by Irish Myths
then to his own inside room, and his people saw him no more for
that day, or till the sun rose over Magh Life on the mo row.
And through the length of seven years from that time, whenever he was not out fighting against the enemies of Ireland, he went searching and ever searching in every far comer for beautiful Sadbh. And there was great trouble on him all the time, unless he might throw it off for a while in hunting or in battle. And
through all that time he never brought out to any hunting but the
five hounds he had most trust in, Bran and Sceolan and Lomaire
and Brod and Lomluath, the way there would be no danger for
Sadbh if ever he came on her track.
But after the end of seven years, Finn and some of his chief
men were hunting on the sides of Beinn Gulbain and they heard a
great outcry among the hounds, that were gone into some narrow
place. And when they followed them there, they saw the five
hounds of Finn in a ring, and they keeping back the other hounds,
and in the middle of the ring was a young boy, with high looks,
and he naked and having long hair. And he was no way daunted
by the noise of the hounds, and did not look at them at all, but at
the men that were coming up. And as soon as the fight was
stopped Bran and Sceolan went up to the little lad, and whined
and licked him, that any one would think they had forgotten their
master. Finn and the others came up to him then, and put their
hands on his head, and made much of him. And they brought
him to their own hunting cabin, and he ate and drank with them,
and before long he lost his wildness and was the same as themselves. And as to Bran and Sceolan, they were never tired playing about him.
And it is what Finn thought, there was some look of Sadbh in
his face, and that it might be he was her son, and he kept him
always beside him. And little by little when the boy had learned
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IRISH MYTHS AND LEGENDS
their talk, he told them all he could remember. He used to be with
a deer he loved very much , he said, and that cared and sheltered
him, and it was in a wide place they used to be, having hills and
valleys and streams and woods in it, but that was shut in with
high cliffs on every side, that there was no way of escape from it.
And he used to be eating fruits and roots in the summer, and in
the winter there was food left for him in the shelter of a cave. And
a dark-looking man used to be coming to the place, and sometimes he would speak to the deer softly and gently, and sometimes with a loud angry voice. But whatever way he spoke, she would
always draw away from him with the appearance of great dread
on her, and the man would go away in great anger. And the last
time he saw the deer, his mother, the dark man was speaking to
her for a long time, from softness to anger. And at the end he
struck her with a hazel rod, and with that she was forced to follow him, and she looking back all the while at the child, and crying after him that any one would pity her. And he tried hard to
follow after her, and made every attempt, and cried out with grief
and rage, but he had no power to move, and when he could hear
his mother no more he fell on the grass and his wits went from
him. And when he awoke it is on the side of the hill he was,
where the hounds found him. And he searched a long time for the
place where he was brought up, but he could not find it.
And the name the Fianna gave him was Oisin, and it is he was
their maker of poems, and their good fighter afterwards.
CHAPTER V.
THE BEST MEN OF THE FIANNA
And while Oisin was in his young youth, Finn had other good
men along with him, and the best of them were Goll, son of
Moma, and Caoilte, son of Ronan, and Lugaidh's Son.
As to Goll, that was of Connacht, he was very tall and lighthaired, and some say he was the strongest of all the Fianna. Finn
FINN, SON OF CUMHAL
1 79
made a poem in praise of him one time when some stranger was
asking what sort he was, saying how hardy he was and brave in
battle, and as strong as a hound or as the waves, and with all that
so kind and so gentle, and open-handed and sweet-voiced, and
faithful to his friends.
And the chessboard he had was called the Solustairtech, the
Shining Thing, and some of the chessmen were made of gold, and
some of them of silver, and each one of them was as big as the fist
of the biggest man of the Fianna; and after the death of Goll it
was buried in Slieve Baune.
And as to Caoilte, that was a grey thin man, he was the best
runner of them all. And he did a good many great deeds; a big
man of the Fomor he killed one time, and he killed a five-headed
giant in a wheeling door, and another time he made an end of an
enchanted boar that no one else could get near, and he killed a
grey stag that had got away from the Fianna through twentyseven years. And another time he brought Finn out of Teamhair, where he was kept by force by the High King, because of some
rebellion the Fianna had stirred up. And when Caoilte heard Finn
had been brought away to Teamhair, he went out to avenge him.
And the first he killed was Cuireach, a king of Leinster that had a
great name, and he brought his head up to the hill that is above
Buadhmaic. And after that he made a great rout through Ireland,
bringing sorrow into every house for the sake of Finn, killing a
man in every place, and killing the calves with the cows.
And every door the red wind from the east blew on, he would
throw it open, and go in and destroy all before him, setting fire to
the fields, and giving the wife of one man to another.
