Finn Cycle Conference

Echtra Finn: Scéal Ilchodach Fiannaíochta

Chuir Ludwig Christian Stern scéal Fiannaíochta in eagar níos mó ná céad bliain ó shin. Téacs ilchodach atá i gceist leis an scéal so ara nglaoimid Echtra Finn. Níl sé tagtha slán chugainn ach in aon lámhscríbhinn amháin, .i. Leabharlann na hOllscoile, Leiden, Codex Vossianus, lat. qu. 7 [V]. Sa chaint so, scrúdófar na ceangail idir Echtra Finn agus scéalta agus dánta eile sa traidisiún chun iniúchadh a dhéanamh ar ábhar na hidirthéacsúlachta.

Conán’s sticky situation: Bruíon Chaorthainn across the ages

One of the most popular stories in both the oral and literary Fenian traditions, Bruíon (Bruidhean) Chaorthainn is a key text in the evolving characterization of Conán mac Morna. This lecture will examine the intricacies of the folklore corpus and its relationship with the early modern romance, with observations on the portrayal of Conán and the bruíon theme.

The princess who cannot sing: Pursuing Gráinne’s voice in Paul Mercier’s cinematographic adaptation of Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne

Gráinne is one of the most enigmatic characters of the Fenian Cycle and arguably one of the most controversial figures of Irish literature and folklore. A disrupter of social conventions, Gráinne eludes characterological expectations and superficial interpretations. Her inherently transgressive nature has constantly puzzled generations of authors, storytellers and audiences up to this day.
This paper will focus on one of the latest adaptations of Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne, Paul Mercier’s Pursuit (2015), a cinematographic retelling of Mercier’s play Diarmuid and Gráinne (2001) which recontextualizes the Early Modern tale in the criminal underworld of contemporary Ireland. On the one hand, the paper will draw a parallelism between the screenplay and its source(s), arguing that Mercier’s deviations from the Tóruigheacht signal his personal reinterpretation of Gráinne as a post-modern (anti-)heroine. On the other hand, it will focus on Mercier’s choice of Gráinne as the narrator of the story, highlighting how the focus on Gráinne’s subjectivity provides the director and playwright with the opportunity to offer a meta-commentary on the tale and to question the role of myth in contemporary society.

Fionn mac Cumhaill’s daughter: Change, identity and gender in Medieval Ireland

In medieval Irish literature, Lughach, daughter of Fionn mac Cumhaill, is a minor figure, mentioned mostly with reference to her more-prominent son (Mac Lughach). A poem preserved, in slightly different versions, in Agallamh na Seanórach and Duanaire Finn has, however, some interesting observations on the gender of this character. The Agallamh version describes Lughach as a ‘woman’ (bean) who was ‘male, masculine’ (feardha) and who ‘sought manhood and abandoned her womanhood’ (fearrdhacht ro thríall … ⁊ ro thréicc a bandacht). The Duanaire Finn text, on the other hand, implies that Lughach engaged in ‘men’s deeds’ (feirgniomh).

The related extracts on Lughach seem to be the only medieval Irish material to have come to light to date in which a character actively adopts a gender-identity different to that of their birth and seemingly for no purpose other than self-expression. They will be explored in this paper for possible insights into gender-thinking in the Gaelic world in the Middle Ages.

Bruidhean Chaorthainn: A parody of in-tales in Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne?

It will be argued in this paper that Bruidhean Chaorthainn is, to a large extent, a parody of some in-tales in Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne. Allusions to other narratives will also be discussed.

The name of the Rois: Names of kings in Acallam na Senórach

This paper will examine the naming practices used by the Acallam in reference to the many kings who populate its frametale. Ann Dooley was the first to point out that the names of several supposedly fifth-century kings in the Acallam encoded the names of contemporary thirteenth-century Connacht dynasties. This paper will explore how that pattern of nomenclature extends throughout the text as a whole. It will look at how the pattern operates on both a broadly obvious scale – such as calling the king of Munster ‘Eógan’ and thus invoking the Eóganachta dynasty who dominated Munster politics for many centuries – and on an intensely local (and thus less immediately transparent) scale as well. While much of the paper will focus on twelfth- and early thirteenth-century Irish dynasties, discussion will also include the likely use of inter-lingual Irish and French puns to invoke the names of colonial lords and landowners.

