unfaithful Bláthnat; but there seem to have been plenty of different accounts of his parentage, in which other sets of names figure; and one[1] of them is interesting as an instance, to a certain extent, of associating with darkness and death the ideas of guilt and depravity. Medb, queen of the West, had two sisters, called respectively Clothru and Ethne Uathach, or E. the Horrible. They had three brothers, called na tri Finn Emna, or the Three White Ones of Emain. Why they were so called is a question of the same kind as why the corresponding Welsh name should have been borne by a god of death like Gwyn ab Nûᵭ; he was, however, only one, according to the story of Kulhwch,[2] of three Gwyns, who are possibly to be equated with the three Finns of Emain. The individual names of these last were Bres, Nár and Lothur, which one might perhaps render War, Shame and Hell.[3] Now Lugaid is considered the son of this Evil Triad and Clothru or the Horrible Ethne.[4] The story of his
- ↑ Bk. of Leinster, 124b.
- ↑ R. B. Mab. p. 106, where they are called Gwyn son of Esni, Gwyn son of Nwyvre, and Gwyn son of Nûᵭ: Guest's text and translation, ij. 205, 259, unaccountably omit the two first Gwyns.
- ↑ Nár means 'shame' and 'shameful;' the plural of bres occurs as bressa, meaning 'battles:' see Stokes' Calendar of Oengus, Prol. 74; and lothur is quoted in the Gr. Celtica2, p. 782, with the sense of alveus, canalis: it seems to be derived from loth, meaning 'coenum, Lerna' (Gr. Celt2, p. 15), 'Mefitis' (Windisch's Ir. Texte, s. v. p. 669), and 'palus' and 'hell' (Stokes' Goidelica2, p. 69). Lóthar or Lothor, gen. Lóthair, was also the name of Medb's herdsman on the Táin, Bk. of the Dun, 65a.
- ↑ According to the Bk. of Leinster, 124b, the mother was Clothru, who became Conchobar's wife after her sister Medb had left him; but O'Curry, ij. 290, following probably other versions of the story, makes Ethne the king's wife. The name Ethne Uathach occurs also in the story of the Deisi: see the Bk. of the Dun, 54a.
