An attack on place and form
Fuamnach is identified as another wife of Midir in Leahy's prologue. With druidic assistance she transforms Étaín and raises a wind that removes her from the household. The injury involves both body and dwelling: Étaín loses an ordinary human form and the social place in which that form had been recognized. The long wandering extends an act of jealousy into sustained displacement.
Source: The Courtship of Etain — Leahy translation · Prologue in Fairyland: Fuamnach, Bressal’s assistance, transformation and first wind
A false reconciliation
When Angus shelters Étaín, Fuamnach proposes a reconciliation between Midir and his foster-son. The invitation draws Angus away while she seeks the protected woman and repeats the attack. The episode uses the appearance of repairing one relationship to destroy another refuge. It also shows why hospitality alone cannot guarantee safety when a pursuer can exploit the host's obligations elsewhere.
Source: The Courtship of Etain — Leahy translation · Prologue in Fairyland: reconciliation proposal, Angus’s absence and second wind
A punishment with more than one ending
Leahy first recounts Angus pursuing and killing Fuamnach. He then explicitly gives another report in which Manannán is involved in the deaths of both Fuamnach and Midir at Brí Léith. These alternatives should remain alternatives. Combining them into consecutive events would disguise the source's own acknowledgment that different accounts circulate about the same figure's fate.
Source: The Courtship of Etain — Leahy translation · Prologue in Fairyland: Angus’s pursuit and alternative account of Brí Léith’s destruction
- Period / witness
- Medieval Irish prose and verse preserved in medieval and early modern manuscript witnesses; Leahy translation 1905–1906.
- Recording context
- This entry concerns the literary version named in its passages, transmitted by Christian-era Irish manuscript culture and translated by A. H. Leahy. Legendary settings are not dates of composition or evidence for a single pre-Christian canon.
A recording location is not necessarily a story’s origin. Dates of texts, copies, and translations answer different questions.
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These references support the explanation above. Rights and edition notes are recorded individually.
The Courtship of Etain — Leahy translation ↗
Anonymous Irish literary narratives; translated and arranged by Arthur Herbert Leahy (1857–1928) · Volume I, 1905; Project Gutenberg eBook released May 2004 and updated 29 June 2026
Edition & rights note