This verse, quoted as containing two words which required explanation in or before the eleventh century, pre-supposes the story of Diarmuid and Gráinne. In addition to this we have the apparently historical story of the "Cause of the Battle of Cnucha." We have also the story of the Mongan, an Ulster king of the seventh century, according to the annalists who declared that he was not what men took him to be, the son of the mortal Fiachna, but of the god Mananán mac Lir, and a re-incarnation of the great Finn, and calls back from the grave the famous Fenian, Caoilte, who proves it. This account is strongly relied upon by Mr. Nutt to prove the wild mythological nature of the Finn story, but it is by no means unique in Irish literature, for we find the celebrated Tuan mac Cairrill had a second birth also, and the great Cuchulain too has his parentage ascribed to the god Lugh, not to Sualtach, his reputed father. Consequently, supposing Finn to have been a real historical character of the third century, there would be nothing absolutely extraordinary in the story arising in half pagan times that Mongan, also an historical character, was a re-incarnation of Finn.
In the second oldest miscellaneous manuscript, the Book of Leinster, the references to Finn and the Fenians are much more numerous, containing three poems ascribed to Ossian, Finn's son, five poems ascribed to Finn himself, two poems ascribed to Caoilte the Fenian poet, a poem ascribed to one of Finn's followers, allusions to Finn in poems by one Gilla in Chomded and another, passages from the Dinnsenchas or topographical tract about Finn, the account of the battle of Cnámhross, in which Finn helps the Leinstermen against King Cairbré, the genealogy of Finn, and the genealogy of Diarmuid O'Duibhne.
Again, in the Glossary ascribed, and probably truly, to Cormac, King-Bishop of Cashel, A.D. 837-903, there are two allusions to Finn, one of which refers to the unfaithfulness of his wife. This, indeed, is not contained in the oldest copy, but Whitley Stokes, than whom there can be no better authority, believes these allusions to belong to the older portion of the Glossary, a work which is probably much interpolated.
But there is yet another proof of the antiquity of the Finn stories which Mr. Nutt does not note, and in some respects it is the most important and conclusive of all. For if, as D'Arbois de Jubainville has, I think, proved, the list of 187 historic tales contained in the Book of Leinster was really drawn up at the end of the seventh or beginning of the eighth century, we find that even then Finn or his contemporaries were the subjects of, or figure in, several of them, as in the story of "The Courtship of Ailbhe, daughter of King Cormac mac Art, by Finn," "The Battle of Moy Muchruime," where King Art, Cormac's father, was slain; "The Cave of Bin Edair," where Diarmuid and Gráinne took shelter when pursued by Finn; "The Adventures of Finn in Derc Fearna (the cave of Dunmore)," a lost tale; "The Elopement of Gráinne with Diarmuid," and perhaps one or two more.
Thus Finn is sandwiched in as a real person along with his other contemporaries, not only in tenth and eleventh century annalists and poets, but is also made the hero of historic romance as early as the seventh or eighth century. Side by side in our list with the battle of Moy Muchruime we have the battle of Moy Rath. Copies of both, coloured with the same literary pigments, exist. The last we know to be historical, it can be proved; why should not the first be also? It is true that the one took place 438 years before the other, but the treatment of both is absolutely identical, and it is the merest accident that we happen to have external evidence for the latter and not for the former. I can see, then, no sufficiently cogent reasons for viewing Finn mac Cúmhail with different eyes from those with which we regard his king. Cormac mac Art is usually acknowledged to have been a real king of flesh and blood, whose buildings are yet seen on the site of Tara, after whose daughter Gráinne one of them is named, why should Finn, his chief captain, who married that Gráinne, be a deity euhemerised? I do not see any arguments sufficient to differentiate this case of Finn, to whom no particular supernatural qualities (except the knowledge he got when he chewed his thumb) are attributed, from that of Cormac and other kings and heroes who were the subjects of bardic stories, and whose deaths were recorded in the Annals, except the accident that the creative imagination of the later Gaels happened to seize upon him and make him and his contemporaries the nucleus of a vast literature instead of some earlier or later group of perhaps equally deserving champions. Finn has long since become to all ears a pan-Gaelic champion just as Arthur has become a Brythonic one.
