Fedelmid

This name derives from the Irish “Feidlimid,” meaning “beauty, ever good, constant.” Three kings of Munster bore the name. 1) Feidhelm Mac Crimthainn was both a king of Munster and a Bishop of Cashel. He contested the sovereignty of Ireland with the O’Neill kings. 2) Saint Felim, an Irish Christian hermit and priest, was born, probably in Kiennacta Breagh, County Meath, in the mid-sixth century. 3) Fedelm is a female prophet and fili, or learned poet, in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. She appears in the great epic Táin Bó Cuailnge, in which she foretells the carnage of the armies of Medb and Ailill mac Máta against the Ulaid (Ulstermen) and their greatest champion, Cú Chulainn. Fidelma, a daughter of the High King Conchobhar Mac Nessa, was known as Fidelma Nichrothach “Fidelma the Nine-Times-Beautiful,” and a warrior of note herself.