Fionn Mac Cumhails Epic Adventures

A collection of hair-raising tales of ancient Irish heroes and druids, of strange and peculiar adventures when creatures of the night walked the earth and magic was everywhere.

The Gaelic hero Fionn mac Cumhaill (often known in English as Finn MacCool) has had a long life. First cited in Old Irish chronicles from the early Christian era, he became the central hero of the Fenian Cycle which flourished in the high Middle Ages. Stories about Fionn and his warriors continue to be told by storytellers in Ireland and in Gaelic Scotland to this day. This book traces the development of Fionn's persona in Irish and Scottish texts and constructs a heroic biography of him. As aspects of the hero are borrowed into English and later world literature, his personality undergoes several changes. Seen as less than admirable, he may become either a buffoon or a blackguard. Somehow these contradictions exist side by side. Among the writers in English most interested in Fionn are James Macpherson, the "translator" of The Poems of Ossian ( 17601, William Carleton, the first great fiction writer of nineteenth-century Ireland, and Fiann O'Brien, the multifaceted author of At Swim-Two-Birds. Aspects of Fiann appear as far apart as Mendelssohn's "Hebrides (or Fingal 's Cave) Overture" and a contemporary rock opera. But the most complex use of Fionn's story in modern literature is James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.

Two magical tales of the adventures of Fionn Mac Cumhail.

The stories of Finn MacCoull and his warriors were once told at every fireside in Scotland and Ireland. After centuries in obscurity, this collection brings the tales soaring to life again. Here you will find Diarmuid, whom no woman can help but fall in love with, and Ossian, a warrior-poet raised in the woods by a wild deer. There is Grainne, ancient ancestor of Iseult and Guinevere, and Finn himself, whose name was once a byword for wisdom, generosity and beauty. Enter a world of feasting and fighting, battles and poetry, riddles and omens; join Finn and the Fianna on their never-ending quest to drink deeper and deeper of the cup of life.

The most famous Irish legend of all in an exciting and easily understood version. Read about the feats of the famous warrior Cuchulainn who singlehandedly defends Ulster against the army of Queen Maeve. War, peace, love, greed, fate are the stuff of an epic, and in The Táin they are present in full. Illustrated throughout by Donald Teskey.

Joe Neil MacNeil holds in his memory a wealth of Gaelic folktales, learned in his youth in Cape Breton. For over a decade, he has told his tales to John Shaw, a specialist in Celtic folklore and fluent speaker of Gaelic. Shaw has recorded, transcribed, edited, and translated the tales and folklore into English. This rich and entertaining collection is the result of their collaboration. Folktales, anecdotes, proverbs, expressions, rhymes, superstitions, and games are presented in translation and, in the cloth edtion, in the original as well. All variations of the genre are represented: a fragment from the Ulster cycle, some items from the Fenian cycle, hero and wonder tales, fairy and witch lore, romantic tales, tales of the exemplum type, tales of cleverness, "numbskull" stories, animal tales, and tall tales.

Finn McCool was born a giant with the gift of Celtic wit but—at least in his youth—is prone to bad luck. One day McCool will become the chieftain of Fianna hunter-warriors, and the greatest Irish folk hero of all time. But until then, he has some growing up to do. In The Green Hero, renowned mythologist Bernard Evslin recounts the tales of Finn McCool’s early years: his attempts to woo Murtha, the girl he fell in love with when he was just three days old; his torment by the Fish-hag; his struggles with the whims of the goddess Amara; and more. This amusing collection retells the early exploits of a man who became a legend.

Two legends of Finn Mac Cumhail, adapted from "Irish tales of mystery and magic," in which feathers are used to conquer an enemy, and a battle with a neighboring kingdom covers the Burren with stones.