Characters / The Secret of Kells

Brendan

Voiced by: Evan McGuire (child); Micheal McGrath (adult)

A bright, imaginative and curious 12-year-old who leads a sheltered life in the Abbey of Kells.

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• Arbitrary Skepticism: When Aisling, a fairy, warns Brendan of a demon-god named Crom Cruach, he dismisses it as "pagan nonsense", even though he quickly recognized Aisling as a fairy.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Brendan manages to defeat Crom Cruach. Keep in mind, this is a monstrosity that has killed off most of Aisling's people, a race of very powerful, very well-armed warriors. And he does it with chalk.
• Friend to All Living Things: There's the whole goose scene where he's introduced, where he's very gentle with it once it's caught. He also quickly makes friends with Pangur Ban the cat and later Aisling, a forest sprite.
• He Is All Grown Up: And has completed the Book of Kells.
• The Hero: The main character of the film.
• Historical Person Punchline: In the final scene, it's all but said that the image of the red-headed face on the Chi Ro page is a self-portrait of Brendan.
• Idiot Ball: Holds one briefly when Aisling tries to warn him of Crom Cruach. If he doesn't believe in Crom because he's "Pagan nonsense," then what's Aisling?
• Innocent Blue Eyes: To show his naiveté (especially from his uncle's POV) and his curious nature.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Brendan seems to be close to all the Brothers at Kells, some of them being old enough to be his grandfather. The biggest example would be Aidan, who takes Brendan under his wing and teaches him how to become an illuminator.
• Interspecies Friendship: Between him, a human, and Aisling, a forest fairy.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Forms a close bond with Pangur-Ban.
• Nephewism: When Brendan was very young, his parents died in a Viking attack. His maternal uncle, Cellach, managed to save Brendan from the same grisly fate, and grafted him into the Abbey as a brother.
• Nice Guy: Brendan is a polite, honest, and respectful young boy.
• Prophetic Dreams: A couple of times throughout the movie. Most notably, he dreamed of Iona being sacked by Vikings the night before Brother Aidan arrived and brought news that Iona has fallen to the Northmen. He also dreamed of the Eye of Crom Cruach before he'd even heard of its existence and of being attacked by black tendrils in a fashion similar to how Aisling was later when he went into the cave.
• Protagonist Title: In the alternative title — "Brendan and the Secret of Kells".

Aisling

Voiced by: Christen Mooney

A forest fairy and one of the Tuatha De Danann, who lives in the woods outside of Kells.

