8. Balor’s powers of nature threatened the Celtic with blight and death.
Balor was the chief of the Fomoire, a demonic tribe who represented the destructive powers of nature and who threatened the people of Celtic Ireland with blight and death. Balor was a giant. However, his defining feature was a vast, poisonous eye, so large it had to be opened by his servants. The eye was lethal to any who Balor gazed upon, and the Fomoire put it to good use. Balor would wipe out whole armies of the Fomoire’s adversaries with a single glance, thus ensuring the demon tribe’s dominance.
However, there was a prophecy that Balor’s grandson would kill him. So Balor locked his only daughter, Ethlinn in a tower so she could never become pregnant. However, Birog, a druidess of the Tuatha De Danann helped an enemy of Balor named Mac Cinnfhaelaidh to enter the tower and seduce Ethlinn. She subsequently gave birth to triplets. Balor drowned two of the infants in a whirlpool. However, Birog managed to save the third. He grew up to be Lugh Lamhfada who as foretold, killed his grandfather in the last battle between the Tuatha De Danann and the Fomoire. Lugh killed Balor with a single slingshot to his evil eye, and the defeated Fomoire slunk away into the depths of the sea.
Balor is not the only demonic Celtic spirit associated with death.