Lleu Llaw Gyffes (Lleu of the Skillful Hand), Samildánach (Skilled in All the Arts), Lonnbeimnech (fierce striker, sword-shouter) or Macnia (boy hero).
As to ancestry, Lugh is given the matrinamemac Ethlenn or mac Ethnenn (“son of Ethliu or Ethniu”, his mother) and the patrinamemac Cein (“son of Cian”, his father)
God of – Skill, crafts, music and the arts. oaths, truth and the law. He is sometimes interpreted as a sun god, a storm god or a sky god. The harvest. A renowned warrior god.
Lugh has several magical possessions. He wields an unstoppable fiery spear, a sling stone, and a sword named Fragarach (“the answerer”). He also owns a self-sailing boat named Scuabtuinne (“wave sweeper”), a horse named Enbarr, and a hound named Failinis.
Description –
Notable Legends –
It was said that Lugh’s grandfather, Balor of the Evil Eye, learned that he would one day be murdered by a grandson. He tried to confine his daughter Ethniu, however Cian released her and she bore him three sons. Balor arranged for the children to be killed, however Lugh was saved. Lugh was later given to Tailtiu, a Fir Bolg, who raised him as her foster son.
He is the maternal grandson of the Fomorian, Balor, whom Lugh kills in the Battle of Mag Tuired. His foster-father is the sea god Manannán. Lugh’s son is the hero Cú Chulainn, who is believed to be an incarnation of Lugh.
As a young man Lugh travels to Tara to join the court of king Nuada of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The doorkeeper will not let him in unless he has a skill with which to serve the king. He offers his services as a wright, a smith, a champion, a swordsman, a harpist, a hero, a poet and historian, a sorcerer, and a craftsman, but each time is rejected as the Tuatha Dé Danann already have someone with that skill. But when Lugh asks if they have anyone with all those skills simultaneously, the doorkeeper has to admit defeat, and Lugh joins the court and is appointed Chief Ollam of Ireland. He wins a flagstone-throwing contest against Ogma, the champion, and entertains the court with his harp. The Tuatha Dé Danann are at that time oppressed by the Fomorians, and Lugh is amazed how meekly they accept this. Nuada wonders if this young man could lead them to freedom. Lugh is given command over the Tuatha Dé Danann, and he begins making preparations for war.
When the sons of Tuireann: Brian, Iuchar and Iucharba kill Lugh’s father, Cian (who was in the form of a pig at the time), Lugh sets them a series of seemingly impossible quests as recompense. They achieve them all but are fatally wounded in completing the last one. Despite Tuireann’s pleas, Lugh denies them the use of one of the items they have retrieved, a magic pigskin which heals all wounds. They die of their wounds and Tuireann dies of grief over their bodies
Using the magic artifacts the sons of Tuireann have gathered, Lugh leads the Tuatha Dé Danann in the Second Battle of Mag Tuireadh against the Fomorians. Nuada is killed in the battle by Balor. Lugh faces Balor, who opens his terrible, poisonous eye that kills all it looks upon, but Lugh shoots a sling-stone that drives his eye out the back of his head, wreaking havoc on the Fomorian army behind. After the victory Lugh finds Bres, the half-Fomorian former king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, alone and unprotected on the battlefield, and Bres begs for his life. If he is spared, he promises, he will ensure that the cows of Ireland always give milk. The Tuatha Dé Danann refuse the offer. He then promises four harvests a year, but the Tuatha Dé Danann say one harvest a year suits them. But Lugh spares his life on the condition that he teach the Tuatha Dé Danann how and when to plough, sow and reap.
Lugh instituted an event similar to the Olympic games called the Assembly of Talti which finished on Lughnasadh (1 August) in memory of his foster-mother, Tailtiu
Lugh’s sling rod, named “Lugh’s Chain”, was the rainbow and the Milky Way. Unlike the rod-sling, Lugh had no need to wield the spear himself. It was alive and thirsted so for blood that only by steeping its head in a sleeping-draught of pounded fresh poppy seeds could it be kept at rest. When battle was near, it was drawn out; then it roared and struggled against its thongs, fire flashed from it, and it tore through the ranks of the enemy once slipped from the leash, never tired of slaying.
He appears in folklore as a trickster, and in County Mayo thunderstorms were referred to as battles between Lugh and Balor, so he is sometimes considered a storm god: Alexei Kondratiev notes his epithet lonnbeimnech (“fierce striker”) and concludes that “if his name has any relation to ‘light’ it more properly means ‘lightning-flash’.
Lugh was known as a sun god and a fierce warrior. He is also known as a god of storms, particularly thunderstorms.
Cermait, the son of Dagda, later seduces one of Lugh’s wives. Lugh kills him in revenge, however Cermait had three sons MacCuill, MacCecht and MacGrené/ Gréine, who avenged their father’s death by killing Lugh at Uisnech in Loch Lugborta.
Sacred Associations – Spear, sword, boat, hounds, crows, storms, lynx, The arts, thunder and lightening, poetry, healing, grain
This is a good, thorough rundown for such a short post! My only caveat here would be that Lleu Llaw Gyffes is a Welsh god and is definitely seen to be a espérate entity by many. My own knowledge of Welsh mythology is sparse enough that I don’t have a firm opinion, but thought I’d point that out.
Ocean's Meadow 