{"id":620,"date":"2015-10-06T14:06:19","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T13:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/fionn-mac-cumhaill-1\/"},"modified":"2016-01-25T11:20:22","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T11:20:22","slug":"fionn-mac-cumhaill-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/fionn-mac-cumhaill-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Fionn Mac Cumhaill (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 id=\"t:seinnteoirin1\">Play recording: Fionn Mac Cumhaill (1)<\/h2>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-620-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/fionn-mac-cumhaill-1.mp3?_=1\" \/><source type=\"audio\/ogg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/fionn-mac-cumhaill-1.ogg?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/fionn-mac-cumhaill-1.mp3\">https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/fionn-mac-cumhaill-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<div class=\"dmeite\">\n<p><span id=\"neasc-nocht-ceilth\" class=\"nmeite\">view \/ hide recording details [+\/-]<\/span><\/p>\n<ul id=\"clarMeiteashonrai\" class=\"meiteashonrai\">\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Teideal <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Title)<\/span>:<\/span> Fionn Mac Cumhaill (1).<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Chatal\u00f3ige Ollscoil Washington <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(University of Washington Catalogue Number)<\/span>:<\/span> 903901.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Chnuasach Bh\u00e9aloideas \u00c9ireann <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(National Folklore of Ireland Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Roud <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Roud Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Laws <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Laws Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Child <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Child Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Cnuasach <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Collection)<\/span>:<\/span> Joe Heaney Collection, University of Washington, Seattle.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Teanga na Cro\u00edmh\u00edre <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Core-Item Language)<\/span>:<\/span> English.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Catag\u00f3ir <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Category)<\/span>:<\/span> story.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Ainm an t\u00e9 a thug <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Name of Informant)<\/span>:<\/span> Joe Heaney.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Ainm an t\u00e9 a th\u00f3g <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Name of Collector)<\/span>:<\/span> Kenneth Goldstein.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">D\u00e1ta an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Date)<\/span>:<\/span> unavailable.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Su\u00edomh an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Location)<\/span>:<\/span> Department of Folklore and Folklife, University of Pennsylvania, United States of America.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Oc\u00e1id an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Occasion)<\/span>:<\/span> day class.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Daoine eile a bh\u00ed i l\u00e1thair <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Others present)<\/span>:<\/span> unavailable.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">St\u00e1das ch\u00f3ipcheart an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording copyright status)<\/span>:<\/span> unavailable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Stories about Fionn Mac Cumhaill<\/h2>\n<p>In this segment, Joe tells a number of stories relating to this mythical hero.<\/p>\n<h3>The Education of Fionn Mac Cumhaill<\/h3>\n<p>Following his father&#8217;s death at the hands of Goll Mac Morna, Fionn is sent to be educated with two old women, who teach him all the tricks of battle before sending him back to Tara to assume his birthright.<\/p>\n<h3>Fionn and the Salmon of Knowledge<\/h3>\n<p>On his way back to Tara, Fionn comes to a river, and at a place called the Yellow Ford (an Feasa Rua) he meets an old man who is fishing for the Blind Salmon of the Yellow Ford, which he has been hunting for fifty-five years. Just then, the old man catches the salmon. Being weary, he asks Fionn to roast the fish for him, and to waken him when it&#8217;s cooked. As the salmon roasts on a spit over the fire, however, a bubble rises on the skin of the fish. Fionn puts his thumb on the bubble &#8211; and because it burns him he then puts his thumb in his mouth. Then he was told that he has tasted the salmon of knowledge, and he will have the gift of knowledge ever after. When the old man awakens, Fionn tells him what happened, and the old man tells Fionn to eat the salmon, because he was destined to have the knowledge. So whenever Fionn wants to know what&#8217;s in store, he must put his thumb in his mouth and chew it to the bone, and then he&#8217;ll have the knowledge of what&#8217;s coming.