The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cool

The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cool 

The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cool by Rosemary Sutcliff is for YA readers. Sutcliff, who died in 1992, wrote numerous historical fictions for young people. While those are generally novels, High Deeds is a series of tales retold. The inside jacket copy does a good job of describing this short work. And, as I mentioned in previous discussions, new tellings allow new twists.

“There is the tale of how Finn won–and lost–the beautiful Saba, one of the fairy race, who left with Finn their son, Oisin. There is the story of the battle of Tir-fa-Thonn in the Land under the Sea. And the tale of how Finn gained his great hounds, Bran and Skolawn. There is the tragedy of Dearmid and Grania.

“As in her earlier The Hound of Ulster [that’s Cuchunian, discussed in previous posts], Rosemary Sutcliff, in her retelling from fairy tale and folklore of the legends of Finn Mac Cool, has again joined company with the great storytellers of old. As she says, ‘They are stories made simply for the delight of story-making, and I have retold them in the same spirit–even adding a flicker or a flourish of my own, as everyone who has retold them in the past thousand years or so has done before me.’” 

A Little Book Background

My copy of HIgh Deeds is a library discard. I always like checking out the library history as it is told from the volume. Copyrighted in 1967 and illustrated by Michael Charleton, it was purchased from Baker and Taylor in 1973 for $3.95. The check out card in the pocket at the back of the book shows seventeen check outs between 1973 and 1983. It doesn’t seem every reader enjoyed it. At the end of the chapter “How Finn Won His Father’s Place” someone wrote “So What.”

I admit that was my feeling about some of the narratives, especially on the narratives of easy battle wins. Finn and the Fianna (as it is spelled in this group of tales) often overcome their enemies with little effort. They always cut off each enemy combatant’s head and then tie it by the hair to their waistbands. Often they later add the heads to collections in their households. 

I think I may not be looking for ancient Celtic heroes after all. I’m actually more interested in all the disappearing women. There are a few in this book.

The Birth and Education of Finn Mac Cool

When two clans battle over captaincy of the Fianna, Finn’s father, Cool Mac Trenmor (of Clan Bascna), is killed. Cool’s wife is pregnant and fears her child will also be killed, so when Finn is born, she hands him over to two foster moms. One of the moms is a Wise Woman and, when Finn is eighteen, she sees that the murderer of his father, Goll Mac Morna, is after him. Finn ventures out, staying with various kings and chieftains training to be a warrior. Then he studies poetry, ancient wisdom, and the history of his people with the Druid Finegas. 

Finegas has been trying to catch Fintan the Salmon of Knowledge, but it evades him. But once Finn becomes his pupil, Finegas catches it easily. However, when Finegas asks Finn to cook it, Finn scorches his thumb on the spit. He sucks his thumb to ease the burn. This transfers the gift of future knowledge from the salmon to Finn. Finegas’ chance is lost, and he considers it fate that Finn is the one to succeed with the salmon. In addition, the salmon also gives Finn the power of saving the life of any sick or wounded man by giving him a drink of water from his cupped hands.

Finn Mac Cool as a Hero

Finn has the usual heroic qualities of bravery in battle, physical strength, loyalty and keeping his word. Perhaps in order to make him more human, he has flaws, the worst of which is jealousy. He also doesn’t seem very bright in his use of the gift of future knowledge. He only sticks his thumb in his mouth after he (and often some of his men) are already in trouble. For example, in “The Hostel of the Quicken Trees,” the son of an enemy, one whom Finn has slain in battle, invites him and his men for hospitality. Finn is pretty sure it’s a trap, but they go anyway. Of course it is, but the men go into the great hall and sit. After that they find that the place is under a spell and they are unable to stand up and escape. Then Finn puts his thumb in his mouth and realizes there’s a curse that can only be lifted with the blood of three kings who will soon be on the way to kill the men.

The men get out of this through the bravery of the remaining fianna warriors, but in the fighting, both Finn’s son and foster son are killed. Repeatedly, he unnecessarily loses a hell of a lot through waiting to assess the situation. I suppose this makes for exciting escapades, but to the modern reader, he seems pretty intellectually challenged and also doesn’t have enough concern for those under his command. He wastes the lives of others. 

Stories that I did like were those about Dearmid. To me, he seemed like the best of the bunch. Unfortunately, he is destined for tragedy. The events that seal his destiny are told in “Dearmid and Grania.”

Dearmid and Grania

One day it is suggested to Finn, who is growing old and misses his first wife, that he take a third wife–Grania, the daughter of Cormac the High King, the most beautiful woman in all of Erin. Finn is very indifferent and sends Dering Mav Doba (who suggested the match) and Oisín (Finn’s son by his first wife, Saba) to ask the king about a match. Cormac says Grania has refused everyone, so they should ask her themselves. When they do, she unenthusiastically agrees to the match.

