Editing Cethlenn (section)

== Attestations ==

=== Battle of Mag Tuired ===
Cethlenn is unmentioned in the narrative ''[[Cath Maige Tuired]]'', as she is not listed in the roster of [[Fomorians]] compiled by [[Whitley Stokes (Celtic scholar)|Whitley Stokes]] .{{sfnp|Stokes|1891|p=129}}{{efn|Except she is mentioned by Stokes under Balor's entry.}}

But in this Battle of Mag Tuired (The Second Battle of Moytura), Cethlenn hurled a javelin (''gae'') at [[the Dagda]] giving him a mortal wound, as recorded in the''[[Lebor Gabála Érenn]]''.<ref name=lge-para314&366/>  It took 120 years before the Dagda died of the wound.<ref>{{harvp|Macalister|1941|p=102}}: "120 years before!"</ref>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Since the LGE states that Lugh was subsequently in kingship for 40 years, and the Dagda for another 80 years.<ref name=lge-para314&366/>}}

The recounting of Cethlenn injuring the Dagda is repeated in the ''[[Annals of the Four Masters]]'',<ref>{{harvp|O'Donovan|1856}}, 23 and note x.</ref> [[Geoffrey Keating|Keating]]'s ''[[Foras Feasa ar Éirinn|History]]'',<ref name=keating/> and [[Roderick O'Flaherty|O'Flaherty]]'s ''Ogygia''.<ref name=oflaherty-ogygia-eng/>

Cethlenn presumably fell in battle, or so it has been commented on by [[John O'Mahony]] without clarification of source.<ref>O'Mahoney, translation and notes by, {{harvp|Keating|1857}}, pp. 139–140, note 13.</ref>

=== Enniskillen ===

Some local historians in the 20th century and after refer to a legend that the Cethlenn was injured and swam to [[Enniskillen]] on [[Loch Erne]], [[County Fermanagh|Co. Fermanagh]], where she died.<ref name=livingstone/><ref name=mccusker/> The suggestion that Enniskillen is eponymous after Cethlenn is made in the early 17th century ''[[Annals of Clonmacnoise]]'', though nothing about her swimming there is remarked on by 19th century writers.<ref name=odonovan/><ref name=vinycomb/> The present-day town is still situated on a river island. The town centre can only be accessed by crossing a bridge from the surrounding mainland. The town was the location of an island fortress on the [[River Erne]] once maintained by the [[Maguire of Fermanagh]] and the castle river gate entrance still stands.<ref name=vinycomb/>

According to local lore, the town has taken the name of a smaller island, Innis Cethlenn, located just south of today's East Bridge. It was long ago foretold that if the island was flooded by Erne waters, it would fall to its enemies. Just before the Flight of the Earls (the old Gaelic rulers) the island did flood and the town of Enniskillen fell to the English. In the nineteenth century the Enniskillen borough took measures to prevent the town ever being taken by an enemy again, by filling in the narrow waterway between the smaller island and the mainland. At the same time, the island's elevation was raised to the level of the mainland with earth filling enclosed inside a stone wall. This piece of ground can still be seen, home now to a stand of mature chestnut trees that overhang the river. Innis Cethleen is still enclosed by the stone wall that has prevented it flooding for the past two centuries. <ref>{{cite journal |title=Ancient Maps of Enniskillen and Its Environs |author=Earl of Belmore |journal=Ulster Journal of Archaeology |volume=2 |number=4 |year=1896}}</ref>

[[Énrí Ó Muirgheasa]] suggested that this area ([[Breifne]]) which is the nexus between Ulster and Connacht should be investigated as the genuine location where the Balor legend was localized, rather than [[Tory Island]].<ref name=morris/>

=== Balor's wife ===
Cethlenn is not explicitly called Balor's wife in the LGE,<ref name=lge-para314&366/><ref name=lge-oclery/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Or the Annals,<ref name=odonovan/> or by Keating.<ref name=keating/>}} but it is thus stated in the ''Ogygia'' ([[1685]]).<ref name=oflaherty-ogygia-eng/>{{efn|And the ''Ogygia'' for some reason considers her Lug's great-grand aunt rather than his grandmother.}}<ref name=oflaherty-ogygia-eng/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|O'Donovan also footnotes she is Balor's wife.<ref name=odonovan/> O'Donovan heavily consulted the ''Ogygia''.<ref name=morris/>}}

=== Prognostication ===
In the early modern Romance ''Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann'' (OCT), Balor's wife ('''Céithlionn''' or '''Ceithlinn''') identifies Lug as their grandson, and proclaims that once he comes into Erin, the days that they the Fomorians will remain in power are at an end.{{sfnp|O'Curry|1863|p=166–167}}<ref name=okearney-feis-tighe-chonain/>

Arthur C. L. Brown remarks on this prediction that comes true in the form of Balor's destruction by Lugh,<ref name=brown-sirperceval5/> but prefers not to make connection to the ancient version of the ''[[Cath Maige Tuired]]'' in which Lug uses a sling stone as the lethal weapon,<ref>{{harvp|Stokes|1891|pp=100–101}}, ''CMT'' §135.</ref> but rather to a folktale version in which Lugh uses a spear crafted by a particular swordsmith named Gavnin Gow.<ref name=curtin-p296-connemara/>