Fionn mac Cumhaill- Celtic HeroHero"Leader of the Fianna"

Birth and Boyhood

Fionn was born Demne, son of Cumhall, leader of the Fianna, and Muirne, daughter of the druid Tadg mac Nuadat. Cumhall had eloped with Muirne against her father's wishes, and Tadg appealed to the High King for justice. Cumhall was killed at the Battle of Cnucha by Goll mac Morna, who then assumed leadership of the Fianna. The infant Demne was hidden to protect him from his father's killers and was raised in secret by two warrior women, Bodhmall the druidess and Liath Luachra, deep in the forests of Sliab Bladma.

The Macgnímartha Finn recounts his early exploits. Even as a child he outran deer and caught wild birds with his bare hands. He wandered from foster-home to foster-home, driven away when his identity became suspected, always moving closer to Tara.

The Salmon of Knowledge

The defining moment of Fionn's youth came at the Pool of Fec on the River Boyne, near the síd mounds of Brú na Bóinne. There the poet Finnegas had spent seven years waiting to catch the Salmon of Knowledge, a legendary fish that had eaten the nine hazelnuts falling from the trees around the Well of Wisdom and had thereby absorbed all the world's knowledge. A prophecy held that whoever first ate the salmon would gain this omniscience, and Finnegas believed the prophecy referred to himself.

Finnegas caught the salmon at last and set young Demne to cook it, warning him strictly not to eat any of the flesh. But as the boy turned the fish over the fire, a blister rose on its skin, and Fionn pressed it down with his thumb. The burning fat scalded him, and he instinctively thrust his thumb into his mouth to cool the pain. In that instant, all the world's knowledge entered him.

When Finnegas saw the light of sudden wisdom in the boy's eyes, he knew what had happened and understood that the prophecy had not been about himself after all. He gave the rest of the salmon to the boy and named him Fionn, meaning "bright" or "fair." Ever after, whenever Fionn needed to know something hidden, he would place his thumb against his tooth and the knowledge would come to him.

Leader of the Fianna

Fionn claimed his father's place through a combination of heroic deeds and political skill. His first great feat occurred at Tara on the night of Samhain, when the fire-breathing being Aillen mac Midgna emerged from the síd to burn the royal hall. Aillen's music put all who heard it to sleep, after which he breathed fire over Tara. Fionn kept himself awake by pressing his own spear-point against his forehead, the pain counteracting the enchantment. He slew Aillen, and the High King Cormac mac Airt acknowledged Fionn as rightful leader of the Fianna. Even Goll mac Morna, his father's killer, accepted his leadership.

To join the Fianna, warriors had to defend themselves against nine spear-casters while standing in a pit up to their waist, and run through the forest without breaking a twig or having their braided hair loosened by branches. They also had to be learned in poetry, for the Fianna valued art as highly as martial prowess.

Hunter and Warrior

Fionn and the Fianna spent the summer months, from Beltane to Samhain, living off the land, hunting deer and boar through the forests and mountains of Ireland. Fionn's two hounds, Bran and Sceólang, were the greatest hunting dogs in Ireland, and their origin was supernatural: they were Fionn's nephews, the children of his sister Tuiren, transformed into dogs by a jealous fairy woman.

The Fianna's duty was defending Ireland against external threats: raiders from across the sea and hostile fairy beings emerging from the síd mounds. The Acallam na Senórach recounts hundreds of their adventures through the device of the aged Oisín and Caílte mac Rónáin narrating their memories to Saint Patrick.

Diarmuid and Gráinne

Fionn's betrothal to Gráinne, daughter of the High King Cormac mac Airt, ended before the wedding feast was over. Gráinne saw the young warrior Diarmuid ua Duibhne and was captivated by the love spot on his face, which made any woman who beheld it fall helplessly in love with him. She placed Diarmuid under geasa, magical obligations that could not be refused, compelling him to elope with her.

Fionn pursued them for sixteen years across Ireland. Dolmens called "beds of Diarmuid and Gráinne" dot the countryside, marking the sites where they sheltered. Aengus Óg, the god of love and Diarmuid's foster-father, aided the couple and eventually brokered a reconciliation with Fionn.

But Fionn's pride was not truly appeased. He manipulated Diarmuid into hunting the enchanted boar of Ben Bulben, knowing that Diarmuid was fated to die by a boar's tusk. The boar gored Diarmuid mortally. Fionn possessed the power to heal any wound by carrying water in his cupped hands, but twice he deliberately let the water trickle through his fingers before reaching Diarmuid. By the time his followers shamed him into making a genuine attempt, Diarmuid was dead.

Oisín and Tír na nÓg

Fionn's son Oisín was one of the greatest warriors and poets of the Fianna. When the fairy woman Niamh Chinn Óir appeared on a white horse and invited Oisín to Tír na nÓg, the Land of Youth, he rode away with her across the western sea. He lived there for what seemed three years in timeless happiness, but three hundred years had passed in the mortal world.

When homesickness drew Oisín back to Ireland, Niamh warned him never to dismount from his horse. He found the Fianna long dead, Ireland changed beyond recognition, and its people shrunken and weak compared to the warriors he remembered. When he leaned from his saddle to help men struggling to lift a stone, the girth broke and he fell to the ground. The instant he touched Irish soil, the three centuries fell upon him and he became a blind, withered old man.

The Sleeping Hero

Folklore holds that Fionn is not dead but sleeping in a cave beneath the hills of Ireland, surrounded by his warriors with their hounds at their feet, waiting to return when Ireland faces its greatest need. The location of the cave varies by region. When the Dord Fiann, the great horn of the Fianna, is sounded three times, Fionn and his warriors will rise, armed and ready, to defend Ireland once more.