Unfortunately, when the time for the pre-wedding feast arrives, Grania sees Dearmid and falls for him. She uses a sleeping potion to knock out anyone who would object and then asks Dearmid to marry her. More than once he refuses out of loyalty to Finn although he is also stricken with Grania. So she puts a geise on him–a solemn magical injunction, the infringement of which leads to misfortune or even death. 

The nature of the geise strikes me as strange. It isn’t the first one in this book of tales. You would think a person would have to swear an oath to be placed under a geise, but no. Someone can just put it on you, and then you’re stuck. Do as commanded or you will die tragically. Don’t do as commanded, and you will still die tragically.

So Dearmid takes off with Grania. This infuriates Finn even though he knows Dearmid is under a geise. Despite Dearmid’s predicament and Finn’s lack of enthusiasm for Grania, he swears vengeance. That vengeance takes many years because Dearmid has a foster father in the Tuatha Dé Danann–Angus Óg, whom we met as Aengus or Óengus  in previous posts. He is a central figure in Irish myths. However, after some feats of derring do by Dearmid (along with help from Angus Óg), Finn realizes that even using witchcraft against Dearmid doesn’t work and agrees to make peace. He gives Dearmid some land and property, such as livestock. Dearmid and Grania live outside their former society.

The Death of Dearmid

In “The Death of Dearmid,” Grania decides that enough time has passed that they should invite Finn and the Fianna over for a feast and some social time. While there, members of the Fianna go on a hunt (pretty much all the stories have a hunt in them). They go after a wild boar. Dearmid is under a geise never to hunt a wild pig because his foster brother was turned into one as a way of raising him from the dead. The boar being hunted turns and hunts the men. He is, of course, the foster brother. Dearmid thinks Finn has planned this as he must now kill his foster brother to save the men, and, in doing so, end his own life. Kill the boar he does. But the boar mortally wounds him. 

As Dearmid is dying, he pleads with Finn to save his life, reminding him of all the times Dearmid saved Finn’s life. Recall that in tasting the Salmon of Knowledge, Finn received the power to save the dying by bringing them water in his cupped hands. Well, Finn is still pissy over Grania. Finn’s grandson, Osca, demands that his grandfather save Dearmid. Finn says there’s no water nearby, which is not true. Finn goes to the spring and cups water into his hands. But he is still angry and lets it run through his fingers. His grandson pleads with him. He repeats this gesture allowing the water to drip away. At this, Osca says, “‘Near kin as we are, if you do not bring the water this third time, only one of us two shall leave Ben Bulben crest alive!’” 

“And Finn saw that the young warrior meant it, and though indeed he knew that in single combat he could still slay Osca or any other of the Fianna, a cold horror woke in his belly, and he turned back a third time to the water, and came quickly, not a drop now spilling through his fingers. But even as he reached his side, Dearmid’s head dropped back and the life went out of him on a long sigh.”

Osca never forgives his grandfather. However, in an ending that made my reader’s blood boil, Grania forgives Finn and decides to marry him.

So–outside of Dearmid’s story, I would rather have had stories of the women.

The women entering and exiting the tales don’t have much detail surrounding their stories. I think this would make it more fun to imagine their ‘high deeds.’ Manissa is Finn’s second wife, and, other than mention of her having a son, she just sort of dies and exits the scene without notice. Of greater significance is his first wife, Saba, told in the story “The Birth of Oisín.” 

The Birth of Oisín

Finn and the Fianna are out hunting and find a hind. Weirdly, the two great hounds, Bran and Skolawn, are playing with it. The hind can outrun the men and is headed toward their castle, Almu of the White Walls. This seems strange, so the men allow the hind to enter. It goes inside, lies at Finn’s feet, and the hounds lie on either side of it.

In the middle of the night, Finn awakens to a beautiful woman. She says her name is Saba. She’s of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The Dark Druid put a spell on her because she wouldn’t marry him. However, one of the Druid’s slaves, who hated him, told her the way to revert to her original shape was to get inside the walls of the Dun of Almu.

Saba and Finn marry and are happy. However, one day Finn has to go fight a band of sea raiders. The Druid come to Almu in the shape of Finn. Fooled, Saba runs out of the castle to meet him. She is changed to a hind again. Somehow in this form, she gives birth to (human) Oisín. Seven years later, Finn and his band find Oisín, but Saba is gone, having recently been bewitched by the Dark Druid. His spell forces her to follow him and she is never heard from again. “No one knows the end of that story, to this day.”

Next Up

I have another Finn Mac Cool novel by Morgan Llywelyn. It’s for adults and it’s much longer. I think I’m going to skim and see if there is anything I should stop and pay attention to.