A reassessment of the cluster of fíanaigecht poetry in the Metrical Dindshenchas of the Book of Leinster

The Book of Leinster (s. xii) contains the earliest example of a group of fíanaigecht poems surviving together within a manuscript. The six poems, including famous compositions such as ‘Fuitt co bráth’ as well as the narrative poems beginning ‘Oenach indiu luid in rí’ and ‘Dám thrír táncatar ille’, are found on folios CLXva31–CLXIIva51 (pp. 204–8 of the facsimile) and constitute the end of scribe A’s contribution to the so-called Metrical Dindshenchas.

In his edition of the Metrical Dindshenchas (1935), Gwynn stated that these six poems are not dindshenchas, defining them instead as a cluster with a different thematic focus, i.e. Finn mac Cumhail and his fíanna. This view has long been accepted. McCay has recently challenged the assumption that the Metrical Dindshenchas in the Book of Leinster is a unified recension and argued that scribe A’s writings in this part of the manuscript constitute a ‘working document into which a historian wrote out source materials for use’ (2020). However, a reassessment of the place of the cluster of fíanaigecht poetry within the Metrical Dindshenchas has yet to be carried out. This paper aims to address this desideratum.

A study of the manuscript layout, as well as discussions of intertextuality and of the use of place-names in the fíanaigecht and dindshenchas poems, will show that the texts written by scribe A in this section of the manuscript should be read together. Thus, this paper will argue that these six fíanaigecht poems are not in any way different from the other dindshenchas texts they were compiled with in the Book of Leinster and offer new perspectives on the role of place in fíanaigecht and dindshenchas.

Pádraig and Oisín in folk tradition: An exploration and examination of the artistry in their exchange

We may find, perhaps, that the framework of a tale is so ubiquitous in Irish society that it has escaped detailed examination from the oral tradition perspective. This may well be the case with Pádraig and Oisín and their infamous verbal contest. The literary and the oral are intertwined and their imbrication may have added to the lack of attention such folk narratives have been given. Another reason for this lack of attention may stem from representations by artists in the Irish cultural revival. The impact of the oral narrator’s creative response has rarely been considered.

Pádraig Ó Fiannachta ended his article on ‘The Development of the Debate between Pádraig and Oisín’ with ‘the two men have survived in Irish myth and folklore for at least four and a half centuries’ (1987). This statement is correct, if somewhat generalised. The two men have remained in tradition and have robust profiles across a number of narratives, placenames and traditions. This paper will focus on oral manifestations of this infamous engagement in order to shed light on the manners in which this story was transmitted and disseminated through folk narrative. Did the oral tradition adopt and adapt this tale or did the tellers of the tale emulate the literary versions?

Caoilte’s dipper and Patrick’s gospel

The poem ‘Síothal Chaoilte cia ros-fuair?’, the language of which suggests that it is a twelfth-century composition, provides perhaps the most developed literary tour-de-force among the Fenian lays, touching on most every theme of this heroic literature in a closely constructed plot that develops over more than a hundred quatrains. It focuses on the history of a silver serving vessel that transforms into Patrician relics in the frame, linking to the Vita Tripartita’s presentation of Patrick’s authority. The content of the learned sub-episodes and recitations, as well as its development of the Patrician role beyond that of audience, prefigure Acallam na Senórach, for which it may even have been a conceptual model.

Heroes, monsters and wicked women: Some versions of Laoidh Fhraoich from Gaelic oral tradition

The heroic ballad Laoidh Fhraoich has been in evidence in Gaelic Scotland since the sixteenth-century Book of the Dean of Lismore and survived in oral tradition well into the twentieth century. Although thematically part of the wider Ulster Cycle environment, it is also considered one of the great elegies of the ballad tradition, along with the laments for Conlaoch (another Ulster Cycle character), Osgar and Diarmaid. A number of versions of Laoidh Fhraoich have acquired additional quatrains which reference characters and literary conventions from the Fionn tradition. Most date to the mid-nineteenth century and are linked to the collecting activity of John Francis Campbell and Alexander Carmichael. This paper considers why these quatrains may have become attached to Laoidh Fhraoich and which events, images or individuals the references allude to. It also investigates the context of collection, the motivation of the collectors and the identity and significance of the reciters.

