Mider

Also known as: Mider of Bri Leith · Role: Etain's former husband · First appears: The Courtship of Etain · Prologue in Fairyland · Part 1

At Bri Leith, Mider was married to Etain and also to Fuamnach, who sought to drive Etain from her husband’s house. In one account, Manannan the Son of the Sea helped bring about the deaths of Mider and Fuamnach there. In the Egerton version, Mider told Etain that sorcery by Fuamnach and spells by Bressal Etarlam had parted them; he also said he had stirred Ailill Anglonnach’s love for Etain and kept him from their tryst. Mider later carried Etain and her handmaiden Crochen the Ruddy from an assembly, declaring that the plain would bear Crochen’s name, and took Etain to Bri Leith.

In the Leabhar na h-Uidhri version, Mider said he had been Etain’s husband before she became Eochaid Airemm’s wife. He had wooed her for a year before coming to Eochaid for a chess match, seeking to hold and kiss her. Etain refused to leave Eochaid unless he asked her to go, and Mider challenged Eochaid to chess; after agreeing to perform public works as stakes, Mider defeated him. Eochaid promised that Mider could hold and kiss Etain, and on the appointed night Mider carried her away through the palace skylight. Eochaid later led an army against Mider’s host at the elf-mound, trying to recover her.