And when he came to Teamhair, he came to the palace, and
took the clothes off the door-keeper, and he left his own sword
that was worn thin in the king's sheath, and took the king's sword
that had great power in it. And he went into the palace then in
the disguise of a servant, to see how he could best free Finn.
And when evening came Caoilte held the candle at the king's
feast in the great hall, and after a while the king said: "You will
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wonder at what I tell you, Finn, that the two eyes of Caoilte are in
my candlestick." "Do not say that," said Finn, "and do not put
reproach on my people although I myself am your prisoner; for as
to Caoilte," he said, "that is not the way with him, for it is a high
mind he has, and he only does high deeds, and he would not
stand serving with a candle for all the gold of the whole world. "
After that Caoilte was serving the King o f Ireland with drink,
and when he was standing beside him he gave out a high sorrowful lament. "There is the smell of Caoilte's skin on that lament,"
said the king. And when Caoilte saw he knew him he spoke out
and he said: "Tell me what way I can get freedom for my master. "
"There is no way to get freedom for him, but by doing one thing,"
said the king, "and that is a thing you can never do. If you can
bring me together a couple of all the wild creatures of Ireland," he
said, "I will give up your master to you then. "
When Caoilte heard
him say that he made no delay, but he set
out from Teamhair, and went through the whole of Ireland to do
that work for the sake of Finn. It is with the flocks of birds he
began, though they were scattered in every part, and from them
he went on to the beasts. And he gathered together two of every
sort, two ravens from Fiodh da Bheann; two wild ducks from
Loch na Seillein; two foxes from Slieve Cuilinn; two wild oxen
from Burren; two swans from blue Dobhran; two owls from the
wood of Faradhruim; two polecats from the branchy wood on the
side of Druim da Raoin, the Ridge of the Victories; two gulls from
the strand of Loch Leith; four woodpeckers from white Brosna;
two plovers from Carraigh Dhain; two thrushes from Leith
Lomard; two wrens from Dun Aoibh; two herons from Corrain
Clebh; two eagles from Carraig of the stones; two hawks from
Fiodh Chonnach; two sows from Loch Meilghe; two water-hens
from Loch Erne; two moor-hens from Monadh Maith; two sparrow-hawks from Dubhloch; two stonechats from Magh Cuillean; two tomtits from Magh Tuallainn; two swallows from Sean Abhla;
two cormorants from Ath Cliath; two wolves from Broit Cliathach;
two blackbirds from the Strand of the Two Women; two roebucks
FINN, SON OF CUMHAL
181
from Luachair Ire; two pigeons from Ceas Chuir; two nightingales
from Leiter Ruadh; two starlings from green-sided Teamhair; two
rabbits from Sith Dubh Donn; two wild pigs from Cluaidh Chuir;
two cuckoos from Drom Daibh; two lapwings from Leanain na
Furraich; two woodcocks from Craobh Ruadh; two hawks from
the Bright Mountain; two grey mice from Luimneach; two otters
from the Boinn; two larks from the Great Bog; two bats from the
Cave of the Nuts; two badgers from the province of Ulster; two
landrail from the banks of the Sionnan; two wagtails from Port
Lairrge; two curlews from the harbour of Gallimh; two hares from
Muirthemne ; two deer from Sith Buidhe; two peacocks from
Magh Mell; two cormorants from Ath Cliath; two eels from Duth
Dur; two goldfinches from Slieve na-n Eun; two birds of slaughter
from Magh Bhuilg; two bright swallows from Granard; two redbreasts from the Great Wood; two rock-cod from Cala Chairge; two sea-pigs from the great sea; two wrens from Mios an Chuil;
two salmon from Eas Mhic Muime; two clean deer from Gleann
na Smoil; two cows from Magh Mor; two cats from the Cave of
Cruachan; two sheep from bright Sidhe Diobhlain; two pigs of the
pigs of the son of Lir; a ram and a crimson sheep from Innis.
And along with all these he brought ten hounds of the hounds
of the Fianna, and a horse and a mare of the beautiful horses
of Manannan.
And when Caoilte had gathered all these, he brought them to
the one place. But when he tried to keep them together, they scattered here and there from him; the raven went away southward, and that vexed him greatly, but he overtook it again in Gleann da
Bheann, beside Loch Lurcan. And then his wild duck went away
from him, and it was not easy to get it again, but he followed it
through every stream to grey Accuill till he took it by the neck
and brought it back, and it no way willing.
And indeed through the length of his life Caoilte remembered
well all he went through that time with the birds, big and little,
travelling over hills and ditches and striving to bring them with
him, that he might set Finn his master free.
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IRISH MYfHS AND LEGENDS
And when he came to Teamhair he had more to go through
yet, for the king would not let him bring them in before morning,
but gave him a house having nine doors in it to put them up in
for the night. And no sooner were they put in than they raised a
loud screech all together, for a little ray of light was coming to
them through fifty openings, and they were trying to make their
escape. And if they were not easy in the house, Caoilte was not
easy outside it, watching every door till the rising of the sun on
the morrow.
