Trefuilngid as a transcendental level of Lugh
Trefuilngid Tre-eochair is a divine presence from Suidiugud Tellaig Temra (The Settling of the Manor of Tara) who tells Fintan about the division of Ireland. “Trefuilngid” means Triple Bearer, Sustainer or Supporter, and the epithet “Tre-eochair” — Three-edged, Three-pronged, Three-sprouts (on the branch he carries), Three-powers or Triple-keyed. Here is how he described in the myth:
"As high as a wood was the top of his shoulders, the sky and the sun visible between his legs, by reason of his size and his comeliness. A shining crystal veil about him like unto raiment of precious linen. Sandals upon his feet, and it is not known of what material they were. Golden-yellow hair upon him falling in curls to the level of his thighs. Stone tablets in his left hand, a branch with three fruits in his right hand, and these are the three fruits which were on it, nuts and apples and acorns in May-time: and unripe was each fruit. He strode past us then round the assembly, with his golden many coloured branch of Lebanon wood behind him… ‘I have come indeed,’ said he, ‘from the setting of the sun, and I am going unto the rising, and my name is Trefuilngid Tre-eochair.’ ‘Why has that name been given to thee?’ said they. ‘Easy to say,’ said he. ‘Because it is I who cause the rising of the sun and its setting.’"
Parallels between Lugh and Trefuilngid
I first read about the connection between Lugh and Trefulngid in the work of Russian celtologist Grigory Bondarenko in his monograph “Mifologiya prostranstva drevney Irlandii” [The Mythology of Space of Ancient Ireland] (2003).
Later I discovered that Kim McCone had already explored parallels between Trefulngid and Lugh in Baile in Scáil in his 1990’s work “Pagan Past and Christian Present in Early Irish Literature”.
Also, Gaël Hily devoted a substantial study to this relationship in his thesis “Le dieu celtique Lugus” in 2007. One may find it in the open access.
Thus, the connection between Lugh and Trefuilngid has already been explored by several scholars. I find it beautiful that these three researchers wrote in three languages. I know all three and therefore can combine them. Rather than repeating their analyses, I would like to briefly summarise the main insights that shaped my own understanding.
Grigory Bondarenko draws attention to the resemblance between Trefuilngid and Lugh's appearance before the Fomorians in Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann, especially their shared solar imagery and relationship with the movements of the heavenly bodies.
Kim McCone highlights the similarities between Lugh in Baile in Scáil and Trefuilngid: their extraordinary stature, their association with sovereignty, and their connection with the Otherworld. He also notes important parallels with Manannán.
Gaël Hily offers the most comprehensive study of the relationship between Lugh and Trefuilngid. Some of his central conclusions are particularly illuminating. Based on the thesis “Le dieu celtique Lugus”:
1. Trefulngid is not an isolated figure
Hily argues that Trefulngid should not be read as an isolated figure. His attributes repeatedly converge with those of Lugh, especially in his later and more transcendent manifestations. The parallels are systematic.
Hily also expands the discussion beyond Ireland. He argues that Trefuilngid belongs to a broader family of Lugus figures found throughout the Celtic world, particularly in Gaul, where many of the same characteristics appear in the Gallo-Roman Mercury.
Rather than being an isolated Irish character, Trefuilngid may represent one expression of a much larger pan-Celtic conception.
2. The image is built around light
Hily argues that light is not an incidental motif but one of the defining features shared by both figures.
For Trefuilngid this appears through:
his relationship to the movement of the sun.
For Lugh it appears through:
a face shining like the sun.
Rather than treating these images separately, Hily reads them as a coherent symbolic language centred on radiance, solar imagery, and divine presence.
3. Knowledge is his defining power
"...for I am the truly learned witness who explains to all everything unknown."
This recalls what emerged while studying Scál Find. Knowledge here is not information. It is the revelation of hidden structure.
Trefuilngid does not simply possess wisdom — he transmits an understanding of how reality itself is ordered. In the myth he gathers the wisest people of Ireland and reveals to them the structure of Tara and the division of the island. Like Scál Find, he acts as an interpreter of patterns that already exist but have not yet become visible.
Taken together, these studies make the parallels between Lugh and Trefuilngid remarkably persuasive.
At the same time, the two figures are not identical. To me, they seem to exist on different levels of the same symbolic reality.
Earlier Compert Con Culainn revealed a threefold pattern of manifestation. I've also showed that the story of Lugh's death might be explored on these layers. Lugh also appears to operate on three interconnected levels: heroic, mythic and transcendent:
At the heroic level (I call it Macnia), he is reflected through human figures who embody particular aspects of his nature.
At the mythic level, he appears as Samildánach — the complete Lugh of the Irish tradition, simultaneously hero, king, craftsman, warrior, healer, and guide.
Trefuilngid suggests a third level, transcendent. Not another aspect of Lugh, but a perspective from which Lugh himself becomes one manifestation of something more universal.
Earlier in this project I used the four aspects as a way of understanding Lugh. Now the movement reverses. Lugh himself becomes a way of approaching Trefuilngid, a bridge (a symbol that emerged in Lámfada and Scál Find analysis). Scál Find already shifted the focus from visible action to the hidden structures that make action possible. Trefuilngid seems to extend that movement even further.
Knowledge, Balance, and Influence no longer describe only the evolution of Lugh’s 3 pillars through the myths. They begin to look like principles operating beyond other stories. It could be one explanation of the "three powers" of Tre-eochair. And here's another one.
Personal insights and assumptions
I had an insight that three powers of Trefuilngid are in fact three rays of Welsh Awen. So this deity might be a pan-Celtic source of inspiration. Or even across other pantheons. It's only an assumption that needs to be studied fundamentally. In support of it — the fruits of Trefuilngid's branch (nuts, apples and acorns) represent the Otherworld's wisdom and might be considered as the keys to it.
If so, then Lugh might be one of the several projections of Trefuilngid. The most evident, but not the only. Ogma and Manannán also might reflect this deity, as the Fintan himself, Trefuilngid's middleman. And of course, Brigid is strongly related to inspiration. This mirrors Welsh myth, where the main deity related to Awen is Cerridwen.
So I chose to dive deeper into Welsh myth. For those who also want to follow this path, I highly recommend the books of Kristoffer Hughes, the Chief of the Anglesey Druid Order.