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• Animal Motifs: Wolves. It's the animal she turns into most often and she's The Leader of a wolf pack.
• Animorphism: One of her abilities is being able to turn into animals. She mainly turns into a wolf, but the opening shows her as a salmon and a deer as well.
• Badass Adorable: Is it common to see a cute, petite albino girl lift heavy statues and turn into a fierce wolf?
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: She has noticeably thick, black eyebrows that aren't even the same color as her hair. This is because she's largely based on director Tomm Moore's younger sister as a child, and she also had thick eyebrows.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Her aging process. She doesn't look any older than Brendan and acts as immature as a young child. Though she states that she's been around for a very long time. It's also implied that her kind seems to age rapidly when under physical duress.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: She has hints of this. She doesn't seem to have any qualms about threatening a child, then trying to befriend said child afterwards.
• Breakout Character: She pretty much stole the audience even with the limited screentime she had. Aisling even found her way into ranked 45 in Empire's list of 50 best animated movie characters. She also had the honor of going to the Oscars in 2010 when the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature. Director Tomm Moore says here that he's thought of doing a short film on Aisling (or Pangur Ban), but he's hesitant about it because of people's head-canons.
• The Cutie: She's probably the sweetest character in the film, especially being the only girl.
• The Fair Folk: Downplayed; she's nicer than most examples, but she's very protective of her forest and isn't above siccing her wolves on people she views as trespassers. She even threatens to set the wolves on Brendan if he doesn't leave. While Brendan refers to her as a "fairy" in the film, one of the tie-in comics confirms that she's one of the Tuatha De Danann, a race that was portrayed by Christian writers as fairies but were actually the pantheon of Ireland's pre-Christian deities.
• Fallen Princess: The tie-in comic that focuses on her reveals her parents were the King and Queen of the Tuatha De Danann, with her as their beloved princess. She was even shown wearing a floral headdress and a fanciful gown. When Crom Cruach consumed her people and her parents, she escaped and was left to fend for herself in the forests, becoming a rag-wearing Wild Child as a result.
• Friend to All Living Things: She states that the forest is hers, and it's implied that she can communicate with everything in it. She later forms a close friendship with both Brendan and Pangur Ban.
• Green Thumb: Implied to be one of her abilities. One scene shows her using magic to make small white flowers grow out of solid rock, and after Brendan defeats Crom Cruach, she's nowhere to be seen but there's a trail of those same flowers leading away from the cave.
• Heroic Neutral: She actively tries driving people away from her forest so they would leave her and her forest alone. However, whenever Brendan is in distress (inside and outside her forest), she's usually the one to rescue him.
• Holy Burns Evil: More like Holy Burns Pagan, since she's not evil. She cannot tread upon holy ground, preventing her from aiding directly in Brendan's escape from the abbey. This is purely due to her status as a fairy, not a commentary on her moral alignment.
• Immortal Immaturity: She states herself that she's "lived through many ages", but most of the time she acts as childish as she looks.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's more than a bit prickly towards Brendan at first, initially setting her wolves on him and then demanding that he leave her forest, but she soon warms up to him and becomes quite loyal to him afterwards.
• Last of Her Kind: She's the last of the Tuatha De Danaan. She reveals to Brendan that Crom Cruach was responsible for the destruction of her people, and the tie-in comic centered on her confirms outright that she's the last of them.
• The Lightfooted: There's a lot of emphasis on how graceful and light-footed she is whenever she moves, even when she's on all fours.
• Meaningful Name: Aisling has a meaningful name in more than one way: not only is it an Irish girl's name meaning "dream" or "vision", it's also a kind of Irish poetry that frequently features a woman who represents Ireland itself, while calling back to its previous pagan beliefs. In the film, Aisling serves the same purpose.
• Morphic Resonance: Whenever she changes shape, you can tell it's her thanks to her white colouring and green eyes.
• Mystical White Hair: She has white hair and, being of The Fair Folk, is definitely magical. According to the tie-in comic, it's a racial trait of all her people.
• Offscreen Teleportation: All but spams this, particularly in her first encounter with Brendan, whenever she drops offscreen, she could pop up anywhere.
• Really 700 Years Old: She looks like a little girl who's around Brendan's age, but she states outright in the opening that she's "lived through many ages", and decades later, when Brendan is an adult, she looks exactly the same as she did when he was a child. She makes a brief cameo◊ in the movie Song of the Sea, which is set during The '80s, and she certainly doesn't look a thousand years older.
• Running on All Fours: She occasionally walks or runs on all fours, showing her connection to nature and how wild she is.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Due to the amount of damages she's taken from Crom Cruach, she's stuck as a wolf. However, by the end of the film, we briefly see her in her Shapeshifter Default Form, implying the lock is wearing off.
• Super-Strength: This petite girl can lift and/or push down statues with ease.
• Teleportation: Aisling has the ability to appear one place to the next, and she's done this on screen. Though whether it's this or her Super-Speed is up for debate.
• Troll: Shortly after her and Brendan meet, she goes from threatening to a playful jerk.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: She's able to turn into a wolf, and the opening narration shows she can at least turn into a deer and a salmon as well.
• Wall Crawl: She has some kind of magic that allows her to do this, as shown when she scales a high tower so she can free Brendan from it.
• White Wolves Are Special: In her wolf form, she stands out among the other wolves in the film due to her white fur. Since she's really a fairy with Mystical White Hair in her regular form, it highlights her magical nature.

Abbot Cellach

Voiced by: Brendan Gleeson

A former illuminator who now superintends a wall to protect the Abbey of Kells from invasion.

