Failinis [FAW IHN-ish] or Ṡalinnis/Shalinnis[a] is a dog in the Mythological Cycle of Irish literature, belonging to Lugh Lámhfhada of the Tuatha Dé Danann; it was one of the eric (reparation) items exacted from the sons of Tuireann.
The puppy is referred to as the "whelp of the royal smith of Ioruath" but otherwise unnamed in the 12th century Lebor Gabála Érenn ("Book of Invasions") version of the story of the sorrows of the sons of Tuireann.
As Rudolf Thurneysen noted, a virtually identical name for the pup, Failinis[8][d] or Ṡalinnis /Shalinnis,[e][10] occurs in a medieval 11th or early 12th century[11][9] ballad from the Fenian cycle.
[39] In both the ballad and prose versions of the Fenian cycle story, the threesome slew the warrior(s) of the Fíanna who spied on them when they were secretly making their wine or heavy drink using their dog.
The threesome take a solemn oath never to transport the dog alive out of Ireland, but then they kill the hound and flay its hide (Old Irish: croccend, German: Fell), and carry it off into foreign lands.
[46][47] In the Lebor Gabala Erenn ("Book of Invasions") version of the sorrows of the children of Tuireann, one of Lugh's demanded reparation is an unnamed pup or whelp that belonged to the royal smith of Ioruath (Irish: Cuilen rīg goband na Hiruaidhe),[2] a legendary Scandinavian kingdom.
Thurneysen was of the opinion that this was a different whelp, but the attributes of these two dogs were melded into one by the prosifier,[52] so that in the prose it was "a hound by night and a sheep by day" and whatever pool of water touched its hide or pelt (Irish: croccenn) turned to wine.
[5] Failinis belonged to the King of Ioruaidhe (Irish: h-Ioruaide) or Hiruath,[55] etc., in this romance version,[o][56] and about this hound it was said that "all the wild beasts of the world .. would fall down out of their standing" (i.e., prostrate themselves) and that it was "more splendid than the sun in his fiery wheels".
[58] The name of Lugh's dog Failinis is recorded in medieval manuscripts in a certain "ballad" (Irish: dúan),[21][8][15][9] nominally titled "Dám Thrír Táncatair Ille ("They came here as a band of three") from its initial line.
[60] It has been characterized by Ludwig Christian Stern [cy] as an Ossianic ballad of the 12th century, i.e., a pseudepigraphic poem pretended to be written by Oisín reminiscing on the Fianna's past.
Finn mac Cumhal, by (placing his thumb under[62]) his tooth of wisdom (Old Irish: dét fiss)[q] discovers the threesome (Sela, Dorait, Domnán) to be responsible for Dubán's death, and the threesome forfeit the dog Failinis as compensation, swearing by the sun and the moon they would never take it alive out of Ireland, but then they kill the hound and flay it, carrying off the dog's hide its hide[r] across the sea, north-eastwards or eastwards.
[40][68] The Fianna deliberate on the fate of the three in the story of the Oakwood of the Conspiracy (Old Irish: Daire in choccair), within which Caílte plays advocate and defend the three men, extolled the virtues of their skill as well as the hound's hunting prowess.