Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition

Background details and bibliographic information

The Death of Finn Mac Cumaill

Author: Unknown

File Description

Kuno Meyer

Electronic edition compiled by Beatrix Färber

Funded by University College, Cork and
Professor Marianne McDonald via the CELT Project

2. Second draft.

Extent of text: 2000 words

Publication

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork
College Road, Cork, Ireland—http:www.ucc.ie/celt

(2004) (2010)

Distributed by CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland.
Text ID Number: G303003

Availability

Available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of academic research and teaching only.

Sources

    Manuscript sources
  1. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud 610, folio 122 b2; for details see Brian Ó Cuív, Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford and Oxford College Libraries, Dublin: DIAS 2001, pp. 62–88: 87.
  2. London, British Library MS Egerton 92, folio 6a, 1; for details see Robin Flower (ed.), Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the British Library (formerly the British Museum) vol. 2, pp. 505–19: 505.
    Editions of this tale
  1. Kuno Meyer (ed.), The Death of Finn Mac Cumaill, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 1 (1897) 462–65.
    Editions of related tales and secondary literature
  1. Kuno Meyer (ed. and trans.), Fianaigecht: Being a collection of hitherto inedited Irish poems and tales relating to Finn and his Fiana, with an English translation. Royal Irish Academy; Todd Lecture Series 16; Dublin and London 1910. (Repr. 1937 and 1993, DIAS, Dublin). [Still a standard work, comprising introduction to the Finn Cycle, annotated editions of various tales, with English translation, Glossary of the rarer words, and indexes of personal names, tribe names and place names.]
  2. Duanaire Finn, the Book of the Lays of Fionn, 3 vols; 1: Irish text with translation (part I); ed. by Eoin Mac Néill, ITS 7 (1908); 2: Irish text with translation (part II); ed. by Gerard Murphy, ITS 28 (1933); 3: Introduction, Notes, Appendices, Indexes and Glossary; ed. by Gerard Murphy, Anne O'Sullivan, Idris L. Foster, Brendan Jennings, ITS 43 (1953).
  3. James MacKillop, Fionn mac Cumhaill: Celtic Myth in English Literature. Syracuse 1986. [With useful, well-structured bibliography on pp. 197–249].
  4. Daithí Ó hÓgáin, Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of a Gaelic Hero. Dublin 1988.
  5. Máirtín Ó Briain, Review of Ó hÓgáin, Bealoideas 57 (1989) 174–183.
  6. Donald E. Meek, Review of Ó hÓgáin, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 22 (Winter 1991) 101–103.
    The edition used in the digital edition
  1. Kuno Meyer, The Death of Finn Mac Cumaill in Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie. Volume 1, Halle/Saale, Max Niemeyer (1897) page 462–465

Encoding

Project Description

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts

Sampling Declaration

The electronic text represents pp. 462–465 of Kuno Meyer's article, including introduction, and annotated edition of the two fragments. The English translation is available in a separate file.

Editorial Declaration

Correction

Text has been proof-read twice.

Normalization

The electronic text represents the edited text. Word segmentation is in line with CELT practice. Expansions are tagged ex; footnotes are marked note type="auth" n="". Text supplied by the editor is tagged sup resp="KM". The f carrying a punctum delens becomes f.

Quotation

Direct speech is marked q.

Hyphenation

CELT practice.

Segmentation

div0=the group of texts. div1=the fragment. The editor's introduction is in an unnumbered div outside div0.

Interpretation

Names are not tagged, nor are terms for cultural and social roles.

Canonical References

This text uses the DIV1 element to represent the Fragment.

Profile Description

Created: By one or more unknown author(s). Date range: c1000?–c1200?.

Use of language

Language: [GA] Text is in Middle Irish.
Language: [EN] Introduction and annotations are in English.

List of Participants

Revision History


Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition: G303003

The Death of Finn Mac Cumaill: Author: Unknown


p.462

The Death of Finn Mac Cumaill

The usual account of the death of Finn is that he was slain in battle against the Lúagni Temrach at Áth Brea on the Boyne by Aiclech mac Dubdrenn, who cut off his head. This is the account given by the tenth-century poet Cinaed húa Hartacáin in the poem beginning Fianna bátar i n-Emain,1 by Tigernach2 and the Four Masters,3 and, with greater detail, in the tale entitled Aided Finn or ‘The Violent Death of Finn’.4 In this tale it is stated with some emphasis that the account there given is the true one: is í sin iarum Aided Finn iar fírinne in senchasa amail adfiadat na heólaig’’

Aided Finn, ed. in Cath Finntrága, 72–76; translated in Silva Gadelica II, 96-99.

‘that then is the Death of Finn

p.463

according to the truth of history, as the learned relate.’

So there were other versions.

One of these we can piece together from two scanty fragments, in which, I believe, we have the beginning and end of an Aided Finn story, while the connecting piece is lost. The first of these fragments I have already published on p. 76 of my edition of Cath Finntrága, though not quite correctly and without translation. It is found in the well-known Bodleian codex Laud 610, fo. 122b, 2, where it follows immediately upon the above-mentioned version of Aided Finn. It breaks off with the end of that page. With fo. 123a a new layer of vellum and a different hand begin.

The second fragment is preserved in the British Museum MS Egerton 92, fo. 6a, 1. It is much defaced and partly illegible.

The two fragments together make a fairly intelligible story. According to this, Finn in his old age, being forsaken by one after another of his fiann, who prefer service with the king of Tara, determines to put his remaining strength to the test by an attempt to leap across the Boyne at a spot which bore the name of Léim Finn or Finn's Leap. He accordingly sets out from where he is in the west of Ireland,5 passes along the high road of Gowran in Kilkenny, till at Mullaghmast he meets a woman making curds. Here the first fragment ends. He probably asks this woman for a drink, and thereby in some way violates one of the gessa laid upon him.6 The opening of the second fragment I think we can understand with the help of a passage in the other Aided Finn. It had been prophesied to Finn by his wife Smirgat7 that if he drank out of horns, his death would be nigh. It was therefore his custom alwways to drink out of cups. Now, in a place called Adarca Iuchba (the Horns of Iuchba) in Offaly he found a spring and drank out of it. An old woman reminds him of the prophecy, and Finn acknowledges its truth. For the rest of the tale I refer the reader to my translation of the second fragment.


p.464

(Laud 610, fo. 122b, 2.)

Ar toidhecht arrsaighechta do Finn h-ua Baíscne ro-airighset a muinnter fair & nír leig air. ‘Cidh na h-anaidh-siumh’ ol siat ‘i farradh rí Eirenn & ro thinolfamais-ne chugat?’ ‘Maith lium’, ol se, Anaidh nonbhur. Luidh fer dibh leisin feínn iar n-a bharach. Luid didiu araile, co nach bí acht enfer. ‘Fír tra’, ol se ‘áes airighit na fir forum-sa. Ro fedar-sa im' rith & im' leím sin, ar is tair ata mo leím .i. for Boínn & ragh-sa dia bruach.’ Is ed do rala reimhe aníar for Belach n-Gabrain i Maistin. Is ann fuaír an mnaí ag tath an grotha a Maistin. Ní thairic tra [...]

(Egerton 92, fo. 6a, 1).


[...]
nuic so,’ or Finn [...] ar sisi [...] ‘tairngaire
[...]
do n-epelad cones
[...]
neimh a h-adhairc’. ‘Fir, a chailleach’, or se. ‘Ac so mu dealg duit.’ Is ann luidhes lasin m-Boind sair co raínic a Leim. Ro gab iarum idir da charraig co tarrla a etan imon carraig, co m-bai a inchinn uimpe, co m-búi marbh etir an da charraig. Co-n-fuaradar iascaire na Boinde. Ceathrar doibh .i. tri maic Uircreann & Aicclech mac Duibhreann. Co-n-fuaradar sidhe. Co n-écmaing Aicleach a cheann de & co rubhradar maic Uircrend. Rucsat a chenn leo i fasteach & ro fuinsit a n-iasc & ro rannsat i n-de. A cheann h-i cind tenedh. ‘Tabraidh dantmír dó’, or fer dubh docluiche, ‘o na mair(?) Aicleach.’ Ro rannadh


p.465

int iasc i n-de .i. fo tri & badar tri cuibhrind ann beos. ‘Cidh so?’ or fer dibh. Is ann isbert an cend a cind tened:

    1. Is ed fodera an tresraind
      libh-si cen sil n-apeli,
      ar n-a tabhar dam-sa oc proind
      uaib-si mo mhír ma
      [...]
      ele.

Tan [...] oic [...] h-í sunn co m-badar [...] a n-asbeir senchaid:

    1. Robíth Find
      ba do gaibh gan niach guin
      doall Aicleach mac Duibhrenn
      a chenn do mac moctha Muin.
[...] Of the rest of the page I cannot make out anything that will give sense except the words: & a guba & a lia.