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• Artistic Licence – History: The real Cellach mac Congaile died only eight years after founding the Abbey, but the movie character is alive when the adult Brendan returns at the end.
• Can't Take Criticism: He has this mentality whenever someone questions or doubts him regarding building the wall to protect Kells. He either shuts up his dissenters and even throws his nephew to the brig for outwardly doubting him. He soon regrets this and sees that his naysayers were right when his single-minded focus on building his wall actually led to Kells and some of the citizens being destroyed.
• Control Freak: He's so paranoid about the Northmen that he's overhauled all normal functions of the Abbey in favor of building a defensive wall. Not even the benches in the scriptorium are free from his tight control; when Aidan moves in, Cellach rearranges to make room for his work, but refuses to let Aidan have any say in the layout of his work space. It wouldn't be so bad if his ideas were sound, but often times he ignores good points brought up by others simply because they're being insubordinate and pulls rank to make them stop talking.
  Cellach: The scriptorium will be arranged according to my instructions.
  Aidan: But it's not a good—
  Cellach: It will be as I say.
• Didn't Think This Through: He spends so much time with the wall that it never occurs that he should have also spent that much time with the scaffolding. And by the time he realizes...
• Fatal Flaw: His Control Freak tendencies; by not listening to other people's opinions it makes him unwilling to listen to any reason. His obsession with supporting the wall ends up dooming everyone he tried to protect.
• For Your Own Good: Cellach locks Brendan in his room to protect him after Brendan refuses to give up visiting the forest and working with Brother Aidan.
  Cellach: If I can't trust you to stay out of harm's way, you'll have to remain here until you see sense.
• Good Is Not Nice: Abbot Cellach is strict and controlling, but he is not cruel. He just wants to protect the monastery from Vikings. Even when he locks Brendan in the tower as punishment, he ensures he is fed every day.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: The comic book prequel reveals the Abbot's scar came from a Viking's sword while rescuing Brendan as a toddler.
• Heroic BSoD: He goes through one when he's under the impression that the Northmen killed Brendan.
  Cellach: (lying on the ground, staring at the destroyed scriptorium) I'm so tired... Tang, leave me be... please... leave me be.
• Historical Domain Character: Cellach mac Congaile was the first Abbot of Kells.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: A non-villainous example. His wall was intended to keep the Northmen out, but it ended up trapping everybody in. Additionally his focus only on the wall and not on the scaffolding meant that when the scaffolding broke — due to so many people trying to escape — there were more people dead than alive.
• It's All My Fault: He blames himself for the death of numerous villagers in Kells and the (presumed) death of Brother Aidan and Brendan.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The Abbott is a stern, no-nonsense man with a stubborn disposition, but in the end he does mean well.
• Large and in Charge: The abbot dwarfs everyone else living in Kells, standing a full head taller than even the towering Brother Assoua.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After realizing that the wall he worked so hard to build only left the people he swore to protect trapped, particularly because he never ever thought to support the scaffolding...
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His focus on supporting the walls and not the scaffolding means that when the former is destroyed and the latter has numerous people climbing it to escape, it ends up with numerous people dead at his feet and cutting the escape route of the survivors besides.
• Papa Wolf: The prequel comics shows that he killed vikings to protect his nephew.
• Parents as People: He's technically Brendan's uncle, but he's still more or less a parental figure to his nephew; while he can be very strict and harsh towards Brendan, it's clear that he still cares a great deal for him, telling Tang to give his breakfast to Brendan after locking him in his room and being utterly devastated when he thinks Brendan was killed by the Northmen.
• Perpetual Frowner: Never see him smile once. Until Brendan's return.
• Pet the Dog: There are several moments showing that despite his cold exterior, Cellach is still a good man and actually has the best interests at heart.
  • When refugees approach Kells after their home is destroyed by the Northmen, Cellach doesn't hesitate to open the gate and give them shelter—explicitly, he does this without regard for whether they're Christian or pagan and no mention is made of converting refugees.
  • He's shown to be working the hardest at finishing the wall.
  • When Brother Tang offers him breakfast, Cellach tells him to give it to Brendan instead.
  • During the siege of Kells, Cellach's first action is to find Brendan.
• Properly Paranoid: While he can be a bit harsh at times, it's hard to blame him seeing the wave of destruction the Northmen are bringing towards Kells.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: His actions aren't ideal (his actions being working his subjects from day to night, locking Brendan in his room and refusing to hear any critique whatsoever of his designs), but his motives are good (his motives being protect Kells from The Northmen).

