History Myth / CelticMythology

* ''ComicBook/{{Hound}}''

[[AC:Live-Action Shows]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' episode "The Hound of Ulster" features a character who is the modern reincarnation Cú Chulainn, unknowningly in a DatingCatwoman situation with an evil banshee.[[note]]When a fan noted that their love-hate relationship was rather akin to Cú Chulainn and the Morrigan, WordOfGod [[SureWhyNot suggested that the banshee was the in-universe inspiration for her]].[[/note]] Myth/KingArthur is a minor recurring character, while Avalon and TheFairFolk also appear.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' episode "The Hound of Ulster" attempted to give a modern spin to the story of Cú Chulainn.

** Also the Spear of Lugh, one of the Four Treasures. While incredibly powerful, it had to be kept in a bath of blood to avoid it bursting into flames and draining the blood of everything around it. Imagine how that would have affected the household where it was kept. Fortunately poppy juice could keep it sedated, and ''another'' of the Four Treasures was a cauldron which could "satisfy any hunger".

* BloodKnight: Efnysien

* CameBackWrong: Cerridwen's cauldron.
* CharacterDevelopment: Quite a bit of it, especially in the Ulster cycle.

* DeadpanSnarker: Diarmuid occasionally shows himself to be one in his [[BelligerentSexualTension interactions with Grainne]]. At one point, Grainne stabs Diarmuid in the thigh after they have a tiff. When Grainne later asks for a knife to cut some meat, Diarmuid tells her to search the sheath she last put it in, casually pointing to his ''still impaled thigh''.
** Note that in many cultures, including Celtic, "thigh" is usually a metaphor for [[GroinAttack "scrotum."]]

* TheFairFolk: Bleeding through into British folk tales.

* FauxDeath: Precursor of ''Literature/SleepingBeauty''.
* FoodChains: Do '''not''' eat fairy food.

* GenderBender: Gwydion

* HulkingOut: Cú Chulainn did this a lot -- possibly the UrExample.

** Ditto the Claíomh Solais or "Sword of Light" (not [[LightNovel/{{Slayers}} that one]]), the sword of Nuada before he was slain. Excalibur on crack is a decent way to describe it. It made a reappearance in ''The King of Ireland's Son''.
** Tritto Caladbolg (possibly an earlier version of Excalibur), the sword of Fergus Mac Róich, which even Cú Chulainn was afraid of. Literally "Hard/Solid Lightning," it made a pretty rainbow trail when swung... and could kill gods. No, seriously, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu it COULD kill GODS]]. He missed hitting an enemy once and ''the ensuing strike lopped the top off of three adjacent mountains''!!!
** [[OverlyLongGag Tetritto]] Fragarach ("Answerer"), the sword of Manannan mac Lir and Lugh Lamfada, which could [[AbsurdlySharpBlade cut through anything]], inflict [[WoundThatWillNotHeal untreatable wounds]], give the wielder [[RazorWind control]] [[SwordBeam over wind]], and, when pressed against a person's throat, [[TruthSerums prevent them from lying]].
** Finally, [[PublicDomainArtifact Excalibur]], i.e. the bar-none most famous sword '''IN THE WORLD'''. Not a whole lot is consistent about it, but two things are always present: one, when drawn, it'll burn out the eyes of anyone in line of sight of the blade besides the wielder; two, it could basically cut through god-on-anything like a lightsaber through half-melted butter that wasn't magical as well -- and even then, it'd better be damn strong, like the Grail Sword. Finally, its scabbard had defensive powers varying between "the bearer's wounds don't bleed" to "the bearer becomes [[NighInvulnerability completely invulnerable]]".

* MadEye: Cú Chulainn

* NerdsAreSexy: Cú Chulainn married Emer because she was the only one who could figure out [[SecretTestOfCharacter his cryptic answers to her questions.]] [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome While making up her own for]] ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome him]]'' [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome to solve.]] He then has to explain the entire thing to his charioteer Loeg (and by extension, the audience).

(''[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Cú Chulainn then repeated the conversation from the beginning]].'')

* ShapeShifterShowdown: Taliesin vs. Cerridwen.

* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Deirdre, whose life sucked so much that she has the epithet "Deirdre of the Sorrows".

* VoluntaryShapeshifting

* TheWildHunt

* ''VideoGame/{{Smite}}'' features Cú Chulainn as a playable character.

* ''VideoGame/{{Smite}}'' features the Celtic Pantheon among its playable gods.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Everyone mentioned here? They're only the ''famous'' ones.

* YearInsideHourOutside: In Tír na nÓg you experience time normally, but don't age it until you leave. Which isn't a pretty sight.
* YearOutsideHourInside: A common problem when one spends time in the Otherworld.

