Deity · Celtic · c. 100 BCE
The Fomoire
Also called Fomorians, Fomhóraigh
The enemies of every group that settles Ireland in the Lebor Gabála, and the clearest case in this corpus of a monastic redactor turning a defeated people into demons.
Narrow source base
In the oldest layer the Fomoire are simply the opposition — raiders from the sea who exact a tribute, intermarried with the Tuatha Dé Danann to the point that Lug and Bres are both partly of their blood. What happens to them afterwards is the point. The Christian compilers needed the peoples of Ireland to fit inside the descent of Noah, so the Fomoire were given a genealogy from Ham and their misshapenness became a moral condition; by the late medieval material they are giants and monsters. A political enemy with in-laws becomes a demon by editing, and the corpus can show both ends of it in two texts.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
Where it was actually worshipped
Tory Island, given in later tradition as the seat of Balor's tower
A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.
At a glance
Vitals
Vitals
Also known as
- Named there as
- Fomoire
- Rank
- The Adversary Host
- Pantheon
- Celtic
- Order
- Celtic pantheon
- Base of operations
- Tory Island, given in later tradition as the seat of Balor's tower
- Era
- c. 100 BCE
- Traditions
- Celtic
Traits
- Domain
- The sea, blight, tribute and exaction
- Traditional form
- Described in the later material as misshapen; in the earliest, not described at all
1 site
Where was it worshipped?
Attested cult sites, located against the Pleiades gazetteer of the ancient world where it reaches and against Wikidata everywhere else. An absence here is not evidence that no cult existed: a good number of figures never had one, and the entry above says so where that is the case.
Balor's fortress in the telling. Not the Tory Island in North Carolina.
Given in later tradition as the seat of Balor's tower, which is also where the corpus files Balor himself.
55.264, -8.222 · Wikidata Q1147050
4 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 4 offices attributed to The Fomoire, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.
A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.
- martial1
- malefic3
2 texts
Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?
When these texts were written
Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names The Fomoire, placed at that text's approximate date.
A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.
2 texts, all given the same approximate date
Where the texts differ
- Rank: given as The people of the sea; The host of Balor
Fought by every wave of settlers in turn and given a descent from Ham, which is the compilers' device for fitting Irish prehistory into biblical history.
Impose a tribute on the Tuatha Dé Danann and are broken at the second battle; intermarried with their enemies throughout, which the later demonising material quietly drops.
Connections
What is it connected to?
Opposed by Lugh
Takes command of the Tuatha Dé Danann against them, having been admitted to Tara only by claiming every art at once.
Opposed by Nuada
Leads the Tuatha Dé Danann against them and is killed by Balor before Lugh takes over.
Served by Balor
Their leader at Mag Tuired; the kind understates a kingship, but the text gives him command rather than a crown.
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention The Fomoire?
What rank is The Fomoire?
How else is The Fomoire spelled?
What is The Fomoire said to do?
How old is The Fomoire?
Nearest in the corpus
If The Fomoire is what you came for, these are next
Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.
The Morrígan
Phantom Queen · Celtic
War-goddess who appears as a crow over battlefields and foretells the deaths below. Sovereignty and slaughter, held in one figure.
Balor
King of the Fomorians · Celtic
Fomorian king of Irish myth whose single eye destroys whatever it looks at. He was killed by his own grandson, exactly as the prophecy he tried to prevent had said.
Brigid
Goddess of Poets and Smiths · Celtic
The Irish goddess of poetry, smithing and healing who invents keening over her son's body at Mag Tuired — and whose name, feast and attributes are carried straight over to a Christian saint.
Lugh
The Many-Skilled · Celtic
The Irish god who gets into Tara by being master of every art at once, and who kills his own grandfather Balor with a sling — the Tuatha Dé Danann's answer to the Fomoire.
Nuada
King of the Tuatha Dé Danann · Celtic
The Irish king who loses his hand in battle and with it his kingship, because the Tuatha Dé Danann will not be ruled by a blemished man — and gets both back when a silver arm is made for him.
The Dagda
The Good God · Celtic
'The good god' — good at everything rather than morally good — with a club that kills at one end and restores at the other.
The books behind The Fomoire
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. They are public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
Cath Maige Tuired (The Second Battle of Moytura)
Anonymous; Irish monastic compilation · c. 11th c., from older material · Middle Irish
Read Cath Maige Tuired (The Second Battle of Moytura) in full ↗Lebor Gabála Érenn & the Mythological Cycle
Anonymous Irish monastics · 11th c., from older oral material · Middle Irish
Read Lebor Gabála Érenn & the Mythological Cycle in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Áed Ua Crimthainn et al (12th century) · Wikimedia file page
Corpus last revised 29 August 2026. A reference site’s credibility rests on being maintained, so this is the date the sourced records last changed — not the date the page was rebuilt.