LYOR ga-VAH-la AIR-en
An 11th-century compilation narrating the mythical settlements of Ireland.
| Cycle | Entries here | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| The Mythological Cycle | 17 | The oldest of the four cycles, telling of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the successive invasions of Ireland. |
| The Fenian Cycle | 6 | Tales of Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors, the Fianna, set generations after the Ulster Cycle in a world of hunting, romance, and roaming adventure. |
| The Ulster Cycle | 12 | The heroic tales of Conchobar mac Nessa's court at Emain Macha, centered on Cú Chulainn and the great cattle raid of the Táin Bó Cúailnge. |
| The Historical Cycle | 1 | Also the Cycle of the Kings — legendary and semi-legendary tales of Ireland's High Kings, treated by medieval scribes as genuine national history. |
Lebor Gabála Érenn ("The Book of Invasions") is a medieval compilation presenting a pseudo-historical account of Ireland's mythical settlement by a succession of peoples, culminating in the Tuatha Dé Danann and finally the Milesians, ancestors of the Gaels.
The text describes six waves of settlement — Cessair, Partholón, Nemed, the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and finally the Milesians — each displacing or succeeding the last.
Medieval compilers presented it as genuine history, integrating Irish mythology into a biblical timeline, but modern scholars read it as a literary and political construction designed to give Ireland's ruling families a legitimizing, structured origin myth.