Fionn mac Cumhaill

[11] His mother was called Muirne Muincháem "of the Fair Neck"[12] (or "of the Lovely Neck",[13] or "Muiren smooth-neck"[14]), the daughter of Tadg mac Nuadat (in Fotha Catha Chnucha) and granddaughter of Nuadat the druid serving Cathair Mór who was high-king at the time,[a][12] though she is described as granddaughter of Núadu of the Tuatha Dé Danann according to another source (Acallam na Senórach).

[17] After the fall of Cumall, Goll mac Morna replaced him as the leader of the Fianna,[18] holding the position for 10 years.

[19] Muirne was already pregnant; her father rejected her and ordered his people to burn her, but Conn would not allow it and put her under the protection of Fiacal mac Conchinn, whose wife, Bodhmall the druid, was Cumhall's sister.

In Fiacal's house Muirne gave birth to a son, whom she called Deimne (/ˈdeɪni/ DAY-nee, Irish: [ˈdʲɪvʲ(ə)nʲə]),[b] literally "sureness" or "certainty", also a name that means a young male deer; several legends tell how he gained the name Fionn when his hair turned prematurely white.

[20] As he grew older he entered the service – incognito – of a number of local kings, but each one, when he recognised Fionn as Cumhal's son, told him to leave, fearing they would be unable to protect him from his enemies.

[24] Young Fionn, still known by his boyhood name Demne, met the poet Finn Éces (Finnegas), near the river Boyne and studied under him.

[f] Fionn obtained a special spear (the "Birga") from Fiacha mac Congha ("son of Conga"), which warded against the sleep-inducing music of Áillen's "dulcimer" (Old Irish: timpán)[g] when it was unsheathed and the bare steel blade was touched against the forehead or some other part of the body.

[35] Before Fionn completed the feat of defeating the firebrand of the fairy mound and defending Tara, he is described as a ten-year-old "marauder and an outlaw".

She transformed back into a woman the moment she set foot on Fionn's land, as this was the one place she could regain her true form.

When Fionn was away defending his country, Fear Doirich (literally meaning Dark Man) returned and turned her back into a deer, whereupon she vanished.

Bran and Sceólang, again hunting, found her son, Oisín, in the form of a fawn; he transformed into a child, and went on to be one of the greatest of the Fianna.

Legend has it he built the Giant's Causeway as stepping-stones to Scotland, so as not to get his feet wet; he also once scooped up part of Ireland to fling it at a rival, but it missed and landed in the Irish Sea – the clump became the Isle of Man, the pebble became Rockall, and the void became Lough Neagh.

In Ayrshire, Scotland a common myth is that Ailsa Craig, a small islet just off coast of the said county, is another rock thrown at the fleeing Benandonner.

[citation needed] Fingal's Cave in Scotland is also named after him, and shares the feature of hexagonal basalt columns with the nearby Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Folktales involving hero Fin MacCool are considered to be classified in Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 369, "The Youth on a Quest for his lost Father",[41] a tale type that, however, some see as exclusive to South Asian tradition, namely India.

[42][43][44] The 17th-century historian Geoffrey Keating, and some Irish scholars of the 19th century,[i] believed that Fionn was based on a historical figure.

T. W. Rolleston compiled both Fenian and Ultonian cycle literature in his retelling, The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland (1910).

[53] His poems had widespread influence on writers, from the young Walter Scott to Goethe, but there was controversy from the outset about Macpherson's claims to have translated the works from ancient sources.

The authenticity of the poems is now generally doubted, though they may have been based on fragments of Gaelic legend, and to some extent the controversy has overshadowed their considerable literary merit and influence on Romanticism.

Fionn also appears as a character in Flann O'Brien's comic novel, At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), in passages that parody the style of Irish myths.

Morgan Llywelyn's book Finn Mac Cool (1994) tells of Fionn's rise to leader of the Fianna and the love stories that ensue in his life.

A childhood spent in exile, the love and loss of his beloved wife and child, and his legendary rise from a low class slave to leader of the invincible Fianna.

This was a dramatic cycle of poems in Scots for the stage and with music by Hamish Moore, based on the legends of Finn McCool and first performed at The Edinburgh Festival in 1986 before going on tour around Scotland.

In 2010, Washington DC's Dizzie Miss Lizzie's Roadside Revue debuted their rock musical Finn McCool at the Capitol Fringe Festival.

The show retells the legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill through punk-inspired rock and was performed at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in March 2011.