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Fand is best known as the adulterous wife of the equally philandering Irish sea god Manannan mac Lir. She is the queen of the seas and of Faery, and a powerful sorceress. Beautiful and stately, she can take human form or bird form. In human form, she is attended by bird companions, like Cliodna and the Welsh goddess Rhiannon. In fact, author Jennifer Heath suggests that Fand and Rhiannon might be two faces of the same goddess--especially since Rhiannon is the wife of Manannan's Welsh counterpart Manawyddan ap Llyr.
Fand and her husband enjoy a comfortable relationship most of the time, though both of them have a taste for human lovers. Fand's most famous lover was the renowned warrior Cuchulain, Hound of Ulster. He shot stones at her and her sister, Liban, as they flew in bird form. Fand was both angered at his attack and impressed by his skill. She was especially interested since she, at this time, believed Manannan had deserted her. She and Liban appeared in his dream, wherein they beat the daylights out of him. Their magic was powerful enough that Cuchulain suffered even after he awoke from the dream, afflicted by a wasting sickness. Fand sent a message that he could only be cured if he visited her in the otherworld.
Now, Cuchulain had a wife already, the feisty and formidable Emer. So he resisted Fand's call for some time, but as he grew more ill, he knew he had to go to Fand or die. The sea queen healed him and became his mistress. Cuchulain was restless in the peace of the otherworld, so he returned to Ulster and Emer, but continued to meet with Fand in secret.
Emer heard of her husband's infidelity. She armed herself and fifty maids with iron knives, and surprised Cuchulain and Fand together. Instead of attacking, though, she berated Cuchulain for his deeds; she accused of him of wanting Fand simply because she was new and different, not superior to Emer in any way. He loved them both, and did not want to choose between them. The two women each offered to give him up, and in the midst of this argument Manannan appeared. He begged Fand's pardon for being away so long, and invited her to come back to his sea kingdom. She complied, and Manannan shook his cloak--the veil between this world and the other--between Fand and Manannan, so that they would never meet again. They say that Druids gave a drink of forgetfulness to Cuchulain and Emer, to block out the memory of the painful incident. But it is also said that Cuchulain chose to make his last stand. when he knew he was fated to die, at the very standing stone where he once trysted with the queen of the sea.
