myireland.ie
Miotaseolaíocht na hÉireann

The four cycles

Irish mythology is not one story and not one age. It comes in four groups — the gods, the heroes of Ulster, the hunters of the fianna, and the kings — and they differ in date, in tone and in what they were for. All of it was written down by Christian monks, centuries after the telling, and every page here says so.

🌀 The Mythological Cycle🐂 The Ulster Cycle🦌 The Fenian Cycle👑 The Cycles of the Kings
🌀 an Timthriall Miotaseolaíoch · 13 places on the atlas

The Mythological Cycle

The gods, and the taking of Ireland

The oldest layer: the Tuatha Dé Danann, who are Ireland's pagan gods wearing the clothes of a conquered people, and the six invasions that brought them and then took the island from them.

The stories, the people and the places →

🐂 an Rúraíocht · 7 places on the atlas

The Ulster Cycle

Cú Chulainn, Medb, and the cattle raid

Ireland's Iliad: a war fought over one bull, an army of four provinces held at a ford by a seventeen-year-old, and a hero who chose a short life with everlasting fame over a long one without it.

The stories, the people and the places →

🦌 an Fhiannaíocht · 9 places on the atlas

The Fenian Cycle

Fionn, the Fianna and the hunt

The people's cycle: a warrior band living outside the settlements, hunting and fighting across a whole island, told by a poet who came back three hundred years late to find everyone he loved dead and Patrick preaching.

The stories, the people and the places →

👑 Timthriallta na Ríthe · 0 places on the atlas

The Cycles of the Kings

Where myth meets the annals

The fourth cycle, and the one nobody has heard of: legends about kings who mostly existed, shading from the entirely fictional to Brian Boru — plus the mad king who turned into a bird, and gave Seamus Heaney a book.

The stories, the people and the places →

CarlowCavanCorkDonegalDublinClareGalwayKerryKildareKilkennyLaoisLeitrimLimerickLongfordLouthMayoMeathMonaghanOffalyRoscommonSligoTipperaryWaterfordWestmeathWexfordWicklowAntrimArmaghDownFermanaghDerry / LondonderryTyrone Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange) — Mythological CycleMoytura — Mythological CycleTory Island — Balor's fortress — Mythological CycleHill of Uisneach — Mythological CycleSlieve Mish — the Milesian landing — Mythological CycleLough Derravaragh — the Children of Lir — Mythological CycleSruth na Maoile — the Sea of Moyle — Mythological CycleTara — the Lia Fáil — Mythological CycleRathcroghan — Oweynagat — Mythological CycleHy-Brasil — Mythological CycleShannon Pot — Sionann’s well — Mythological CycleBrí Léith — Midir and Étaín — Mythological CycleLough Erne — Érne’s flight — Mythological CycleEmain Macha — the Red Branch — Ulster Cycle (the Táin)Cruachan — Medb's court — Ulster Cycle (the Táin)Cooley Peninsula — the Brown Bull — Ulster Cycle (the Táin)Ardee — the ford of Ferdia — Ulster Cycle (the Táin)Knockbridge — Cú Chulainn's death — Ulster Cycle (the Táin)Emain Macha — Macha's curse — Ulster Cycle (the Táin)Emain Macha — Deirdre of the Sorrows — Ulster Cycle (the Táin)Hill of Allen — Fionn's fort — Fenian Cycle (Fionn)The Giant's Causeway — Fenian Cycle (Fionn)Lough Neagh — the flung sod — Fenian Cycle (Fionn)Slieve Gullion — the Cailleach's lake — Fenian Cycle (Fionn)Benbulben — Diarmuid's death — Fenian Cycle (Fionn)Gleann na Smól — Oisín returns — Fenian Cycle (Fionn)Lough Gur — Áine's lake — Fenian Cycle (Fionn)Slieve Bloom — where Fionn was reared — Fenian Cycle (Fionn)Knockmany — Fionn and Oonagh’s hill — Fenian Cycle (Fionn)Lough Leane — O'Donoghue's return — Folklore & the OtherworldLoughcrew — the Hag's Chair — Folklore & the OtherworldThe Devil's Bit — Folklore & the OtherworldDún Aonghasa — Folklore & the OtherworldKnocknarea — Medb's cairn — Folklore & the OtherworldLough Gill — the Isle of Innisfree — Folklore & the OtherworldGlendalough — Kevin and the blackbird — Folklore & the OtherworldSlieve Donard — the guardian in the mountain — Folklore & the OtherworldThe Black Pig’s Dyke — Folklore & the OtherworldKilkenny — the burning of Petronilla — Folklore & the OtherworldWexford — the drowning of Garman — Folklore & the OtherworldBanagher — the lucky sand — Folklore & the OtherworldGlencar — the stolen child — Folklore & the OtherworldThe Comeraghs — Crotty’s rock — Folklore & the OtherworldSt Mullin’s — the death of Mad Sweeney — Folklore & the OtherworldHag’s Head — Mal’s last leap — Folklore & the OtherworldThe Blarney Stone — Folklore & the OtherworldCroagh Patrick — the forty days — Folklore & the OtherworldClonmacnoise — the ship in the air — Folklore & the Otherworld

Every story is fixed to a place you can stand in. Open them on the interactive atlas to read each one where it happened.

Quick answers
What are the four cycles of Irish mythology?

The Mythological Cycle (the Tuatha Dé Danann and the taking of Ireland), the Ulster Cycle (Cú Chulainn, Medb and the Táin), the Fenian Cycle (Fionn mac Cumhaill and the fianna) and the Cycles of the Kings (legends of Ireland's kings, from the wholly fictional to Brian Boru). The grouping is a convention of modern scholarship, not something the medieval scribes used.

Who wrote down Irish mythology?

Christian monks, from about the eighth century onward — the only literate class in early medieval Ireland. They were recording an oral tradition that was already old and pagan, and they revised it to fit Christian learning, which is why the gods appear as an ancient people rather than as gods.

How old are the Irish myths?

The stories are older than the manuscripts. The texts we have date from the eighth to the twelfth centuries and later; the oldest surviving manuscript in Irish, Lebor na hUidre, is twelfth century and damaged. The material inside is older, oral, and impossible to date precisely.

Is Irish mythology the same as Celtic mythology?

Irish mythology is a branch of it — the best-preserved branch, because Irish monks wrote so much down. Welsh, Gaulish and other traditions are separate bodies of material with their own texts and gods; 'Celtic mythology' as a single system is largely a modern retail invention.

Where do the Irish myths take place?

Real, visitable places. This site pins 48 of them: Emain Macha in Armagh, Cruachan in Roscommon, Newgrange in Meath, Benbulben in Sligo, the Sea of Moyle off Antrim. The stories are attached to the landscape so tightly that a whole genre, the dindsenchas or lore of places, exists to explain how each got its name.

Sources

The stories are retold here from the standard scholarship; the texts themselves are free to read at CELT in the original and in translation. Where a tale is late, or openly Christian, or a piece of modern folklore rather than medieval literature, the page says which.

The myths on the atlas · The tombs the gods went into · The names these people gave · Samhain, Bealtaine and the old year