Heroes Section: The Fates of the Sons of Tureen... Background characters...

This area of the page deals with the background characters who appear in the tales of the great heroes. The sources of the quoted passages (quoted text is green script) are listed in the Bibliography.

INDEX

Topic 1 King Nuada of the silver hand.

Topic 2 Balor of the Evil eye.

Topic 3 Luga of the long arms.

Topic 1

King Nuada of the silver hand. Back to the Index.

King Nuada lead the Dananns against the Fir Bolgs at the first battle of Moytura. During the battle, his arm was cut off by Sreng, the champion of the Fir Bolg. The army of the Tuath de Danann won the battle. After the battle, his arm was replaced with a metal replica by Dianket. Because he was no longer physically perfect, he had to give up his kingship and could only return to the thrown when Midac (Dianket's son) replaced his arm with a real hand just as perfect as it had been before it was cut off. Midac had to remove the metal replica that his father had created before he repaired the arm. Nuada was able to return to the thrown when his arm healed, but Dianket killed his son for out-performing him in the art of healing.

 

In his seven year absence, Bres the half-Formorian (the son of Balor of the evil eye) ruled the country. When Nuada returned to the thrown, Bres returned home in anger to his father and built up an army to attack the Dananns. This invading army was under the command of Balor of the evil eye. Luga of the Long arms seems to have foreseen the invasion of the Formorians and prepared in advance. It was with this intention that he imposed the eric fine upon the sons of Tureen for the killing of his father Cian after the invasion of the Formorians (the talismen he told them to collect were for use in the up coming war).

 

When the Formorian force arrived on the island, they meet and fought with the defending de Danann army at the Northern Moytura (in Sligo). During the battle (which was on the eve of Samhan), Nuada was decapitated by Balor of the evil eye, who was himself slain by his own grandson Luga of the long arms.

 

Topic 2

Balor of the evil eye. Back to the Index.

The King of the Formorian tyrants was Balor. Known as 'Balor of the evil eye' and also as 'Balor of the mighty blows', he ruled the Formorians during their time of their power over the Tuatha de Danann. His Queen was Kethlenda of the crocked teeth, he reputedly had 12 sons. Balor was always cast in an evil light in all legends in which he played any part. Wickedness and cruelty seem to be his main motives. When his son Bres first went to Ireland to punish the Dananns for slaying his Formorian tax collectors, Balor told him that upon his return, he was to tie the ships of the Formorian fleet to Ireland and tug it back home to Lochlann and make it part of the mainland.

 

It had been prophesied that Balor would be killed by his grandson so when Luga (his grandson) was born, he sent him to be drowned. The young Luga escaped and thus Balor had created in him the desire for revenge.

 

Balor's half-Danann son Bres had been ruling in the Danann King Nuada of the silver hand's place while he was in recovery of his wound from the first battle of Moytura. When Nuada regained the thrown, Bres returned to Balor in anger and Balor prepared to invade Ireland.

 

The main battle resulting from the invasion was the second battle of Moytura. It as here that Balor finally killed King Nuada, decapitating him in the battle. Balor himself was slain during that same battle by his grandson Luga (thus fulfilling the prophesy). Luga fired a stone at his evil eye with a sling. The shot was of such force that the stone passed straight through Balor's skull and out the other end.

 

Topic 3

Luga of the long arms. Back to the Index.

The name of Luga is best known from the tale of the sons of Tureen. Luga was a half-Formorian half-Danann champion who fought on the side of the Dananns. He was loyal to the Dananns because his grand father Balor of the evil eye had tried to have him killed when he was young. The reasons for doing this were to stop Luga from being the prophesied grandson that would grow up to kill Balor. By his actions, Balor himself made Luga hate him and thus eventually kill him in keeping with the legend.

 

Luga is portrayed as both a fair warrior yet also as an evil and untrustworthy man off ill will depending on which version of the tale of Tureen's sons you read. Luga is cast in a different light from tale to tale and it is difficult to make any judgements upon his personality. It was Luga who killed the Formorian tax collectors and as a result, started the de Dananns on their path to freedom from Formorian oppression.

 

In the tale of the sons of Tureen, Luga gives the three sons of Tureen an eric (a set of tasks to undertake as a punishment for the wrongful homicide of a relative or friend) after they had slain his father Cian in the woods.

It seems that Luga had foreseen the strife to come, for he guessed that the Formorians would invade when King Nuada returned to the throne and ousted Balor's son Bres. The artefacts which the sons of Tureen were to recover would be for use in the war and in the second battle of the Moytura.