* TheDitz: King Pwyll of Welsh mythology. The poor guy catches one IdiotBall after the other.

* Patricia Kennealy-Morrison's ''Keltiad'' series is Celtic Mythology [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!!]] -- St. Brendan led his people on a great migration to another planet.

* ''VideoGame/{{Albion}}'' is what happens when you bring Celtic Mythology [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: There are at least three alternate spellings for ''every name in this article.'' Usually this is a result of the complicated history of Irish orthography. A name might be rendered in its Old Irish form, its Modern Irish form, or an Anglicisation, which often doesn't actually reflect English pronunciation at all. The Queen of Connacht, for instance, may be rendered Medb (Old Irish), Méabh (Modern Irish) or Maeve (Anglicised, and one of the few that actually sounds like it's spelled). It doesn't help that many books use the archaic spellings or strip out diacritics, making the pronunciation more obscure.

* DarkerAndEdgier: You probably don't want to tell THESE fairy tales to your kids. Unjust punishment, scary-ass imagery, lots of {{Tear Jerker}}s, and [[HotterAndSexier an awful lot of sex]]. However, it's easy to find bowdlerised versions of the stories aimed at younger readers. Probably the most commonly heard child-friendly story is Fionn's building of the Giant's Causeway, and subsequent outsmarting the Giant that came to fight him. Not a drop of blood spilled, and Fionn dresses up as a baby as part of the trick.

* LawOfInverseFertility: Medb, queen of [[TheChessmaster playing]] [[MagnificentBastard mind games]], has about eight kids and only cares about the youngest daughter as a living bargaining chip. Her seven sons all (presumably) survive. Cú Chulainn, despite wanting any children at all to continue his legacy, sleeps with dozens of women and has a total of ''one son'' (and not by his wife, who wants children as much as he does). He accidentally kills said son when the boy's pissed-off mother sends him off with the convenient ''geasa'' of [[ShmuckBait challenging every man he comes across, but never revealing his name.]]

* ForTheEvulz: Efnysien mutilates all of the Irish horses, seemingly for this, and then crushes the skulls (described in [[{{squick}} graphic detail]]) of the soldier's hiding in bags with little to no provocation.

* DroitDuSeigneur: Conchobar was actually ''obligated'' to sleep with Emer before Cú Chulainn. He was understandably too scared to actually sleep with the wife of a man known to go into [[TheBerserker crazy, murderous rages]], so he simply shared a bed with her while Fergus and Cathbad stayed in the room to confirm that nothing actually happened.

** As a GeniusBonus: In many cultures, including Celtic, "thigh" is usually a metaphor for [[GroinAttack "scrotum."]]

** GeniusBonus: In many cultures, including Celtic, "thigh" is usually a metaphor for [[GroinAttack "scrotum."]]

* BodyHorror: Cú Chulainn's "warp-spasm" is best described as ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk, meets [[Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly Broly]], meets John Carpenter's ''Film/TheThing1982''. His legs to twist backwards, one of his eyes swells and pops out of its socket and sizzles against his superheated skin while the other is sucked down into his head, his mouth stretches open to rib-level, his internal organs are partially vomited up every time he roars, and his hair stands up in stiff, blood-clotted spikes. A "mast" of poisonous, boiling [[AlienBlood black blood]] shoots from his scalp, along with a glowing fist-sized horn of light, while his muscles swell "like bladders" into "horrific... shapeless" inhuman sizes (his neck and shoulder muscles in particular grow so big that they [[NauseaFuel swallow his head up to the temples]]), and the skin of his throat and mouth [[NightmareFace peels back]] into a GlasgowGrin with MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily. There's a ''reason'' people were scared of this guy.

* ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost
** [[BonusBoss Tartarus]], the Agito of [[DarkIsEvil Shadow]], is weak to light weapons, in this case, the InfinityPlusOneSword (at this time) for light which are all named after the many weapons of the mythology. In this case we have Caladbolg (sword), Fragarach (blade), Claíomh Solais (dagger), Rog Mol (axe), Areadbhar (lance), Tathlum (bow), Brionac (wand), Del Frith (staff) and Gae Assail (manacaster).

In a nutshell: before people came to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles_naming_dispute that archipelago off the Northwestern coast of continental Europe]], a race of intelligent magical non-humans calling themselves (in Irish, anyway) the ''Tuatha Dé Danann'' ("the people of the goddess Danu") lived there. With the arrival of people and their permanent settlements, the Tuatha Dé Danann continued to muck about in the lives of people but retreated to the Otherworld, their [[LandOfFaerie home world]], a world still reachable through places such as fairy forts or fairy burrows. (Interestingly, the "gateways" identified in Celtic stories would not infrequently turn out to be archaeologically significant sites dating to the Neolithic period.)