“Allowing he were in the originals, which he is not,” returned the priest, “give me leave to ask you where Morven lies?”
“Why, I suppose of course in Scotland,” said I, a little unprepared for the question.
“Mr. Macpherson supposes so too,” replied he, smiling, “though certainly he is at no little pains to discover where in Scotland. The fact is, however, that the epithet of Riagh Mor Fhionne, which Mr. Macpherson translates King of Morven, is literally King or Chief of the Fhians, or Fians, a body of men of whom Mr. Macpherson makes no mention, and which, indeed, either in the annals of Scottish history or Scottish poetry, would be vainly sought. Take then their history as extracted from the book of Howth into the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, in 1786. *
* Fionn, the son of Cumhal, [from whom, says Keating, the
established militia of the kingdom were called Fion Erinne,]
was first married to Graine, daguhter to Cormac, king of
Ireland, and afterwards to her sister, and descended in a
sixth degree from Nuagadh Neacht, king of Leinster. The
history, laws, requisites, &c., of the Fionna Erin, are to
be found in Keating’s History of Ireland, p. 269.
Cormac, at the head of the Fion, and attended by Fingal,
sailed to that part of Scotland opposite Ireland, where he
planted a colony as an establishment for Carbry Riada, his
cousin-german. This colony was often protected from the
power of the Romans by the Fion, under the command of
Fingal, occasionally stationed in the circumjacent country
“Hence,” says Walker, “the claims of the Scots to Fin.” In
process of time this colony gave monarchs to Scotland, and
their posterity at this day reign over the British empire.
Fingal fell in an engagement at Rathbree, on the banks of
the Boyne, A. D. 294; from whence the name of Rathbree was
changed to Killeen, or Cill-Fhin, the tomb of Fin.
“In Ireland there were soldiers called Fynne Erin, appointed to keep the sea-coast, fearing foreign invasion, or foreign princes to enter the realm; the names of these soldiers were Fin M’Cuil, Coloilon, Keilt, Oscar, M’Ossyn, Dermot, O’Doyne, Collemagh, Morna, and divers others. These soldiers waxed bold, as shall appear hereafter, and so strong, that they did contrary to the orders and institutions of the Kings of Ireland, their chiefs and governors, and became very strong and stout, and at length would do thing without license of the King of Ireland, &c., &c—It is added, that one of these heroes was alive till the coming of St. Patrick, who recited the actions of his compeers to the Saint. This hero was Ossian, or, as we pronounce it, Ossyn; whose dialogues with the Christian missionary is in the mouth of every peasant, and several of them preserved in old Irish manuscripts. Now the Fingal of Mr. Macpherson (for it is thus he translates Fin M’Cuil, sometimes pronounced and spelled Fionne M’Cumhal, or Fion the son of Cumhal) and his followers appear like the earth-born myrmidons of Deucalion, for they certainly have no human origin; bear no connexion with the history of their country; are neither to be found in the poetic legend or historic record * of Scotland, and are even furnished with appellations which the Caledonians neither previously possessed nor have since adopted. They are therefore abruptly introduced to our knowledge as living in a barbarous age, yet endowed with every perfection that renders them the most refined, heroic, and virtuous of men. So that while we grant to the interesting poet and his heroes our boundless admiration, we cannot help considering them as solecisms in the theory of human nature.
* I know but of one instance that contradicts the assertion
of Father Johu, and that I borrow from the allegorical
Palace of Honour of Gavvin Douglass, Bishop of Dunkeld, who
places Gaul, son of Morni, and Fingal, among the
distinguished characters in the annals of legendary romance;
yet even he mentions them not as the heroes of Scottish
celebrity, but as the almost fabled demi-gods of Ireland.=
“And now the wran cam out of Ailsay,
And Piers Plowhman, that made his workmen few
Great Gow Mac Morne and Fin M’Cowl, and how
They suld be goddis in Ireland, as they say.”