Brother Aidan

Voiced by: Mick Lally

A master illuminator, responsible for illustrating the Book of Iona (later to be known as the Book of Kells). However, given his advanced age, he's no longer the artist he used to be, and turns to Brendan to help him finish what he started.

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• The Ace: He was considered to be the perfect illuminator, largely due to the fact that he was the Keeper of the Eye of Crom.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a bit quirky and even a little childish at times, but he's known as a master illuminator. While his skills aren't what they used to be since he's getting older, he clearly knows his craft well and passes his knowledge along to Brendan.
• But Now I Must Go: After traveling with Brendan for over ten years, Aidan eventually passes away due to his old age, but is content knowing that Brendan has finished the Book of Kells.
• Cool Old Guy: A lot warmer than the Abbott and becomes good friends with Brendan.
• Famed In-Story: There's a lot of stories about Aidan. Some say he has a third eye, others a third arm. Turns out neither one of them are true.
• Feeling Their Age: Since he's getting older and his eyesight and motor skills aren't what they used to be, he asks Brendan to complete the Book for him while still mentoring him on technique.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Brendan, who's young enough to be his grandson.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: Pangur-Ban was his constant companion throughout his travels. Kind to cats and good with kids too!
• Manchild: Aidan has clearly not let go of his childish side, despite the fact that he carries the immense burden of loss and responsibility.
• Mentor Archetype: To Brendan. Aidan teaches Brendan the fine art of illumination so Brendan can complete the Chi Ro page, since Aidan himself is too old to complete the task.
• Nice Guy: Aidan is easy going, kind, warm, and optimistic.
• Parental Substitute: He becomes one to Brendan, especially after the two are forced to leave Kells.

Pangur-Ban

Voiced by: N/A

Aidan's pet cat and traveling companion.

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• Amplified Animal Aptitude: She's a smart cat. Her Silent Snarker reactions imply she understands what's being said, and she knows to go to Aisling for help when Brendan is unable to go himself. Whether her knowing to grab a cell key from the Abbot's room and use it on Brendan's cell door is her intelligence or Aisling's guidance is more ambiguous.
• Cats Are Snarkers: Of the Silent Snarker variety; while she can't speak, her confused or exasperated reactions to what goes on around her more than make up for it.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She tends to ignore Brendan at first, but she gradually warms up to him. Eventually, after Aidan's death, she now travels with an adult Brendan.
• Humanlike Animal Aging: She's rather long-lived for an ordinary cat. By the end of the film, she's outlived Aidan and continues to accompany Brendan well into his adulthood, and she doesn't look any older.
• Meaningful Name: Pangur-Ban is named after the oldest known poem written in the Irish language, which is about a cat with the same name.
• The Shadow Knows: Even when transformed into a sprite by Aisling, her shadow remains that of a normal cat.

The Illuminators

Left to right: Brothers Tang, Leonardo, Assoua, Sergei, Jacques, Friedrich, and Square

Voiced by: Liam Hourican (Brothers Tang and Leonardo), Paul Tylack (Brother Assoua), Paul Young (Brother Square)

A group of Illuminators who also live in the city of Kells and assist Abbot Cellach in building the wall. Several of them are of different ethnicities.

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• Butt-Monkey: All of them provide form of comedy relief. Especially Leonardo.
• Cool Old Guy: They all keep their knowledge of Brendan assisting Brother Aiden a secret, and even encourage him to continue writing the Book of Kells.
• Hero Worship: As illuminators themselves, they hold Brother Aiden in very high regard.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Brendan. They're all adults while Brendan is only twelve, but they still treat him as a friend and fellow monk.
• Multinational Team: An Irish monk, an Italian monk, a Chinese monk, an African (Moor) monk, and an English monk, who was originally supposed to be Afghan. There's also a monk with a German accent, a gloomy Slav, and a French monk.
• Sole Survivor: The only brother seen after the siege of Kells is Brother Tang, who had locked himself in the tower with the survivors who made it up the scaffolding before it collapsed. The others sought sanctuary in the main cathedral, and the last we ever see of them is them staring in horror as the Northmen break down the door...

The Northmen

Voiced by: Uncredited

The main antagonists of the story. They are an army of Vikings ravaging Ireland in search of gold.

