Name: Fionn Mac Cumhaill
Finn Mac Cool
Birth
Name: Demne
Profession:
Warrior
Chieftain
Poet
Seer
Clan:
Bascna
Father:
Cumhal ( Uncle to the High King, Conn of the hundred
battles)
Mother:
Muirne of the white neck
Half-Brother:
Tulcha
Fosterers:
Liath Luachra
Bodhmall
Aunts:
Tuiren sister of Muirne
Bodhmall
Uncle:
Crimhall (brother of Cumhal)
Foster
Father: Fiacha Mac Conga
Foster
Brother: Moling Lúath
King: Cormac Mac Art (High king of Ireland from 227 - 283 AD.)
Army: The Fianna
Related
Sites: Tara, Co. Meath.
Hill of Almu (Allan), Co.
Kildare. ( his home ).
Gaohra/ Gabhra (west of Tara) place of his death.
Hunting grounds: Ben Bulben
(Sligo)
Slieve Cua
Slieve Crot
Cnoc Fianna
Tutor:
Liath a female warrior
Wives:
Sabha (of the
sidhe, the people of the
Otherworld.)
Maighneis (mother of Fiachna)
Gráinne (who eloped with Diarmuid
O'Duibhne and had four sons before eventually returning to Fionn)
Sons:
Oisín (son of Sabha of the sidhe )
Fiachna ( son of Maighneis)
Faolan
Cairell
Foster
Sons:
Innsa
Duibhruinn
Cael
Daughters:
Cainche Lugach
Grandson:
Oscar (son of Oisín)
Nephew:
Caoilte mac Ronan
Druids:
Cainnelsciath
Diorraing
Bards:
Daighre Mac Morna
Suanach Mac Senshenn
Messenger:
Taistellach
Hounds:
Bran and Sgeolan ( from the sidhe )
Friends: Goll mac Morna (a former enemy who slew
Cumhall),
Fiacha mac Conga (also a friend of Cumhaill's), Diarmuid
O'Duibhne (trained by the warrior
woman Mongfinn), Conan Maol
Enemies:
Midac mac Lochlan (because the Fianna had slain his family)
Sinsar of the
battles
Borba the haughty (son of Sinsar)
The King of
the World (father of Sinsar, grandfather of Borba)
The King of Torrent and
his sons
Cairpre (son of Cormac mac Art, brother of Gráinne)
Fear-Taigh mac Morna
Fear-Ligh mac Morna (brothers of Goll mac
Morna)
The five sons of Urgriu
God:
Manannan mac Lir (Lord of the sea)
Goddess: Morrigan ( Goddess of war, life and death )
Magical Powers:
Could divine information about events by putting
his thumb in his mouth, Could heal warriors by giving them water that was cupped in his
hands.
Description of Fionn Mac
Cumhaill/ Finn Mac Cool
This description was translated from an early source by Lady Gregory late 19th century.
Finn was a king, a seer and a poet, a Druid and a knowledgeable man; and
everything he said was sweet-sounding to his people. And a better fighting man than
Finn never struck his hand into a king's hand, and whatever anyone ever said of him, he
was three times better. And of his justice it used to be said, that if his enemy and
his own son had come before him to be judged, it is a fair judgement he would have given
between them. And as to his generosity it used to be said, he never denied any man
as long as he had mouth to eat with, and legs to bring away what he gave him; and he left
no woman without her bride-price, and no man without his pay; and he never promised at
night what he would not fulfill on the morrow, and he never promised in the day what he
would not fulfill at night, and he never forsook his right-hand friend. And if he
was quiet in peace, he was angry in battle, and Oisín his son and Oscar his son's son
followed him in that.
This description is taken from the
Fianaigecht translated by Kuno Meyer.
Then rose the royal chief of the Fiana of Ireland and Scotland and of the
Saxons and Britons, of Lewis and Norway and of the hither islands, and put on his
battle-dress of combat and contest, even a thin, silken shirt of wonderful, choice satin
of the fair-cultivated Land of Promise over the face of his white skin; and outside over
that he put his twenty-four waxed, stout shirts of cotton, firm as a board, about
him,
and on the top of those he put his beautiful, plaited, three-meshed coat of mail of cold
refined iron, and around his neck his graven gold-bordered breastplate, and about his
waist he put a stout corset with a decorated, firm belt with gruesome images of dragons,
so that it reached from the thick of his thighs to his arm-pit, whence spears and blades
would rebound. And his stout-shafted martial five-edged spears were placed over
against the king, and he put his gold-hafted sword in readiness on his left, and he
grasped his broad-blue, well-ground Norse lance, and upon the arched expanse of his back
he place his emerald-tinted shield with flowery designs and with variegated, beautiful
bosses of pale gold, and with delightful studs of bronze, and with twisted stout chains of
old silver; and to protect the hero's head in battle he seized his crested, plated,
four-edged helmet of beautiful, refined gold with bright, magnificent, crystal gems and
with flashing, full beautiful, precious stones which had been set in it by the hands of
master-smiths and great artists.
Stories, legends and myths about Fionn Mac Cumhaill/ Finn Mac Cool
Fionn Mac Cumhaill was the commander in chief of the entire Fianna, his father Cumhaill
had been commander before him. He lived in the 3rd century A.D. Many of the stories
about Fionn are versions of much earlier legends and folktales. There is also an
element of the interaction between the pagan hero and the christian hero in the later
stories as many are about Fionn and his son Oisín meeting up with the christian saint
Patrick.
Celtic storytelling followed a mainly oral tradition but around the 3-4
century AD appeared the first of the Druid schools and centers of Learning and much of the
Knowledge was beginning to be written down. It was from this time onward that Ireland
received the name Isle of Saints and Scholars.
The Irish Druids were writing the stories
in Ogham, while many of the early chronicles were also scribed in Latin by christian monks
therefore a christian bias entered into some of the stories particularly the ones written
in later times around the 11th and 12th centuries. It was these christian versions of the
stories that survived the invasion of Ireland by the roman christians (The
Norman Invasion) in the 12th century.