<\/p>\n<h3>Fionn, Ois\u00edn, and Niamh of the Golden Hair<\/h3>\n<p>One day when Fionn and his son Ois\u00edn were walking by the banks of Loch L\u00e9in, they saw a woman riding towards them on a white horse. The woman had a pig&#8217;s head. When the woman came alongside, she spoke to them and told Fionn that she was in love with Ois\u00edn, and wanted to take him with her to the Land of the Ever Young (T\u00edr na n\u00d3g). The Fianna being known for chivalry, Ois\u00edn kissed the woman, pig&#8217;s head and all; and with that, the spell was broken and the pig&#8217;s head vanished, revealing a lovely young woman &#8211; Niamh of the Golden Hair &#8211; who had been put under an enchantment by her evil stepmother. Although Fionn was broken-hearted to lose his son, Ois\u00edn left with Niamh and they went to the Land of the Ever Young, where the stepmother was killed, and Ois\u00edn was made king. After what Ois\u00edn thought was a couple of months, he wanted to go back and see his father. She implored him not to go, that there was nobody there anyway, as Ois\u00edn had been with her for two hundred years. Eventually she agreed to give him the white horse to go to Ireland; but if he allowed his foot to touch the ground, he would never be able to return to her.<\/p>\n<p>When he reaches Ireland, he learns that the Fianna have all been killed in a battle. The people he meets appear to be weaklings, and while he is helping some men roll a stone up a hill, the girth of his saddle breaks and he falls to the ground, which causes him to become a very old man at that moment.<\/p>\n<h3>Ois\u00edn and St Patrick<\/h3>\n<p>At about the time of Ois\u00edn&#8217;s return from the Land of the Ever Young, St Patrick is at work in Ireland. Hearing about Ois\u00edn, St Patrick goes to see him. They have a conversation about God, and Ois\u00edn explains about the gods of the Fianna. Patrick then asks Ois\u00edn how the Fianna regulated their lives, in the absence of God. Ois\u00edn explains about their honesty, their dignity, their way of life. &#8216;We had three things,&#8217; Ois\u00edn said. Gloineacht \u00e1r gcro\u00ed &#8211; the purity of our hearts; neart \u00e1r ng\u00e9ag &#8211; the strength of our arms; and beart de r\u00e9ir \u00e1r mbriathar &#8211; deed according to word.<\/p>\n<p>Ois\u00edn is astonished to hear Patrick say that Fionn and the Fianna are all in hell. &#8216;There isn&#8217;t a devil born,&#8217; he said, &#8216;who&#8217;ll keep that crowd locked up.&#8217; Eventually Patrick proves his point by opening hell to Oisin&#8217;s sight. There is Goll Mac Morna, beating off the devils with a flail &#8211; but the devils are giving as good as they are getting from him, blow for blow. St Patrick tells Ois\u00edn that although he cannot get the Fianna out of hell, he will grant Ois\u00edn one wish to make life easier for them. Ois\u00edn requests that an acre of green sod be placed under Goll Mac Morna&#8217;s left foot, and that his flail should deliver one hundred blows to the devils&#8217; one blow. St Patrick expresses surprise that Ois\u00edn should not have wished for them to be in hell forever without pain; but Ois\u00edn assures him that this is what the Fianna would want for themselves.<\/p>\n<h3>Ois\u00edn&#8217;s Baptism<\/h3>\n<p>Finally, convinced of the rightness of St Patrick&#8217;s teachings, Ois\u00edn agrees to be baptized. St Patrick duly carries out the ceremony; but in the course of things he plants his crozier through Ois\u00edn&#8217;s foot. When he notices what he&#8217;s done, he asks Ois\u00edn why he didn&#8217;t say anything to him. Ois\u00edn repliesthat he thought it was part of the baptism. That&#8217;s how converted he was!<\/p>\n<div class=\"n\u00f3ta\u00ed-bun-leathanaigh\">\n<h2 id=\"t:notai\">Notes<\/h2>\n<p>Note that the motif of the Salmon of Knowledge also comes into Joe&#8217;s story of how the Boyne River was created. Also, compare the story of how Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh got the gift of knowledge of every craft by tasting the beestings (i.e. the first milk) of the cow he was looking after in the story Joe tells in connection with the song &#8216;Eilean\u00f3ir na R\u00fan&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>With regard to the story about Niamh, note that Joe tells other stories involving the enchantment of people into different forms: see The Seal-Woman, The Woman Who Removed a Thorn From a Seal&#8217;s Fin, and The Twelve Swans. In The Witch in the Stone Boat, the enchanted character is the witch herself.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scealaiocht"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1465,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions\/1465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}