The Hound of Ulster; demigod son of Lugh by Deichtire under the dominant Compert Con Culainn tradition. Birth name Sétanta. Earned the name Cú Chulainn at age 7 by killing Culann's smith-dog with a sliotar through its throat and offering to take the hound's place. Trained by the warrior-woman Scáthach on her island in Alba, where he received the Gáe Bulg (the dread thirty-barbed spear cast underfoot from the water). Sole defender of Ulster during the Macha-curse phase of the Táin Bó Cúailnge — his half-divine paternity exempted him from the birth-pangs that pinned every other adult Ulsterman, allowing him to hold Medb of Connacht's invading army at the fords for three months. The four-day combat with his foster-brother Ferdiad at the ford (Comrac Fir Diad) is the most extended single-combat in medieval Irish literature. The ríastrad (warp-spasm) — battle-frenzy transformation with body distortion, eye-displacement, and the lon láith (hero-light) springing from the head — is among the most detailed transformation scenes in medieval European literature. Killed his own son Connla unrecognized at the ford (Aided Óenfhir Aífe). Died at age 27 strapped to the standing stone Cloich an Ghaill at Mag Muirthemne so he could die upright facing his enemies; identified as dead only when the Morrígan in raven-form lit on his shoulder and his hero-light went out. The Sheppard bronze of this final scene was installed at the GPO in Dublin in 1935 as the Easter Rising memorial.