair.
Y Ddraig Goch
Key Attributes
Welsh emblem.
Story
In the tale told by Nennius and of Merlin, two dragons fight beneath Dinas Emrys; the red dragon of the Britons defeats the white.
Look For in the Land
Two dragons locked in struggle.
IV · Heroes and Odd Tales
Giants, swans and the lands beyond the sea.
Key Attributes
Leader of the Fianna; in folklore, a giant.
Story
Fionn builds the causeway to Scotland. When Benandonner proves enormous, Fionn’s wife Oonagh disguises him as a baby; seeing the size of the ‘child’, the Scottish giant flees, tearing up the road behind him.
Look For in the Land
A reclining giant; a broken causeway across a strait.
Key Attributes
Hero of Ulster.
Story
As a boy, Setánta kills the smith Culann’s fierce hound and offers to take its place — earning the name ‘Hound of Culann’. He later defends Ulster alone in the Táin.
Look For in the Land
A hound; a warrior tied to a standing stone.
Oidheadh Chlainne Lir
Key Attributes
Four children turned into swans.
Story
Their jealous stepmother transforms them; they spend nine hundred years on Irish waters before returning to human form.
Look For in the Land
Four swans on a lake or sea.
Key Attributes
The Land of Youth.
Story
Oisín rides across the sea with Niamh to the Land of Youth. Returning after three years, he finds three hundred have passed; touching the ground, he becomes old.
Look For in the Land
A horse with two riders crossing waves.
Bendigeidfran
Key Attributes
Giant king of Britain in the Mabinogion.
Story
So large he wades across the sea to Ireland and lies down as a bridge over a river for his army. His severed head continues to speak.
Look For in the Land
A giant lying across a river.
A Note on Names, Versions and Respect
Irish and Welsh names are given in their standard forms; pronunciation differs from English spelling. Many stories exist in several versions; note the source a telling follows.
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