LEIR
Real Name: Llyr (original spelling)
Occupation: God of sea, storm and lightning
Legal Status: Citizen of Avalon
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Leir except as character of mythological origin.
Other Aliases: Lir (alternate spelling)
Place Of Birth: Finias, Gaul (modern France)
Marital Status: Widowed
Known Relatives: Elathan (estranged father, alias Belenus), Gaea (mother, alias Danu), Dagda, Gwydion, Amaethon (brothers), Arianrhod (sister), Bres (half-brother), Morrigan (sister-in-law), Oenghus, Oghma, Bobh, Mider, Lugh II, Dyonas (nephews), Brigid, Andraste, Rhiannon (nieces), Penardun (wife, deceased), Branwen (daughter), Manannan, Lodan (sons), Aobh (second wife, deceased), Aoife I (estranged third wife, separated), Fiachtra, Fionnuala (daughters, deceased), Bran I, Hugh, Conn II (sons, deceased), Matholwych (son-in-law, deceased), Aine II, Aoife II, Igraine, Sinann, Cliodna, Etain II (grand-daughters), Cimboath, Dithorba, Gwern (grandsons, deceased), Macha (grand-daughter, deceased), King Arthur (descendant, presumably deceased),
Group Membership: The Tuatha da Danaan (The Celtic Gods), ally of the Asgardians and Earth Force
Base of Operations: Tir fo Thuinn (“Land Under The Waves”) in the cosmology of Otherworld, formerly Ynys Fanaw (modern Isle of Man near England)
First Appearance: Thor I #386
History: Leir is the son of Elathan, Ruler of the superhuman extra-dimensional race of beings known as the Fomore, and Gaea, the primeval goddess of earth, in her role as Danu, the Celtic earth-mother. Although the son of a Fomorian god, Leir and his siblings were of the first generation of Danaans, the Children of Danu, who rose up to wrestle control of Eire (Ancient Ireland) from the Fomre. Clashing on the field of Magh Tuiredh, the Danaans were successful in deposing the Fomore and gaining control of Eire, but Bres, Leir’s half-brother, who was half-Fomore, decided to turn his allegiance back to the Fomore and turned Eire back to his father’s relatives. The Danaans were stripped of their godhood and forced to till the earth in service to the Fomore, but Lugh, son of the god, Cian (not to be confused with Lugh, son of Gwydion and Arianrhod), once more lead the Danaans against the Fomore. Regaining their godhood, the Danaans defeated Bres and the Fomore who were once again exiled from Eire.
After the defeat of the Fomore, Leir became one of the leaders of the Danaans who lead Eire to greater prosperity than before. They became gods worshipped by the Celts of the British Isles and Gauls of Western Europe from the Ninth Century BC to Sixth Century AD. While most of the Danaans resided in the other-dimensional realm of Avalon, one of the seven worlds in the cosmology of Otherworld, Leir claimed the realm known as Tir fo Thuinn, one of the worlds of Otherworld. For ages, enmity existed between the Celtic Gods and the Asgardian Gods since the Viking and Germanic tribes invaded the lands of the Celts and Gaels.
Eventually, the Milesian tribes lead by their eponymous leader Milesius entered Eire seeking to conquer the indigenous Celts. Claiming the area by clever deceit, the Milesians refused to honor worship rites of the Danaans. Leir’s brother, the Dagda, willingly stepped down as ruler of the Eire and divided the land into five areas for his sons to rule equally. Eire was divided into the areas of Ulster, Connacht, Munster and Leinster: Oenghus received Ulster, Oghma received Connacht, Mider received Munster and Bodb Dearg received Leinster while the Dagda set aside Meath for himself. Heremon of the Milesians was the first mortal king of Eire (this stands to be debated as there were earlier unnamed mortal kings of Eire before the Fomorians). Upset over being omitted in the division of Eire, Leir broke off contact with the Danaans and retreated to Sidh Fionnachaidh (modern Armagh County, Northern Ireland). His wife, Penardun, reportedly died sometime later, and Bodb Dearg, hoping to prevent further tension, approached him and invited him to accept one of his mortal foster daughters, Aobh and Aoife, as a wife. Leir eventually chose Aobh, the eldest daughter, to marry and they had two sons, Hugh and Conn (not to be confused with Conn, grandfather of Cormac), and two daughters, Fiachtra and Fionnula. Hugh became king of Ulster and father of Queen Macha, one of the most notorious of the Queens of Ireland.