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• The Bad Guy Wins: While a small squadron of them were mauled to death by Aisling's wolves (one of whom appears to be the leader of the horde), it's implied that their ravaging of Ireland is still ongoing and they get away scot free.
• Big Bad: They're the main antagonist of the story.
• Black Speech: Their language is an incomprehensible, guttural series of growls and snarls punctuated with the occasional "Gold".
• Blood Knight: They're vicious, bloodthirsty raiders who kill everyone they come across.
• Catchphrase: GOLD.
• Devoured by the Horde: Three of the Vikings, one of whom appears to be the leader of the raid, are ripped to shreds by Aisling's wolves.
• The Dreaded: Word of the horrors they've committed travels far, and the monks are terrified of the mere idea of their arrival.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Their voices are deep, growling and guttural.
• Horny Vikings: Their helmets sport large horns, which, combined with their Black Speech and shadowy appearance, make them look more like demons than human beings.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: One of them tries to finish off Cellach by running him through with his sword.
• Karma Houdini: Aside from the small squadron of Northmen that get mauled to death by Aisling's wolves, they as a whole get away with their rampant destruction of Brendan's village and Ireland as a whole.
• Kick the Dog: Their barbaric ways and callous cruelty give them plenty of opportunities to spitefully hurt others through the movie:
  • Aside from their constant raid and pillaging of Ireland, the leader has a quite literal example. When Pangur-Ban lunges at the leader, he slaps her away.
  • When a wounded and unarmed Cellach trundles to the scriptorium, to free Brendan before it burns down, the Vikings attack him.
  • The Vikings tear up the book of Kells that took months if not years to illuminate.
• Knight of Cerebus: Their introduction into Kells shifts the fun-loving, cutesy tone of the movie into a dark and horrific tone. Hell, they provide more of a threat than Crom Cruach.
• Lack of Empathy: When the leader reads the Book of Iona (a.k.a the Book of Kells), the book that has touched everyone who's read it (even Cellach), his response was to tear out the pages, throw said pages in Aidan's and Brendan's faces and walk off with the gold cover. While it’s entirely possible that this is simply because he could not read Latin, the fact that he regularly leads destructive raids of abbeys and monasteries without any hint of remorse doesn’t give the impression of a compassionate individual.
• Leitmotif: Vikings
• No Kill like Overkill: The Vikings make it a strong point to wipe out everyone in Iona except Aidan who escaped, and do the same to most of the residents at Kells, even when it wouldn't benefit them.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: They aren't shown to do any raping, but they sure do love their pillaging, killing and burning.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: A good number of them have red eyes.
• Would Hurt a Child: They openly try to kill Brendan, and it wasn't the first time they've tried to kill him.

Crom Cruach

Voiced by: N/A

The secondary antagonist of the movie. It is a pagan deity that consumes anything that comes within its sight.

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• Autocannibalism: After Brendan puts out its eye, it blindly bites down on its own tail and begins to devour itself, consuming itself into nothingness.
• Animalistic Abomination: A monstrous, ancient pagan god that manifests itself in the form of a snake, albeit with many oddities in its form.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: It acts more like an animal rather than a malevolent force.
• Body to Jewel: When removed, its eyes turn into magical lenses/magnifying glasses of what appears to be cut crystal.
• Disk-One Final Boss: Crom Cruach is faced part way through the narrative, with the Vikings being the main threat of the film.
• The Dreaded: Aisling is absolutely terrified of it, and refuses to even speak its name when she's in its temple. It's implied that Cellach is afraid of Crom, too, or at least afraid of its cult.
• Eldritch Abomination: It's a giant snake demon/god that consumes everything in sight.
• Snakes Are Sinister: He's an Eldritch Abomination in the shape of a snake (or something similar).
• Villain of Another Story: Of Aisling's story. He's murdered Aisling's entire people, leaving her to be the Last of Her Kind. She even cowers in fear at the mere thought of confronting him.
• Your Size May Vary: His eye shrinks rather dramatically between appearances. At first, it's nearly as big as Brendan. When next we see it, it's about the size of an apple (it briefly seems to take on a size between these two, but it appears to merely be the way it was thickly wrapped that gave this impression).

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