Cailte,
Caoilte,
Caelte,
Keelta,
Kylta
Name borne by several figures, seven of whom were Fenians, the best-known being Caílte mac Rónáin, sometimes described as a nephew of Fionn mac Cumhaill, famous for his fleetness of foot. Caílte is a steward for Fionn and once helps him catch two of every kind of wild animal when Gráinne asks for them. Caílte can kill giants. He is also a golden-tongued reciter of tales and poems, and a favoured minstrel for an evening's entertainment. In the Acallam na Senórach [Colloquy of the Elders] Caílte survives until Christian times and speaks on behalf of the old values to St Patrick. Several poems celebrating nature and the older values are attributed to Caílte. In the 8th-century Imram Brain [Voyage of Bran], Caílte discloses that Fionn was reincarnated by King Mongán of the Cycle of Kings. In later ballads on this theme Caílte is largely displaced by Oisín. His father-in-law was Barrán and his daughter was Suain. He is known as Derglas in some Scottish Gaelic lore; his counterpart in Macpherson's Ossian is Co-alt. Some modern commentators have asserted that the names Caílte and Oisín might both have been originally nicknames for Fionn, and that the personages grew out of aspects of the older hero.
