Garb mac Stairn

Champion of purported Scandinavian origin in a late (17th cent.?) Ulster Cycle narrative. When he demands tribute from Tara, all comply except Cúchulainn. Briccriu chides Garb and then begins a week-long combat with him that ends when Cúchulainn beheads Garb with a single stroke from his sword. The name Garb[h] mac Stairn is cited for strength in Scottish Gaelic proverbs. James Macpherson drew on Garb mac Stairn in the creating of the arch-villain Swaran in the Poems of Ossian (1760).