Aobh eventually passed away and Leir took her sister, Aoife, as a wife, but she began to grow jealous of his attention to his mortal children. Fearful of the results if she killed them, she instead lured them to Derravarragh Lake in County Westmeath and used mystical means to transform them into swans. Because her spells were incomplete, Leir’s children retained their voices and memories. Aoife then fled to Bobd Dearg’s hall in Munster claiming Leir had treated her unfairly. Bobh Dearg, however, sensed the truth and invited Leir to his domain to discern the truth. Along the way, he came across Fionnula in her swan form who told him what had happened. Unable to change her back, he confronted Aoife with her crime and sent her into exile. Bobh Dearg transformed her into a raven and bound her into servitude under Morrigan, Queen of the Celtic Gods. Unable to undo the effects of the spells that transformed Leir’s children, Bobh Dearg revealed that that were bound to be swans for nine hundred years or until peace came by a princess of Munster married into the house of Connacht. He then added to Aoife’s spell to protect Leir’s children as swans by cursing anyone who tried to kill them.
Leir’s attention over the years eventually turned to Britain, and he seduced Iweriadd, daughter of King Ludd of the Britons (in some texts, she is erroneously named Penardun after Leir’s first wife). She gave birth to Bendigeid Vran (later named Bran), a mighty hero who fought against the Roman armies of Julius Caesar invading Britain, and Branwen, whose great beauty inspired the Irish chieftain Matholwych to desire her as a bride. Bran became an ancestor of King Arthur, and Branwen became a goddess amidst the Danaans after being treated badly by Matholwych as a mortal.
In 649 AD, King Maenach of Munster encountered Leir’s children as swans returning to Derravarragh Lake in County Westmeath and sought them as gifts for his sister, who was marrying Laidgren, King of Connacht. Because this was one of the conditions to restoring them to human form, the children of Leir regained their human forms shortly thereafter, but upon becoming mortal again, they succumbed to their great age as mortals. Only Fionnula lived long enough in order to reveal their identities and provide funerary instructions to Maenach. After their deaths, St. Patrick converted them posthumously into the Christian religion.
The Dagda was soon informed by Odin, Ruler of the Asgardian Gods, of the Third Host of the Celestials, alien beings of inconceivable power who had influenced the evolution of the Earth’s human race, and of their intention to judge humanity’s worthiness to survive when the Fourth Host came. The two monarchs then met with the ruling gods of Earth’s other pantheons to set a course of action. (This group of the ruling gods of Earth later became known as the Council Elite and would gather several times in later years to discuss threats to Earth and the gods of earth as a whole.) Odin, Zeus and Vishnu the Preserver of the Hindu gods confronted the Third Host, which threatened to seal off the inter-dimensional passages between the gods realms and Earth unless the gods interfered with the Celestials’ activities for a millennium. As a result, the Celtic gods were forbidden from further trafficking with mortals. Leir retreated from Earth begrudgingly, but he never quite accepted the Asgardians as equal to the Danaans.
In recent years, Seth, the Egyptian god of the dead, dispatched beasts resembling black winged lions (griffins) to ravage the countryside of Avalon. One of these beasts was also sent to Asgard where it slew a defenseless family. Before dying, the last member of the family asked the thunder-god Thor to avenge their deaths. Thor pursued the beast into an inter-dimensional portal into Avalon. There a number of the members of the Celtic Gods accused Thor of responsibility for the killing of a family of farmers when in actuality the beast was responsible for those deaths. Leir arrived and battled Thor. Thor’s ally Hogun the Grim followed Thor through the inter-dimensional portal to offer his help. Leir and Thor then saw the winged beast and Leir then realized it was the beast that had done the killings, not Thor. Together, Leir, Thor and Hogun battled the creature and the creature fled mortally wounded through the portal. Leir remained in Avalon while Thor and Hogun returned to Asgard.
