Amergin mac Eccit is a poet and warrior in the court of Conchobar mac Nessa

Conchobar mac Nessa

Conchobar mac Nessa was the king of Ulster in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. He ruled from Emain Macha .-Birth:...

 in the Ulster Cycle

Ulster Cycle

The Ulster Cycle , formerly known as the Red Branch Cycle, one of the four great cycles of Irish mythology, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the traditional heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly counties Armagh, Down and...

 of Irish mythology

Irish mythology

The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branch and the Historical Cycle. There are...

. He was the son of Eccet Salach, a smith

Smith (metalwork)

A metalsmith, often shortened to smith, is a person involved in making metal objects. In contemporary use a metalsmith is a person who uses metal as a material, uses traditional metalsmithing techniques , whose work thematically relates to the practice or history of the practice, or who engages in...

, and grew to the age of fourteen without speaking or washing himself. One day Athirne

Athirne

Athirne or Athairne the Importunate was a poet and satirist of the court of Conchobar mac Nessa in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. He was the foster-father of Amairgin mac Echit, who succeeded him as Ulster's chief poet....

, the Ulaid

Ulaid

The Ulaid or Ulaidh were a people of early Ireland who gave their name to the modern province of Ulster...

's chief poet, sent his servant to Eccet to order an axe. The servant was shocked when Amergin uttered a precocious, cryptic poem, and ran home to tell his master what he had heard.

Athirne resolved to kill the boy, for fear that he might take his job, but Eccet had replaced him with a lifelike clay replica. Athirne showed up to take delivery of his new axe, brought it down on the replica's head, and fled, thinking he had killed Amergin. The Ulaid besieged Athirne in his house and forced him to pay compensation to Eccet. He took Amergin as his foster-son and taught him his poetic skills, and in time Amergin did indeed take over from Athirne as chief poet of Ulster.

Amergin married Findchoem

Findchóem

Findchóem is a character from the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. The sister of the Ulster king Conchobar mac Nessa, she is the wife of the poet Amergin, the mother of Conall Cernach and the wet-nurse of Cúchulainn....

, sister of Conchobar mac Nessa, king of the Ulaid. Their son was Conall Cernach

Conall Cernach

Conall Cernach is a hero of the Ulaidh in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. He is said to have always slept with the head of a Connachtman under his knee. His epithet is normally translated as "victorious" or "triumphant", although it is an obscure word, and some texts struggle to explain it...

, and their foster-son

Fosterage

Fosterage, the practice of a family bringing up a child not their own, differs from adoption in that the child's parents, not the foster-parents, remain the acknowledged parents. In many modern western societies foster care can be organised by the state to care for children with troubled family...

 was Cú Chulainn

Cú Chulainn

Cú Chulainn or Cúchulainn , and sometimes known in English as Cuhullin , is an Irish mythological hero who appears in the stories of the Ulster Cycle, as well as in Scottish and Manx folklore...

. He killed the Ellén Trechend, the three-headed monster that made raids on Ireland from the cave of Cruachan.

During the Táin Bó Cúailnge

Táin Bó Cúailnge

is a legendary tale from early Irish literature, often considered an epic, although it is written primarily in prose rather than verse. It tells of a war against Ulster by the Connacht queen Medb and her husband Ailill, who intend to steal the stud bull Donn Cuailnge, opposed only by the teenage...

("cattle raid of Cooley

Cooley peninsula

The Cooley Peninsula is a hilly peninsula in County Louth, Ireland, which includes towns such as Omeath, Carlingford and Greenore.-Geography:...

"), Amergin held up the advance of the Connachta

Connachta

The Connachta are a group of medieval Irish dynasties who claimed descent from the legendary High King Conn Cétchathach...

 army by pelting them with enormous stones for three days and nights. The Munster

Munster

Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...

 hero Cú Roí

Cú Roí

Cú Roí mac Dáire is a king of Munster in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. He is usually portrayed as a warrior with superhuman abilities and a master of disguise possessed of magical powers. His name probably means "hound of the plain/field", or more specifically, "hound of the battlefield"...

, who was with the army, threw stones back at him, and the stones smashed together in mid-air, showering the area with bits of stone, until Medb

Medb

Medb – Middle Irish: Meḋḃ, Meaḋḃ; early modern Irish: Meadhbh ; reformed modern Irish Méabh, Medbh; sometimes Anglicised Maeve, Maev or Maive – is queen of Connacht in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology...

 begged them both to stop. They came to an agreement that both would stop, and Cú Roí would return to Munster, but once he had gone, Amergin resumed throwing stones, arguing his agreement was only with Cú Roí. Eventually he agreed to withdraw until the final battle (a variant version of this episode appears in the first recension of Táin Bó Cúailnge, where the combatants are Cú Roí and Munremar mac Gerrcind).