Tailtiu

Tailtiu was a queen of the Fir Bolg, the people who held Ireland before the Tuatha Dé Danann. In the myth she becomes the foster-mother of Lugh, the many-skilled god. The Dindshenchas tells that she died of exhaustion after clearing a great forest for farming, and that Lugh held funeral games in her honour at the place now called Teltown, in County Meath.

These games, the Áenach Tailten, were a real festival held in early Ireland around the start of August, which is Lughnasadh, with contests, markets and the making of marriages. The month of August is Lúnasa in Irish and takes its name from the festival of Lugh. The games continued in some form into the Middle Ages. In 1924 the Irish Free State revived them as the Tailteann Games, an athletics event for the Irish diaspora, held in 1924, 1928 and 1932.

Tailtiu's husband in the tradition is Eochu mac Eirc, the last Fir Bolg king of Ireland, who is killed in the battle with the Tuatha Dé Danann. She then becomes the foster-mother of Lugh, so her story links the older and newer peoples. The place where she is said to be buried, Tailtin or Teltown, lies between Navan and Kells in County Meath, and the earthworks there are associated with the games.

Teltown is also connected with a folk custom of "Teltown marriages", a form of trial marriage in which a couple would be joined for a year and a day and then, if they wished, separate by walking away from each other. Whether this was ever a formal practice is uncertain, and it is mostly recorded in later tradition. The Áenach Tailten itself is better documented, and its mention in the annals shows it was a major royal assembly held at Lughnasadh.