Finn and the man in the tree
- Old Irish
- prose
- Finn Cycle, minor Irish prose tales
Two short prose stories about Finn, cited in the commentary to the Senchas Már as a gloss on the term imbas forosnai. The first, about Finn's encounter with the supernatural thief Cúldub, tells how Finn acquired the gift of imbas, while the second story, about Finn and the gilla Derg Corra, tells how Finn put this gift to use.
Title
Finn and the man in the tree
This is the English title given to the text in Meyer's edition, although it does not cover the first story concerning Cúldub.
Context(s)The (textual) context(s) to which the present text belongs or in which it is cited in part or in whole.
Manuscripts
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337 (H 3. 18) [s. xv-xvi]
pp. 361b–362a
part 13
Cited in the Introduction to the Senchas Már
Language
- Old Irish
- Secondary language(s): Latin
- Latin words and phrases include: ut Scotti dicunt, norat (thus interpreted by Meyer) and si uerum est.
Date
Meyer points to linguistic features which may indicate that the text belongs “to the late eighth or early ninth century”.(1)n. 1 Kuno Meyer, Fianaigecht (1910): xviii–xxix.
Form
prose (primary)
verse (secondary)
Prose and retoiric.
Contents
[1] First story: Finn, Cúldub and the gift of imbas
Includes verse: Tair Femen fuigial formuig
Summary:Finn ua Baiscne and his fían are at Badamair, a place on the River Suir. On three successive nights, Cúldub mac hUí Birgge appears from the fairy hill Síd ar Femin to steal the food that has been cooked for the fían. On the third night, Finn waits for him by the hill and slays him when he is about to re-enter it. As a síd-woman carrying an ever-full vessel of drink shuts the door, Finn withdraws his hand, but has a finger (mér) jammed in the doorway. Finn puts the sore finger in his mouth and afterwards makes a chant (dicetal): as imbas illumines him, Finn recites the retoiric beg. ‘Tair Femen fuigial formuig’.
» Comments: This first story apparently explains how Finn acquired the gift of imbas forosnai. Cf. the prose tale Tucait fagbála in fessa do Finn ocus marbad Cuil Duib. » People: Find úa Báiscni • Cúldub mac uí Birgge » Places: Badamair • River Suir • Síd ar Femin » Keywords: imbas forosnai
[2] Second story (part 1): Finn and Derg Corra
Summary:Finn and the fían have abducted women from Dún Iascaig in the territory of the Déisi. Among them is a beautiful maiden (anonymous) who becomes Finn's object of desire. However, she falls in love with Derg Corra mac hUí Daigre, a young man (gilla) of the fían, having seen him perform the feat of leaping back and forth over the cooking hearth (fulacht). She offers to make love to him, but he refuses her, mindful of Finn. When she manages to stir Finn's hostility towards Derg Corra, Finn sends him into exile, with three days of respite in advance.
» Places: Dún Iascaig
[3] Second story (part 2): Finn and Derg Corra
Summary:Forced into exile, Derg Corra retreats to a wood, where he moves about swiftly ‘on the shanks of deer’. One day, when Finn is looking for Derg Corra, he finds a man (Derg Corra) perched in the top of a tree. A tableau is given of the man, in the company of three animals (a blackbird, a trout and a stag) and sharing his food (nuts and an apple) or water with them. The men with Finn do not recognise the man because of his ‘hood of disguise’ (celtair díclithe) and look to Finn for an answer.
[4] Second story (part 3): Finn and Derg Corra
Includes verse: Con fri lon leth-cno contethain cotith
Summary:Finn temporarily places his thumb (ordu) in his mouth and imbas illumines him: he makes a chant (dichetal), beg. ‘Con fri lon leth-cno contethain cotith [...]’ (a retoiric), and so identifies the hooded man as Derg Corra.
Sources
Notes
Kuno Meyer, Fianaigecht (1910): xviii–xxix.
Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.
[ed.] [tr.] Meyer, Kuno [ed. and tr.], “Finn and the man in the tree”, Revue Celtique 25 (1904): 344–349.
[ed.] Binchy, D. A. [ed.], Corpus iuris Hibernici, 7 vols, vol. 3, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1978.
Numbered pp. 745–1138; diplomatic edition of legal material from Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1337 (continued, pp. 745–1109); Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1317 (pp. 1111–1138).
879.23–880.14 Diplomatic edition.
[tr.] Hull, Vernam, “A rhetoric in Finn and the Man in the Tree”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 30 (1967): 17–20.
Includes a translation of Finn's retoirics
Secondary sources (select)
Murray, Kevin, The early Finn Cycle, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2017. 200 pp.
abstract:
The Finn (or Fenian) Cycle (fíanaigecht) is classified by modern scholarship as one of four medieval Irish literary cycles along with the Ulster Cycle, the Cycle of Historical Tales (or Cycles of the Kings) and the Mythological Cycle. It is primarily composed of material dealing with the legendary character Finn mac Cumaill, his warrior band (fían), his son Oisín and his grandson Oscar. In a fashion recalling the expansion of the Arthurian legend throughout Europe, the traditions centred on Finn grew from localized beginnings to spread throughout the entire Gaelic-speaking world. This study takes as its focus the early Finn Cycle, up to and including the composition of the most significant fíanaigecht tale, Acallam na senórach (‘The colloquy of the ancients’), at the beginning of the Early Modern Irish period. The volume also deals in detail with topics such as the nature of the fían; the extent of early fragmentary Finn Cycle sources; the background to Tóraigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne (‘The pursuit of Diarmaid and Gráinne’); the boyhood deeds and death of Finn; and the development of the Fenian lay tradition. The Early Finn Cycle details and investigates the primary and secondary sources for the study of this material and traces the literary development of the early fíanaigecht corpus. In so doing, it seeks to account for the emergence of the Finn Cycle from fragmentarily documented beginnings to become the dominant genre of Gaelic literature after 1200.
esp. 79–82
Hollo, Kaarina, “‘Finn and the man in the tree’ as verbal icon”, in: Sharon J. Arbuthnot, and Geraldine Parsons (eds), The Gaelic Finn tradition, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2012. 50–61.
Hollo interprets the tableau of Derg Corra in the tree as “a skilfully composed reflection upon the mystery and salvific power of Christ's crucifixion and the Eucharist”.
Hull, Vernam, “A rhetoric in Finn and the Man in the Tree”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 30 (1967): 17–20.
Nagy, Joseph Falaky, The wisdom of the outlaw: the boyhood deeds of Finn in Gaelic narrative tradition, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Scott, Robert D., The thumb of knowledge in legends of Finn, Sigurd and Taliesin: studies in Celtic and French literature, Publications of the Institute of French Studies, New York, 1930.
web page identifiers
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Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
March 2011, last updated: March 2024
