Also called Midhir, Midir of Brí Léith.
Their story
Midir lived in the síd of Brí Léith, in what is now County Longford. He loved Étaín, but his first wife Fuamnach turned her into a pool, a worm and then a beautiful purple fly, and blew her away on a magic wind. More than a thousand years later Étaín was reborn and married the king Eochaid Airem. Midir won her back through games of fidchell, and the two rose up through the smoke-hole of Tara as a pair of swans.
Best times to give to them
- Samhain
- Bealtaine
- dusk
What they like being given
- milk and honey
- bread
- a poem of longing
- a board game played in his honour
How to honour them
- Play a board game with someone you love and give thanks for their company.
- Visit a hill or mound respectfully, without digging or taking anything.
- Reflect on love that waits patiently rather than love that grasps.
How they can help you
- enduring love
- patience
- reconnecting with someone lost
Symbols
- swans
- the fidchell board
- the fairy mound
Sources
- Tochmarc Étaíne
- MacKillop, Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology
More Celtic gods
- The Dagda The good god, father of all
- Lugh Master of all the arts
- Cernunnos The antlered one of the wild
- Manannán mac Lir Lord of the sea and the Otherworld
- Aengus The young god of love
- Nuada The king with the silver hand
- Dian Cécht Physician of the Tuatha Dé Danann
- Goibniu Smith of the gods and brewer of the feast