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Findabair


Findabair or Finnabair (modern Irish Fionnabhair [ˈfʲɪn̪əuɾʲ]) was a daughter of Ailill and Queen Medb of Connacht in Irish mythology. The meaning of the name is "white phantom" (etymologically cognate with Gwenhwyfar, the original Welsh form of Guinevere). The Dindsenchas also mention a Findabair that is the daughter of Lugaid Laigde.

Though not considered a main character in the Táin, Finnabair occupies a crucial role in the epic. During the war of the Táin, her hand is offered to a succession of warriors in exchange for their sparring with Cú Chulainn. Ultimately her beauty and charms serve as the driving force behind the deaths of hundreds of men, even compelling Fer Diad to fight Cú Chulainn, his beloved foster-brother and best friend, in the single combat which leads to his death by Cú Chulainn's Gáe Bulg.

In the Táin Bó Cúailnge, Finnbair’s husband Fráech (whose story is told in the Táin Bo Fraích) is killed by Cú Chulainn in a river. Afterwards, Medb repeatedly offers her daughter to prospective warriors, first to Nad Crantail, then to Láríne Mac Nóis, in a truce with Cú Chulainn not to attack her army by night in exchange that he is provided with a warrior to engage in one-on-one combat with each day. Finnabair is offered to Cú Chulainn when no warrior can be found. After he accepts, she is taken to him by a fool dressed as the king, not by Ailill himself. Upon discovering this, Cú Chulainn kills the fool and puts a pillar through him and a pillar through Finnabair's tunic, thus leaving two stones in that location, called the Fool's Stone and Finnabair's Stone.


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