What We Know About Flidais From Irish Mythology

 Things we know about Flidais from Irish mythology:

- her epithet is Foltchaoin "soft haired"

- she has 4 daughters according to the Lebor Gabala Erenn: Arden, Dinand, Bé Chuille, and Bé Teite

- Fand is also her daughter according to the Metrical Dindshenchas

- her son is Nia Segamain according to the Banshenchus which also says her husband's name was Adammair

- same source says that she gave her son power to milk deer as if they were cows:

"Flidaise Foltcháin, that is, Flidais the queen, one of the Tuath Dé Danann, 'tis she was wife of Adammair son of Fer Cuirp; and from her Buar Flidaise ('Flidais's cattle') is said,

Nia Ségamain, that is, ség 'deer' is a máin 'his treasure'; for during his time cows and does were milked in the same way every day, so to him beyond the other monarchs great was the treasure of these things. And it is that Flidais (above-named) who was mother of Nia Ségamain son of Adammair; and in Nia Ségamain's reign those cattle were milked, that is, double cattle, cows and does, were milked in the time of Nia Ségamain, and it was his mother that gave him that fairy power."

- she possesses a magical cow which can feed 300 men in a single milking or an entire army in a week (Táin Bó Cúailgne and Táin Bó Flidais)

- according to the Banshenchus: "Though slender she destroyed young men. She decreed hard close fighting."

- in the Táin Bó Flidais she was the lover of Fergus mac Roich, who otherwise needed 7 women to satisfy him

Image is a statue of Flidais made by Via Hedera circa 2013 (?)

What We Know About Brighid From Mythology

 This is the first in a new series I'm going to be doing sharing information on various deities from Irish mythology, focused on what the mythology itself tells us. This won't include modern beliefs or folklore, but hopefully will help people understand the foundational material we are working with. 

Things we know about the Irish goddess Brighid from mythology:

- her father is the Dagda (LGE & SC)

- she had a son named Ruadán via the half-Fomorian king Bres (CMT)

- she *may* have had three other sons, Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba, with Tuireann (Grey references this as marginalia on a text; see Gray's CMT notes)

- alternately she may have had three [other] sons with Bres: Brian, Luchar, and Uar (IidT)

- she possessed a variety of animals described as 'kings' of their respective species including a ram, boar, and oxen; these animals would cry out when violations occured in Ireland (LGE)

- she invented a whistle to alert at night (CMT)

- she was the first person to caoin/keen in Ireland after her son Ruadán was killed (CMT)

- she was strongly associated with poetry and poets (CMT notes, SC, LGE, IidT)

- she may have been understood as a group of three sisters: a poet, smith, and healer (SC)

Sources:

CMT - Cath Maige Tuired

LGE - Lebor Gabala Erenn

SC - Sanas Cormaic (folk etymologies, so take with a grain of salt. Throw out his claim that her name was 'fiery arrow' completely)

IidT - Imcallam in da Thurad