Finn Mac Cool, a Novel by Morgan LLywelyn

Magic, Cunning, Love, and Battlefield Glory in Ancient Ireland

Mar 16, 2009

Morgan Llywelyn's Finn Mac Cool, written in 1994, is among her best efforts to bring the mythic heroes of Irish folklore to the modern reader.

The novel traces the exploits of the mighty Finn mac Cool, one of Ireland’s most celebrated folk heroes, across the battle-torn and magic-haunted landscape of ancient Erin, from his lowly beginnings as a vagabond fennid, or warrior for hire, to his glorious and tragic dotage as the Rigfennid Fianna, general of the army of Erin.

Finn Mac Cool is not the average warrior for hire. He is first seen sitting around the campfire with his young companions, spinning poetry under the starry night sky, subtly attaching magical import to his own deeds. Daring and ambitious, Finn misses no opportunity to embellish his own legend, playing upon the superstition of his friends, of his so-called superiors, and of the peasantry. He is quick to laugh and handsome to behold, fierce in battle and loyal to his men, and of course all women love him.

The Halls of Tara

It is not long before Finn has made his way to Tara, the whitewashed and banner-bedecked halls of King Cormac Mac Airt. In the king’s court, Finn displays the charm of d’Artagnan, the cunning of Odysseus. Currying the favor of Cormac, Finn soon has himself installed as the Rigfennid, leader of the Fianna, the army of Erin.

With his new army, Finn marches the length and breadth of the island, subduing minor kings and uppity tribes, all under the battle flag of Cormac. Along the way, he raises the stature of the fennidi, his erstwhile vagabond warriors, from lowly outcasts to noble and glorious, knight-like heroes. Soon, the sons of nobles are applying to become warriors of the Fianna and to declare their loyalty to Finn Mac Cool, Rigfennid Fianna, who sits at the right hand of Cormac Mac Airt in the halls of Tara.

The Tuatha De Danaan

But there is an almost Shakespearean tragic heart to the novel that drives Finn toward a bittersweet and lonely fate. Though he has the gift of poetry and is a great spinner of tales, it becomes apparent that Finn himself is a bit unsure of where fact ends and his own fantasy begins.

He claims from the outset to be descended from the Tuatha De Danaan, a magical race that once inhabited Erin but was long ago exiled to the misty and threatening wild places of the west. He hints at this heritage often enough to enhance his own stature in the minds of his men and his enemies and, of course, the poets, who weave it into the many songs they sing of Finn and his exploits.

Finn's Lost Love

While Finn is lucky in war, he is most unlucky in love. His one true beloved bears his son, but soon woman and child are spirited off by forces unknown, possibly by the Tuatha De Danaan themselves in recompense for Finn's having built his fort upon one of their holy places.

After several years he is reunited with Oisin, the son, who then grows into a warrior of great bearing. But Finn longs to be reunited with Sive, his wife. Her image haunts his memory; he talks to her often and at least imagines that she talks back to him. Ultimately, Finn’s family consists mostly of Cailte, his counselor, and his two faithful hounds, Bran and Sceolaun.

Doers of Heroic Deeds in Ancient Ireland

Finn and his companions are a glorious and colorful lot: Donn the Hundred-Slayer; the one-eyed and vengeful aging warrior Goll Mac Morna, who slayed Finn's father and who himself becomes a dubious father-figure to the hero; Diarmait Mac Donn, the handsome young warrior that Finn madly chases across the length of the land to the dismay of all for stealing one of his wives; Oisin, Finn's increasingly estranged son; Cailte and Conan and the poet Fergus the Honey-Tongued; the wise and forbearing King of Kings, Cormac Mac Airt.

The Mighty and the Mundane

In Finn Mac Cool, Morgan Llywelyn illumines the ways in which the presence of things supernatural might be construed, or perhaps misconstrued, by an ancient and superstitious people, the tales of greatness and magical intervention growing under their own power in the olden times, before the days of rumor control and rational empiricism.

As always, her characters are at once human and hero, mundane yet mighty. Her writing will appeal equally to Irish history buffs and fans of fantasy, for it is from tales such as these that many seminal fantasy writers, like Tolkien and others, drew their inspiration. Her story is consuming and compelling, worth telling and worth reading.

Other Irish Folk-Hero Novels by Morgan Llywelyn

Lion of Ireland: The Legend of Brian Boru, Houghton Mifflin, (ISBN 978-0-370-30269-0 9)

Sources and Further Reading

The copyright of the article Finn Mac Cool, a Novel by Morgan LLywelyn in Irish Fiction is owned by Fred Hasson. Permission to republish Finn Mac Cool, a Novel by Morgan LLywelyn in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.