Signs of orality in the later Ossianic lays

The Ossianic (also known as Fenian) lays gained immense popularity in Ireland and Scotland from around the thirteenth century onwards, seemingly in line with, or as part of, the rise of the European ballad-tradition that developed at the same time. The seventeenth-century compilation popularly known as Duanaire Finn is perhaps the most famous collection of these lays. They also appear in significant number in the sixteenth-century Book of the Dean of Lismore and are widespread in later manuscripts. Comparison of the lays held in common between Duanaire Finn and the Book of the Dean of Lismore shows that lays had diverged to a significant extent, both in length and content, as early as the sixteenth/seventeenth centuries.

Donegal, in the northwest of Ireland, is a particular treasure-trove for later (i.e. twentieth-century) oral versions of these lays, with many being recorded by professional collectors as well as in Bailiúchán na Scol. In this area, we can see a continuation of this adaption and development of the lays. Ten lays, some with several versions, survived with varying degrees of merit in this county, giving us a significant corpus to investigate.

Using theory applied by various scholars in assessing the orality of Scandinavian poetry and English-language songs in Ireland, this paper will compare a selection of the later lays, both to each other (where multiple versions survive) and to earlier manuscript versions, and offer initial suggestions as to the signs of orality and adaption in this poetry.

Queering the early Finn Cycle

There is a growing appreciation for and practice of approaching medieval Celtic texts through a queer lens and our early Finn Cycle texts are ripe for such readings. A group on the fringes of society; questions of liminality and homosociality; the renaming of individuals; fraught relationships between genders, natures and forms of existence – one could say it is a wonder there have not been more queer readings of the Finn Cycle.

Queer readings of medieval literature tend to be criticised for forcing ‘modern’ concepts on medieval sources. Such a criticism, already lacking in substance, is even less valid in literary criticism of medieval Irish literature. As scholars, we already use the ‘modern’ concepts of Cycles to organise our thoughts, writings and, indeed, conferences. Such a complaint shows also a limited understanding of the range of queer methodology. Queer approaches go beyond solely examining and labelling sexual orientations; such a view is a reduction of an entire approach to one facet thereof.

It is in the context of the growing, varied queer scholarship of medieval Gaelic literary criticism that this paper takes place. Focusing on early Finn Cycle material, this paper re-examines some of our oldest texts through such a lens. The paper examines a handful of early Finn Cycle texts and highlights the tools of queer methodology, such as reparative reading, which can best be used to interrogate our texts, and our understandings thereof. Overall, this paper explores how queer methodology and theory can be a powerful tool in the Fenian academic toolkit.

A unique witness to some Fenian poems?

The events of the tale of Cath Fionntragha are well-known to scholarly audiences. The best-known text is that in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B487, edited both by Kuno Meyer and Cecile O’Rahilly, and most people are aware that the majority of later witnesses are extant in manuscripts written in Ireland. There is, however, also a little-known eighteenth-century Scottish manuscript copy of the tale in the hand of the Alasdair Mac Maighstir Alasdair, who is often hailed as the most original and innovative poet of the eighteenth century. The extant manuscript by Mac Maighstir Alasdair contains approximately eighty percent of the tale of the Battle of Ventry and has rarely been examined in detail. I have recently edited it in full as part of the work on Faclair na Gàidhlig’s Manuscripts Corpus.

One of the striking features of this version is that it is prosimetrum, containing 28 different poems which are not usually found as part of Cath Fionntragha. Neither are these poems derived from the lay narrating the events of the Battle of Ventry found the Book of the Dean of Lismore. This paper will present my work to date in examining whether these can be found in other versions of Cath Fionntragha, if the poems can be traced to other sources, or if they are unique witnesses to Fenian poems.

The dating of Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Gráinne: A reassessment

While Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Gráinne has achieved a level of fame that is unusual for an Early Modern Irish text, becoming one of the most beloved of the Fenian stories, there has been relatively little research done on the Tóruigheacht in and of itself. In particular, the dating remains contentious, with two tentative suggestions made by Gerard Murphy and Nessa Ní Sheaghdha. I intend to argue that, while Ní Shéaghdha’s dating to the fourteenth century cannot be definitely disproven, there is little evidence to support it. Rather than the Tóruigheacht as we know it existing in the fourteenth century, the evidence from other texts that reference Diarmaid and Gráinne appears to support a number of variations existing between the tenth and fifteenth centuries. This paper tentatively agrees with Gerard Murphy’s earlier suggestion of a date roughly contemporaneous to the earliest extant manuscript.

‘Thou hast left us in darkness’: Mourning Malvina in the Poems of Ossian

In his Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian (1763), James Macpherson’s collaborator Hugh Blair observes the brief importance of Malvina’s role and her poignant connection to the aging bard, identifying her elegy for Oscar, Ossian’s son, as its ‘most moving lamentation’. Blair suggests, moreover, that Malvina’s address to her deceased sweetheart represents ‘her own Death Song’, performed in anticipation of her otherwise subtle, unexplained demise.

Building on the analysis of Malvina by Juliet Shields, this paper will explore her depiction as a mourning woman in comparison to women’s elegies in the oral traditions of the Scottish Gàidhealtachd that Macpherson’s work reshaped, contrasting Malvina’s death and the truncation of her fictional career with the increasing visibility of Gaelic women poets’ actual work in the later 1700s. It will also examine the potential relationship between Macpherson’s immense popularity in the anglophone world and the perception of Gaelic women’s poetry by travellers to the Gàidhealtachd, many of them women, inspired by Ossian’s fame.

Some parallels for ‘The Departure of Bran’

The ballad beginning ‘Mairg fuil ar hiarraidh a Bhrain’ (Woe for him who has lost you, Bran) recounts how Finn’s beloved hound, Bran, deserts his master after Finn strikes him before a hunt. After a generalized lament for Bran’s death and a description of his beauty, the ballad describes how Finn heard the other hounds baying and gave Bran ‘a blow of a yellow thong decorated with rings of white bronze’. Bran stares at Finn in shock, weeping, before he runs away and leaps into a lake, never to be seen again.

Bran’s grief at being struck and Finn’s sorrow at Bran’s departure have been remarked upon, but other aspects of the ballad have not, to my knowledge, attracted much comment or explanation. In an article on the dogs of the fían, Kate Chadbourne characterizes the striking of Bran as ‘unfounded’ (1996/1997, p. 13), and John R. Reinhard and Vernam E. Hull state that ‘the blow which caused Bran to commit suicide seems to have been struck in a fit of childish temper’ (1936, p. 58). In this paper, I will attempt to interpret the striking of Bran and his departure by comparing the events of the ballad to several narratives that depict similar events.

Aithrighe Oisín: A Phádraig, is truagh an sgéal rí séimh na bhflaith

Sa chaint seo, tabharfar tuairisc ar ‘Aithrighe Oisín’, déantús i meadaracht aiceanta a chuireann síos ar bhaisteadh Oisín. Tá 13 cóip de seo sna lámhscríbhinní agus is i gcéad leath na naoú haoise déag a scríobhadh iad go léir. Is é an tAthair Dáibhí Ó Mathúna, Dochtúir le Diagacht as Dún Átha, Co. an Chláir, a scríobh an chóip is luaithe dá bhfuil againn sa bhliain 1816: tá sí seo in ARÉ 24 P 20. I mórán de na lámhscríbhinní, scríobhadh an déantús seo i ndiaidh Agallamh Oisín agus Phádraig agus is léir go bhfacthas do na scríobhaithe go raibh dlúthbhaint ag an dá théacs le chéile.

Pléifear tréithe an déantúis féin agus a sheachadadh sna lámhscríbhinní. Déanfar é a chur i gcomhnard le tuairiscí eile ar bhaisteadh Oisín i dtéacsanna ós na lámhscríbhinní agus ón mbéaloideas.

Seán Ó Duinnín agus Bruidhean Chéise Corainn

Fáisceadh Seán Ó Duinnín, Cúil Aodha (1924–2009), as an dtraidisiún béil ina cheantar dúchais i Múscraí Uí Fhloinn, Co. Chorcaí. Ba sheachadóir gníomhach d’ard-inniúlacht sa traidisiún úd i nGaeilge agus i mBéarla é Seán, le stór saibhir scéalta is seanchais, ceoil is amhrán ina thiachóg aige. Mar chomhartha ar a chumas scéalaíochta, ghnóthaigh Seán an chéad duais i gcomórtas scéalaíochta an Oireachtais sna blianta 1965, ’72, ’74, ’77, ’87, ’94 agus 2005.

Bhí gean ar leith ag Seán ar scéalta Fiannaíochta a dh’eachtraí, agus ar bharr a liosta bhí an scéal Fiannaíochta Bruidhean Chéise Corainn. Scríobhadh an leagan liteartha is luaithe dá bhfuil againn den scéal seo i dtéacs lámhscríbhinne timpeall na bliana 1690, agus dhealródh sé go bhfuil préamhacha an scéil ag dul siar go dtí an triú haois déag. Déanfar iarracht sa pháipéar seo aird a tharraingt ar na slite ina saibhríonn leaganacha béil Sheáin Uí Dhuinnín den scéal bruíne seo ár dtuiscintí ar sheánra ar leithligh den bhFiannaíocht.

Scéal Chéadaigh agus Teacht mhac Ríogh na Sorach go hÉirinn

Ina mhórshaothar taighde, Gaelic Folktales and Medieval Romances tugann Alan Bruford le fios go bhfuil Eachtra Chéadaigh Mhóir (nó Scéal Chéadaigh) ar an scéal béaloideasa Fiannaíochta is mó ar fad go raibh tóir air sa traidisiún Gaelach. Cé go bhfuil leagan den scéal ar marthain i ndornán beag lámhscríbhinní déanacha ó dheisceart na Mumhan, níorbh é an téacs so – Teacht mhac Ríogh na Sorach go hÉirinn – an fhoinse a bhí ag an scéal béaloideasa dar le Bruford. Go deimhin, ba é a mhórthuairim féin ná gurbh é a mhalairt ar fad a tharlaigh sa chás so, agus gur athinsint ar an scéal béaloideasa atá i leagan so na lámhscríbhinní ‘in semi-literary language.’ Sa chaint seo déanfar plé agus anailís ar ábhar agus ar stíl an téacsa ‘leathliteartha’ so d’fhonn éachtaint a dh’fháilt ar ghné ana-shuimiúil de shaothrú na Fiannaíochta sa naoú haois déag i gCúige Mumhan.

Diarmaid and the boar: Animals and naturalism in Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Gráinne

Contrary to the bulk of Finn Cycle material, its best-known and most popular tale Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Gráinne primarily concerns itself with Fionn and the fiana’s hunt of one of their own, Diarmaid Ua Dúibhne. In the Early Modern romance tale, Diarmaid and Gráinne are transformed from fian-band member and daughter of a king to the objects of a chase. And the tale tells us this story from the perspective of the pair, flipping the conventional narrative of those doing the pursuing to those on the run and in the woods and forests of Ireland, pursued.

This paper examines how the author of the Tóruigheacht utilizes Diarmaid’s animalistic and naturalistic characterization during the pursuit and in the boar-hunt which delivers his death to illuminate anxieties present in late-medieval Ireland surrounding the availability of hunting, access to wooded spaces, and new relationships, both within social groups as well as between man and beast. Examined in part through the lens of critical animal studies, this paper looks specifically at the scene of Diarmaid’s death and how it mirrors that of the boar which kills him. This moment, it will be shown, blurs the lines between human and animal and turns Fionn’s contrivance of Diarmaid’s death into something more visceral: the final, violent end of a hunt of his former friend. In doing so, the author of the Tóruigheacht forces its audience to ask questions of the nature and future of the fiana and what will become of Ireland’s relationship with its storied landscape.

Tá f fuaimithe’: Éachtaint ar chanúint stairiúil i dtaifead fuaime de scéal Fiannaíochta

Luaigh Brian Ó Cuív ina staidéar ar chanúintí na hÉireann (1951) go raibh pobal cainteoirí Gaeilge ag maireachtaint i measc sléibhte Shliabh Luachra timpeall ar an sráidbhaile, Brosnach, sna 30dí. Dhein Seosamh Ó Dálaigh taifead ar dhuine de na cainteoirí seo, feirmeoir darb ainm Donnchadh Ó Cuilleanáin, i 1938 agus tá sé anois ar cheann de na taifeadtaí is luachmhaire ar fad maidir le Gaelainn Iarthar Mumhan de chionn gurb é an taifead deireanach é, seans, de chainteoir dúchais traidisiúnta ón gceantar ag labhairt go líofa i gcanúint a chlúdaigh contaman fuaimintiúil tráth ón Mhaing go dtí an tSionainn i gCiarraí, stráicí maithe de Chontae Chorcaí agus fiú Tuamhumhan.

Bainfear úsáid as giotaí den taifead fuaime a dhein Ó Dálaigh don gCoimisiún Béaloideasa chun éachtaint a thabhairt ar an gcanúint stairiúil seo agus chun stór scéalta Dhonncha a nascadh le stór scéaltóirí eile a linne. Tá saibhreas ceoil agus béaloidis sa cheantar céanna inniubh – is i Réchaisle, baile fearthainn an fhiannaí, a thosnaigh an bailitheoir béaloidis chomhaimseartha, Eddie Lenihan, ag taifead ábhair den chéad uair agus é ag gabháil dá thaighde MA sa teangeolaíocht. Ní foláir nó tháinig cuid mhaith den oidhreacht shaibhir seo ón nGaelainn chuchu. Ach oiread le faisnéiseoirí eile sa dúthaigh, is díol spéise gur i mBéarla is mó a bhailíodh an Dálach seanchas gairid ó Dhonnchadh Ó Cuilleanáin, cé gur i nGaelainn shaibhir líofa a bhí na scéalta Fiannaíochta uaidh. Ní foláir nó bhí an béaloideas go lárnach i gcaitheamh aimsire na gcainteoirí timpeall na Brosnaí, fiú tar éis don phobal Ghaelainne féin a dhul i léig, choimeádar seilbh ar na scéalta, dánta agus nathanna a chiorraíodh an oíche dhóibh tráth. Bhí tábhacht leis an bhFiannaíocht sna cleachtais bhéil seo, fé mar a deir an Cuilleanánach féin: ‘Nuair a bheadh seanduine nú seanabhean marbh, bheadh [scéaltóir] ag an dtóramh agus é leathais na teine agus iad go léir bailithe timpeall air, is é ag ínsint na scéal fiannaíochta, ó ní raibh sé míneáireach in aon chor...’. Tá sé thar am na scéalta Fiannaíochta seo, agus scéal ‘Dinny’, a athinsint.

Mac Lugach, iuvenes and outsiders in Acallam na Senórach

Ann Dooley has argued that the poem, found in Acallam na Senórach, beginning ‘A Meic Lugach’ (O Mac Lugach) ‘is the most convincing example yet of the “modern” value of the Acallam in registering perceptions of the urgency of the problems posed both by the conduct and the social prospects of young noblemen in Ireland c.1200’ and that in it ‘we read the new chivalric code of a royal Irish household’. This paper considers the depiction of Mac Lugach as part of a sequence of passages in the Acallam that seem to allude to Normanised/Francophone Ireland. This sequence is investigated in light of Anne Connon’s positing of a ludic sensibility on the part of the author of the Acallam and of the work’s submerged interest in Ireland’s Norman settlements, arguing that the figure of Mac Lugach was constructed to point to a wealth of Irish literary tradition, on one hand, and to signal, in real-time, a vastly changed Irish political and cultural landscape, on the other.

Two unpublished versions of Laoidh Chaoilte

Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MS 50.1.12 contains two previously unpublished versions of Laoidh Chaoilte, collected by Hector MacLean for John Francis Campbell from Angus Mac Fhionnan and Janet Currie in South Uist in the Septembers of 1860 and 1861, respectively. This paper will compare these versions to others collected in manuscript and sound recordings from the eighteenth century to the twentieth, and consider some of the difficulties in interpretation. As I am currently editing these versions for publication, feedback and advice will be gratefully received. This paper will be delivered in Scottish Gaelic.

A new edition of Acaldam Ḟind ⁊ Oiséni

A short tale, or rather poem with introductory prose, consisting chiefly of stanzas alternatingly spoken by Find and his son Oiséne, has hitherto been accessible only in Kuno Meyer’s edition in Fianaigecht (1910, 22–27). Meyer’s edition is based on three sources and it was given the not-entirely-fitting title ‘The Quarrel between Finn and Oisin’. This text, perhaps from the early ninth century, is one of the earliest sources of Fenian literature and, for that reason alone, would deserve some attention; not least because Meyer’s edition left a lot to be desired, it has, however, been largely ignored in the study of medieval Irish literature and of fíanaigecht in the more than a century since its publication.

On the basis of two nineteenth-century (!) sources that were overlooked by Meyer, I have recently completed a new edition of the text, which is now ripe also for a new appraisal. In this talk, I will speak about the complicated transmission history of Acaldam Ḟind ⁊ Oiséni, about interesting aspects of the language usage in the dialogue, and I want to answer the burning question: this text was clearly written as a piece of literary humour, but is it really funny?

Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne – the flight, the splash and the art of courtly love

A key element in the Fenian landscapes of Ireland are the various megalithic monuments identified as leaba Dhiarmada agus Gráinne or ‘the bed of Diarmaid and Gráinne’. These monuments attest to the impact of the long-drawn out flight on local imaginations. Scholarship on the tale of Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne has been heavily influenced by Gertrude Schoepperle and James Carney's theories of a relationship between it and the early Tristan Cycle. This has led to what Marie-Luise Theuerkauf has recently termed ‘motival cherry-picking’ as opposed to structural studies of the tale or the nature of its characterisations. This paper looks at the flight through the lens provided by the late twelfth-century manual De Amore by Andreas Capellanus, his theories about marriage and adultery and their impact on early Arthurian literature.

Reconsidering Sjoestedt’s ‘Heroes Outside the Tribe’

In 1940, Marie-Louise Sjoestedt coined the term ‘Heroes Outside the Tribe’ (‘Les héros hors de la tribu’) to refer to the fíana as part of her proposed dichotomy of heroes in medieval Irish literature. She thus distinguished Finn and his companions from Cú Chulainn and his compatriots, the ‘Hero of the Tribe’, based on their differing relationships with early Irish society. To Sjoestedt, Finn and the fíana were a group of extratribal ‘others’, an asocial group that was physically and structurally detached from broader tribal society, while Cú Chulainn and his contemporaries were the opposite, individuals who participated in tribal society by owning territory and serving a king. With the benefit of over eighty years of further scholarship, with an abundance of newly edited and translated texts, revisiting Sjoestedt’s ‘Heroes Outside the Tribe’ seems only appropriate.

In this paper, I propose that while Finn and his warrior band may have initially appeared as an asocial extratribal group, being ‘Outside the Tribe’, as the medieval period progresses, Finn and his warrior band are increasingly characterized as participating in Irish society. This participation, predominantly seen in their relationship with high kings, is shaped by contemporary Irish military traditions, such as the fíana taking the form of a teglach, a royal household guard. As Finn develops into the figure of an independent king in the Early Modern Irish period (as discussed by Rebecca Try), the fíana develop characteristics reminiscent of contemporary royal warrior bands and obligatory aristocratic military service.

This new perspective on Finn and his warriors emphasizes the historic context within which the Finn Cycle was produced, questions the traditional division of Finn and Ulster Cycle warrior bands and argues that the fíana are not quite as ‘Outside the Tribe’ as Sjoestedt proposed.

Relocating Fenian placename stories in Dindshenchas Érenn

Several dindshenchas narratives, either as part of the Book of Leinster
Dindshenchas or Dindshenchas Érenn, deal with Finn mac Cumaill or members of his fían. Some dindshenchas accounts further connect to independent Fenian tales. This paper will deal with the dindshenchas of Cenn Cuirig and that of the related tale about Currech Life and their connection to Bruiden Átha Í. It will argue further that early traditions connecting Finn with Munster may have been rewritten to give him stronger ties to Leinster and that such revision and relocalisation occurs as part of the compilation of Dindshenchas Érenn.

Mu shealg dheirinnich Oisin in the Staffa Collection

Abstract to follow.

The road to Ollarba: Caílte’s itinerary and the last battle of the fían

This paper continues my work on the role and image of the Fothaid triplets in the pseudo-history of Ireland and the Finn Cycle. In this presentation, I will deal with the story of Fothad Airgthech in the Mongán saga (Scél asa mberar combad hé Find mac Cumaill Mongáin) and in particular the portrayal of Fothad. Furthermore, I am going to analyse Caílte’s itinerary from Munster to Ollarba/Mongán’s residence as it is described in the story and the role of the Ollarba battle in the Finn tradition.