Of the Fenian sagas the longest—though it is only fragmentary—is that known as the Dialogue or Colloquy of the Ancients, which is preserved in the Book of Lismore, and would fill about 250 of these pages. The plot of it is simple enough. Caoilte [Cweeltya] the poet and Ossian, almost sole survivors of the Fenians—who had lived on after the battle of Gabhra, where Cairbré, the High-king, broke their power for ever—meet in their very old age St. Patrick and the new preachers of the gospel. Patrick is most desirous of learning the past history of the island from them, and the legends connected with streams and hills and raths and so forth, and these are willingly recounted to him, and were all written[15] down by Brogan Patrick's scribe for posterity to read hereafter. The saga describes their wanderings along with the saint, the stories they relate to him, and the verses—over a couple of thousand—sung or repeated by them to the clerics and others.[16] Some of these pieces are exceedingly beautiful. Here is a specimen, the lament which Credé made over her husband who was drowned at the battle of Ventry. Caoilte repeats the verses to Patrick:
"The haven roars, and O the haven roars, over the rushing race of Rinn-da-bharc. The drowning of the warrior of Loch-da-chonn, that is what the wave impinging on the strand laments.[17] Melodious is the crane, and O melodious is the crane, in the marshlands of Druim-dá-thrén. 'Tis she who may not save her brood alive. The wild dog of two colours is intent upon her nestlings. A woful note, and O a woful note is that which the thrush in Drumqueen emits, but not more cheerful is the wail which the blackbird makes in Letterlee. A woful sound, and O a woful sound, is that the deer utters in Drumdaleish. Dead lies the doe of Drumsheelin,[18] the mighty stag bells after her. Sore suffering, and O suffering sore, is the hero's death, his death, who used to lie by me.... Sore suffering to me is Cael, and O Cael is a suffering sore, that by my side he is in dead man's form; that the wave should have swept over his white body, that is what hath distracted me, so great was his delightfulness. A dismal roar, and O a dismal roar, is that the shore's surf makes upon the strand.... A woful booming, and O a boom of woe, is that which the wave makes upon the northward beach, butting as it does against the polished rock, lamenting for Cael now that he is gone. A woful fight, and O a fight of woe, is that the wave wages with the southern shore. A woful melody, and O a melody of woe, is that which the heavy surge of Tullacleish emits. As for me the calamity which has fallen upon me having shattered me, for me prosperity exists no more."
Perhaps the Fenian saga, next in length and certainly in merit, is the well-known "Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne."[19] Diarmuid of the Love-spot unwittingly causes Gráinne, daughter of Cormac mac Art, the High-king, to fall in love with him, just on the eve of her marriage with his captain, Finn mac Cool. He is driven to elope with her, and is pursued round Ireland by the vengeful Finn, who succeeds after many years in compassing the death of the generous and handsome Diarmuid by a wild boar, and then winning back to himself the love of the fickle Gráinne.
The Enchanted Fort of the Quicken Tree, the Enchanted Fort of Céis Corann,[20] the Little Brawl at Allen,[21] the Enchanted Fort of Eochaidh Beag the Red,[22] the Pursuit of Sive, daughter of Owen Óg, the Pursuit of the Giolla Deacar,[23] the Death of the Great Youth the King of Spain's son,[24] The Feast in the House of Conan,[25] the Legend of Lomnochtan of Slieve Riffé,[26] the Legend of Ceadach the Great,[27] the Battle of Tulach na n-each,[28] the Battle of Ventry,[29] the Battle of Cnucha, the Battle of Moy Muchruime,[30] the Battle of Moy Léana,[31] the youthful Exploits of Finn mac Cool,[32] the Battle of Gabhra,[33] the Birth of King Cormac,[34] the Battle of Crinna,[35] the Cause of the Battle of Cnucha,[36] the Invitation of Maol grandson of Manannán to the Fenians of Erin,[37] the Legend of the Clown in the Drab Coat,[38] the Lamentation of Oilioll after his children,[39] Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise,[40] the Decision about Cormac's Sword,[41] an ancient fragment about Finn and Gráinne,[42] an ancient fragment on the Death of Finn[43]—are some of the remaining prose sagas of this cycle.