Back in Asgard, they discovered that Fandral and Volstagg had slain the beast as it returned. Leir, however, now believed that he owed Thor a debt for helping the Celtic Gods against the winged monster. He eventually led an army of the greatest warriors among the Celtic Gods to Asgard to help the Asgardians against the invading armies of the god Seth. Claiming he was responding to the distress cry of the Enchantress over the death of Heimdall, Leir heard from Balder that Thor might have fallen in battle against Seth’s armies, which all the more provoked him to battle the minions of Seth. During the course of battle, he became impressed by the power of the Asgardians and the passion of their plight to defend Asgard although he nearly came to blows with Tyr, the war-god on a few occasions. Aided by Caber (formerly Lugh, the son of Cian), Leir was successful in repulsing Seth and his armies from Asgard and departed with a new truce between their personal pantheons.
After thwarting an attack on Avalon by a creature sent by the Fomorians, Leir’s temper soon got the best of him and he stormed off to their village for revenge. Unbeknownst to him, The Dagda sent Caber to tag along. When he reached the village, Leir discovered Caber and they got into an argument, but the villagers quickly surrounded them. The Dagda and several others of Avalon’s warriors watched the battle until Leir and Caber started to get a little worked up. Not wanting casualties, Dagda sent a large swarm of bees onto the battlefield. Luckily for Caber and Leir, they were fast enough to outrun the swarm and returned to Avalon. Later that evening, The Dagda explained his interruption in the battle saying that none of his people were killed so there was no point for any of the Fomorians to die.
Eventually, Leir decided that he wanted a mate again and upon recalling the Asgardian goddess Sif, he chose to abduct her as a bride. He requested that The Dagda locate Asgard which at that time was left adrift after being severed from Earth and to open a portal to Asgard that he may revisit it. Once the Dagda realized why Leir wanted him to locate Asgard, the Dagda started to close his portal, but Leir jumped through it. Fearing war, Caber rushed after him. Leir appeared in Sif’s bedchambers as she heard him plight his love to her. Caber, meanwhile, eavesdropped as long as he could until he was confronted by the Warriors Three and forced to defend himself. Knocked to the floor by Volstagg’s girth, Caber looked up as Sif appeared with Leir and reported that she had accepted his proposal of marriage that he defeat a champion of her choosing. Believing Sif to be referring to Thor, Leir and Caber accompanied her to Earth, but having not visited it in millennia, he attacked a taxi cab and Sif had them adopt mortal disguises. They trailed Thor to the boundaries of the Black Galaxy and back to Asgard where they protected it from Surtur and Ymir. With the danger passed, Leir engaged Thor in battle over Sif, but Sif declared herself her own champion and confronted Leir in battle herself. Humiliated by the turn of events, Leir and Caber subsequently returned to Avalon.
Leir's current activities are unrevealed.
Height: 7’2”
Weight: 575 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Auburn
Strength Level: Leir possesses superhuman strength above the average Celtic
God in the Class 100 range, enabling him to lift (press) over 100 tons.
Known Superhuman Powers: Leir possesses the conventional physical attributes of the Celtic Gods. Like all members of his race; Leir is extremely long-lived (although not immortal like the Olympian Gods). He has not aged since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any known conventional means. He is immune to all known terrestrial diseases and is invulnerable to conventional injury. If wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for the Dagda or a number of gods of equal power working together to revive him. Leir does have some superhuman strength and his own Danaan metabolism gives him far greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (The flesh and bone of the Celtic gods is about three times denser than similar human tissue contributing to the Celtic Gods superhuman strength and weight). Leir is also extremely resistant to injury by conventional means and his godly metabolism gives him superhuman endurance in all physical activities.
Leir also has exceptional powers in manipulating elemental powers such as storms and lightning possibly at a level equal to that of Zeus or Thor. He can generate electrical energy in the form of a lightning from his hands, and create shapes out of it such as spears and shields. Thrown with his superhuman strength, these spears can shatter any substance and explode on impact.
Abilities: Leir has exceptional skills in unarmed combat and can defend himself with swords and weapons conjured from lightning.
Comments: This bio involves Leir and his appearances in the Marvel Universe; he has yet to appear in the DC Universe.
Clarifications: Leir is probably not to be confused with: