Irish Myths and Legends

The History and Mythology of The Boyne Valley

The Boyne Valley is an important historical site located in the northeastern part of Ireland. This massive
valley encompasses the counties of Meath and Louth. The Boyne Valley is considered a World Heritage
Site and is one of the largest located in Europe. There is a combination of heritage, myth, history, and
magic that make the Boyne Valley one of Ireland's finest tourist destinations.
Goddess of the River Boyne - Boann
The River Boyne runs through the Boyne Valley and is named after the Goddess of the River Boyne,
Boann. Boann is recognized as the Celtic goddess of healing, bounty, and fertility. Boanns husband
was the water god, Nechtan. She was also linked to Dagda, who helped her birth the god of love. The
myth suggests that Boann concealed her union with Dagda, from Nechtan, by making the sun stand still
for nine months. This allowed the god of love, Oenghus, to be conceived and born within the same day.
The myth surrounding Boann believes there was a magical well that contained the source of knowledge.
This well was called the Well of Wisdom (or the Well of Segais). All were forbidden to approach it.
However, Boanns husband and his servants were permitted. The myth suggests that Boann approached
the magical well and lifted the cover. This act was believed to violate the purity of the well. The waters
inside the well surged and violently erupted into a powerful river that consumed her. In some accounts
of the myth, Boann drowned. In others, Boann outran the waters. While the truth behind the myth is still
debated today, the river became known as the Boyne after the Goddess Boann.
Other Version (http://boanndistillery.ie/the-distillery/the-legend/)
Legend has it that the Irish goddess Boann created this river. Boann is the Irish goddess of the River
Boyne, a river in the province of Leinster, Ireland. According to legend she was also the wife of Nechtan,
then leader of the Tuatha d Danann.
Nechtan was a very powerful figure who ruled over vast amounts of land and in particular he ruled over
the ancient Well of Segais. Nine sacred hazels of wisdom surround this well, all blooming and fruiting
in the same hour. It is told that anybody who feasted on the hazelnuts that fell into the well, or drank its
crystal clear waters, would be granted knowledge and a poetic tongue.
One day Boann went walking with her Irish wolfhound, Dabilla and though forbidden to by her husband,
she approached the ancient well where she challenged its power by walking around it widdershins,
causing the waters to surge up violently and rush down to the sea, thus creating the River Boyne.
In this catastrophe, she was swept along in the rushing waters and lost an arm, leg and eye and ultimately
her life, in the flood.
The River Boyne has been known since ancient times and despite its short course, it has huge historical,
archaeological and mythical importance, all of which are deeply engrained in Irish culture.
SHE CIRCLES THE WELL TWO TIMES IN VAIN, THEN CIRCLES A THIRD TO TEMPT THE
SAME. FIVE STREAMS RISE HIGH IN HALLOWED FRIGHT, THE BEAUTY OF WISDOM NOW
DIMS HER GOLD LIGHT. /Boann and the Well of Segais/
From the goddess of the River Boyne, we take our name. From the goodness of the Boyne Valley, we
take our pure ingredients.

Salmon of Knowledge
The Salmon of Knowledge is a well-known myth throughout Irish mythology. According to the myth,
there was only one creature wiser than man. This creatures name was Fintan. The myth varies on
whether Fintan was an ordinary fish or one of the Immortals. If Fintan was truly one of the Immortals,
the fish would be eaten yet remain alive.
According to the myth, a normal salmon consumed nine of the hazelnuts that fell into the Well of
Wisdom. This is the same well that immersed the goddess Boann and created the River Boyne. The
myth believes that by eating the hazelnuts, the salmon received all of the world's knowledge. More
importantly, the first person to eat the salmons flesh would gain all of the knowledge.
After seven years of fishing, Finn Eces finally found the salmon. When Finn Eces caught Fintan, he
gave the salmon to his servant, Fionn mac Cumhaill, with orders not to eat the fish. However, while
Fionn was cooking the salmon, he burned his thumb on a drop of fish fat. After Fionn sucked his burnt
thumb to ease the pain, he gained all of the wisdom of the salmon. Although he was unaware that all of
Fintan's knowledge was concentrated into that drop of fish fat; he took the cooked fish to Finn Eces.
When Finn Eces recognized that Fionn had received the wisdom of the salmon, he gave him the fish to
eat. After eating the salmon, Fionn could pull up banks of knowledge by simply biting his thumb. Fionn
later became a great leader and devoted his life to spreading wisdom throughout Ireland.
(http://www.ringsfromireland.com/Article/70/Boyne-Valley )
The Legend of Finn McCool

Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn

McCool was a mythical giant, a hunter-warrior
of Irish mythology, occurring also in the
mythologies of Scotland and the Isle of Man.
The stories of Fionn and his followers, the
Fianna, form the Fenian cycle or
Fiannaidheacht, much of it purported to be
narrated by Fionn's son, the poet Oisn.

Fionn or Finn is actually a nickname meaning

"fair" (in reference to hair and/or skin colour),
"white", or "bright" and several legends tell
how he gained the nickname when his hair
turned prematurely white. Most of Fionn's
early adventures are recounted in the narrative
The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn. He was the son of Cumhall leader of the Fianna and Muirne, daughter
of the druid Tadg mac Nuadat who lived on the hill of Almu in County Kildare. Cumhall abducted
Muirne after her father refused him her hand, so Tadg appealed to the High King, Conn of the Hundred
Battles, who outlawed him. The Battle of Cnucha was fought between Conn and Cumhall, and Cumhall
was killed by Goll mac Morna, who took over leadership of the Fianna. Muirne was already pregnant,
so 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 druidess, was Cumhall's sister.
In Fiacal's house she gave birth to a son, whom she called Deimne.

Muirne left the boy in the care of Bodhmall and a warrior woman, Liath Luachra, who brought him up
in secret in the forest of Sliabh Bladma, teaching him the arts of war and hunting. As he grew older he
entered the service incognito of a number of local kings, but when they recognised him as Cumhal's
son, they told him to leave, fearing they would be unable to protect him from his enemies.

The young Fionn met the leprechaun-like druid and poet Finn Eces, or Finnegas, near the river Boyne
and studied under him. Finneces had spent seven years trying to catch the salmon of knowledge, which
lived in a pool on the Boyne: whoever ate the salmon would gain all the knowledge in the world.
Eventually he caught it, and told the boy to cook it for him. While cooking it Fionn burned his thumb,
and instinctively put his thumb in his mouth, swallowing a piece of the salmon's skin. This imbued him
with the salmon's wisdom. He then knew how to gain revenge against Goll, and in subsequent stories
was able to call on the knowledge of the salmon by sucking his thumb. The story of Fionn and the
salmon of knowledge bears a strong resemblance to the Welsh tale of Gwion Bach. It is believed that
the descendants of this Salmon swam north to the O'Neill county of Tyrone and settled there. Legend
has it that Beraghs Seamus Boyle consumed the juicy flesh of one of these fish at a social gathering, and
aquired unimaginable knowledge and wisdom

Fionn met his most famous wife, Sadhbh, when he was out hunting. She had been turned into a deer by
a druid, Fear Doirich, for she had refused to marry him. Fionn's hounds, Bran and Sceolan, who were
once human themselves, recognised she was human, and Fionn spared her. She transformed back into a
beautiful woman the moment she set foot on Fionn's land, as this was the one place she could regain her
true form. She and Fionn married and she was soon pregnant. However, Fear Doirich (literally meaning
Dark Man) returned and turned her back into a deer, whereupon she vanished. Fionn spent seven years
searching for her, but to no avail. Fortunately, he was later reunited with their son, Oisn, who went on
to be one of the greatest of the Fianna.

One day when going about his daily

business a Scottish Giant named Fingal
began to shout insults and hurl abuse at
him from across the channel. In anger
Finn lifted a clod of earth and threw it at
the giant as a challenge, the earth landed
in the sea. Fingal retaliated with a rock
thrown back at Finn and shouted that Finn
was lucky that he wasn't a strong
swimmer or he would have made sure he
could never fight again. Finn was enraged
and began lifting huge clumps of earth
from the shore, throwing them so as to
make a pathway for the Scottish giant to
come and face him.

However by the time he finished making the crossing he had not slept for a week and so instead devised
a cunning plan to fool the Scot. Finn diguised himself as a baby in a cot and when his adversary came
to face him Finn's wife told the Giant that Finn was away but showed him his son sleeping in the cradle.
The Scottish giant became apprehensive, for if the son was so huge, what size would the father be? In
his haste to escape Fingal sped back along the causeway Finn had built, tearing it up as he went. One
clod of earth was left behind and this became the Isle of Man. The hole that the clod came from filled
with water and became Lough Neagh. He is said to have fled to a cave on Staffa which is to this day
named 'Fingal's Cave'

In The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grinne one of the most famous stories of the cycle the High King
Cormac mac Airt promises the now aging Fionn his daughter Grinne as his bride, but Grinne falls
instead for one of the Fianna, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, and the pair runs away together with Fionn in
pursuit. The lovers are aided by Diarmuid's foster-father, the god Aengus. Eventually Fionn makes his
peace with the couple. Years later, however, Fionn invites Diarmuid on a boar hunt, and Diarmuid is
badly gored by their quarry. Water drunk from Fionn's hands has the power of healing, but when Fionn
gathers water he deliberately lets it run through his fingers before he gets back to Diarmuid. His grandson
Oscar threatens him if does not bring water for Diarmuid, but when Fionn finally returns it is too late;
Diarmuid has died.

Accounts of Fionn's death vary; according to the most popular, he is not dead at all, rather, he sleeps in
a cave below Dublin, surrounded by the rest of the Fianna. One day they will awake and defend Ireland
in the hour of her greatest need. In one account, it is said they will arise when the Dord Fiann (his hunting
horn) is sounded three times, and they will be as strong and as well as they ever were.
The 19th century Irish revolutionary organisation known as the Fenian Brotherhood took its name from
these legends. The Scottish name Fingal comes from a retelling of these legends in epic form by the
18th century poet James Macpherson.

(http://www.lurganancestry.com/finnmccool.htm)
Lough Corrib
IT chanced, amongst some of the pleasantest adventures of a tour through the West of Ireland, in 1825,
that the house of Mr.------ of ----- received me as a guest. The owner of the mansion upheld the proverbial
reputation of his country's hospitality, and his lady was of singularly winning manners, and possessed
of much intelligence--an intelligence arising not merely from the cultivation resulting from careful
education, but originating also from the attention which persons of good sense bestow upon the
circumstances which come within the range of their observation.
Thus, Mrs.--, an accomplished Englishwoman, instead of sneering at the deficiencies which a poorer
country than her own laboured under, was willing to be amused by observing the difference which exist,
in the national character of the two people, in noticing the prevalence of certain customs, superstitions,
etc. etc.; while the popular tales of the neighbourhood had for her a charm which enlivened a sojourn in
a remote district that must otherwise have proved lonely.
To this pleasure was added that of admiration of the natural beauties with which she was surrounded;
the noble chain of the Mayo mountains, linking with the majestic range of those of Joyce's country,
formed no inconsiderable source of picturesque beauty and savage grandeur; and when careering over
the waters of Lough Corrib that foamed at their feet, she never sighed for the grassy slopes of Hyde
Park, nor that unruffled pond, the Serpentine river.
In the same boat which often bore so fair a charge have I explored the noble Lough Corrib to its remotest
extremity, sailing over the depths of its dark waters, amidst solitude, whose echoes are seldom awakened
but by the scream of the eagle.
From this lady I heard some characteristic stories and prevalent superstitions of the country. Many of
these she had obtained from an old boatman, one of the crew that manned Mr.--'s boat; and often, as he
sat at the helm, he delivered his "round, unvarnished tale"; and, by the way, in no very measured terms
either, whenever his subject happened to touch upon the wrongs his country had sustained in her early
wars against England, although his liege-lady was a native of the hostile land. Nevertheless, the old
Corribean (the name somehow has a charmingly savage sound about it) was nothing loath to have his
fling at "the invaders "--a term of reproach he always cut upon the English.
Thus skilled in legendary lore, Mrs. ----- proved an admirable guide to the "lions" of the neighbourhood;
and it was previously to a projected visit to the Cave of Cong that she entered upon some anecdotes
relating to the romantic spot, which led her to tell me that one legend had so particularly excited the
fancy of a young lady, a friend of hers, that she wrought it into the form of a little tale, which, she added,
had not been considered ill done. "But," said she, " 'tis true we were all friends who passed judgment,
and only drawing-room critics: You shall therefore judge for yourself, and hearing it before you see the
cave, will at least rather increase your interest in the visit." And forthwith drawing from a little cabinet
a manuscript, she read to me the following tale--much increased in its effect by the sweet voice in which
It was delivered.
(http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/lasi/lasi04.htm)
Ben Bulben
Legendary home of the Irish third century warriors known as the Fianna, Ben Bulben (or Benbulben,
Benbulbin, Binn Ghulbain) is a large glacial rock formation in the Darty Mountains.
Ben Bulben is said to be the final resting place of Grinne (daughter of Cormac mac Airt, High King of
Ireland )and Diarmuid. The folk tale The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grinne (17th century), details the
elopement of Grinne with Diarmuid Ua Duibhne who was one of the Fianna. Grinne was however
betrothed to the giant Fionn Mac Cumhaill (or Finn McCool), leader of the Fianna. At the betrothal feast
Grinne first saw Finn and was horrified to see he was older than her father.
When Grinne saw Diarmuid she became enamoured by the young warrior and decided that being with
him was a preferable to marrying Fionn. Unfortunately the wedding plans had developed too far, with
tributes having been paid and agreements made. Grinne relised that breaking that calling the wedding
off now would lead to blood shed between the High King and Fionn, but she could not bring herself to
marry him.
She put the wedding guests asleep with a potion then asked Diarmuid to leave with her. But Diarmuid
was a loyal Fianna warrior and refused to betray Fionn his leader. Left with no other choice she places
a geis on Diarmuid, forcing him to elope with her. The couple fled for their lives and were chased over
all across Ireland, always hiding and evading Fionn. Along the journey they received aid from Aengus
Og, the foster father of Diarmuid who hid Grinne under a cloak of invisibility on one of the occasions
when Fionn got close.
The leader of the Fianna eventually gave up his chase and seemingly putting vengence aside he let
Diarmuid and Grinne settle down with each other. Years passed and Fionn invited Diarmuid to a boar
hunt at Ben Bulbin. A phrophesy had informed Diarmuid that he would one day be killed by a boar, but
desite the evident danger he attended the hunt and was fatally wounded when an enchanted boar gored
him.
Diarmuid had one chance to live, that required Fionn to magically heal him by letting the wounded man
drink water from the giants cupped hands. Fionn refused to help. The Fianna begged Fionn to save
Diarmuid and still he refused. It was only when Fionns grandson Oscar threaten to fight the Fianna
leader, that he relenquished and tried to save Diarmuid, though it was too late and the young warrior
died.
Ben Bulben is also associated with St Columba. In 561 an argument he was having with St Finnian over
the rights to a copied psalter (A volume of the Book of Psalms) led to armed conflict, the Battle of Cl
Dreimhne, when Columba took between 2000 and 3000 troops to Ben Bulben.
County Sligo is sometimes referred to as Yeats Country after the poet and member of the Golden Dawn,
William Butler Yeats (born13 June 1865 died 28 January 1939). In his Writings On Irish Folklore,
Legend and Myth he alludes to the fairies that live on the slopes of Ben Bulben. He also wrote the poem
Under Ben Bulben.