And when he brought out his troop, the name the people gave
them was "Caoilte's Rabble," and there was no wonder at all in that.
But all the profit the King of Ireland got from them was to see
them together for that one time. For no sooner did Finn get his
freedom than the whole of them scattered here and there, and no
two of them went by the same road out of Teamhair.
And that was one of the best things Caoilte, son of Ronan, ever
did. And another time he ran from the wave of Cliodna in the
south to the wave of Rudraige in the north. And Colla his son was
a very good runner too, and one time he ran a race backwards
against the three battalions of the Fianna for a chessboard. And he
won the race, but if he did, he went backward over Beinn Edair
into the sea.
And very good hearing Caoilte had. One time he heard the
King of the Luigne of Connacht at his hunting, and Blathmec that
was with him said, "What is that hunt, Caoilte?" "A hunt of three
packs of hounds," he said, "and three sorts of wild creatures
before them. The first hunt," he said, "is after stags and large deer
and the second hunt is after swift small hares, and the third is a
furious hunt after heavy boars." "And what is the fourth hunt,
Caoilte ? " said Blathmec . "It is the hunt of heavy-sided, lowbellied badgers." And then they heard coming after the hunt the shouts of the lads and of the readiest of the men and the servingmen that were best at carrying burdens. And Blathmec went out to see the hunting, and just as Caoilte had told him, that was the
way it was.
FINN, SON OF CUMHAL
18 3
And he understood the use of herbs, and one time he met with
two women that were very downhearted because their husbands
had gone from them to take other wives. And Caoilte gave them
Druid herbs, and they put them in the water of a bath and washed
in it, and the love of their husbands came back to them, and they
sent away the new wives they had taken.
And as to Lugaidh's Son, that was of Finn's blood, and another
of the best men of the Fianna, he was put into Finn's arms as a
child, and he was reared up by Duban's daughter, that had reared
eight hundred fighting men of the Fianna, till his twelfth year,
and then she gave him all he wanted of arms and of armour, and
he went to Chorraig Conluain and the mountains of Slieve
Bladhma, where Finn and the Fianna were at that time.
And Finn gave him a very gentle welcome, and he struck his
hand in Finn's hand, and made his agreement of service with him.
And he stopped through the length of a year with the Fianna; but
he was someway sluggish through all that time, so that under his
leading not more than nine of the Fianna got to kill so much as a
boar or a deer. And along with that, he used to beat both his servants and his hounds.
And at last the three battalions of the Fianna went to where
Finn was, at the Point of the Fianna on the edge of Loch Lein,
and they made their complaint against Lugaidh's Son, and it is
what they said: "Make your choice now, will you have us with
you, or will you ha
ve Lugaidh's Son by himself. "
Then Lugaidhs Son came to Finn, and Finn asked him, "What is
it has put the whole of the Fianna against you?" "By my word," said
the lad, "I do not know the reason, unless it might be they do not
like me to be doing my feats and casting my spears among them. "
Then Finn gave him an advice, and it is what he said: "If you
have a mind to be a good champion, be quiet in a great man's
house; be surly in the narrow pass. Do not beat your hound without a cause; do not bring a charge against your wife without having knowledge of her guilt; do not hurt a fool in fighting, for
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he is without his wits. Do not find fault with high-up persons;
do not stand up to take part in a quarrel; have no dealings with a
bad man or a foolish man. Let two-thirds of your gentleness be
showed to women and to little children that are creeping on the
floor, and to men of learning that make the poems, and do not be
rough with the common people. Do not give your reverence to
all; do not be ready to have one bed with your companions. Do
not threaten or speak big words, for it is a shameful thing to
speak stiffiy unless you can carry it out afterwards. Do not forsake
your lord so long as you live; so not give up any man that puts
himself under your protection for all the treasures of the world.
Do not speak against others to their lord, that is not work for a
good man. Do not be a bearer of lying stories, or a tale-bearer that
is always chattering. Do not be talking too much; do not find fault
hastily; however brave you may be, do not raise factions against
you. Do not be going to drinking-houses, or finding fault with old
men; do not meddle with low people; this is right conduct I am
telling you. Do not refuse to share your meat; do not have a niggard for your friend; do not force yourself on a great man or give him occasion to speak against you. Hold fast to your arms till the
hard fight is well ended. Do not give up your opportunity, but
with that follow after gentleness."
That was good advice Finn gave, and he was well able to do
that; for it was said of him that he had all the wisdom of a little
child that is busy about the house, and the mother herself not
understanding what he is doing; and that is the time she has most