The High Deeds of Finn MacCool Read Online Free PDF Page A

the Fianna, and many tried and failed, for Finn ruled that no man should become one of the proud brotherhood without passing many tests. A warrior must be skilful as well as brave, and to prove his skill, the young man who wished to join their number must first, with only a shield and a hazel rod, defend himself against nine men posted all around him while standing in a hole in the ground, so that he could not move from the hips down. If one of the spears they cast at him so much as grazed his skin or drew one drop of blood, he was not taken. Then his hair was plaited into a score of braids, and he was hunted through the woods by others of the Fianna; and if he was wounded or run down, if his spear trembled in his hand, or a single strand of hair broke loose from its braiding, or if a dry twig cracked under his running foot, he was not taken. Then he must leap over a branch set at his own height above the ground, and run under another set level with his knee, and still running he must pull a thorn out of his foot without slackening speed. If he passed all these tests, he must still know the Twelve Books of Poetry, and be able to recite long passages from them; and he must have by heart a score or more of the ancient tales in which was hidden the secret lore and history of Erin. And if he could do all these things, he was taken.
    Then Finn would bind him by oath never to take a dowry with a wife, never to take another man’s cattle by raiders’ right, unless in vengeance for a wrong,never to refuse help to any man, and never, however hard pressed, to fall back in combat before less than nine warriors.
    And then at last the newcomer would swear fealty to the High King of Erin, and to Finn Mac Cool his Captain. And after that he took his place among the Fianna.
    And so it was that in the time of Finn, the Fianna came to its full greatness such as it had never had before. And with the death of Finn its greatness passed away.

4
Finn and the Young Hero’s Children
    This story and the one that follows it tell how Finn Mac Cool came by the two hounds that were his favourites among all his hunting dogs, and it starts in this way.
    Finn and some of his companions were out hunting among the seaward hills of Argyll. In those days Argyll was close kin to Erin and many of the great chiefs hunted on both sides of the water. They had killed, and were resting in the warm honey-smelling heather that crept right down to the rocky shore where the little waves of fine weather came in from the West, to cream upon the gull-grey shingle. And as they sprawled at their ease, Goll Mac Morna, whose one eye was better than most men’s two, said to them suddenly, ‘Look there!’ And when they looked where his finger pointed out to sea, they saw a dark fleck on the distant brightness of the water, that became a nutshell boat, that became at last a fine war-galley pulling in to shore.
    The men with Finn caught up their hunting spears at the sight. But Finn said, ‘Ach now, let you wait! Every stranger is not an enemy, and there are no war shields hung along the side of the galley.’
    The boat grounded on the shingle, and the tall man at the steering oar sprang overboard, and leaving the rowers to run her further up the beach, he turned hisface to the land, and came striding up through the salt-burned heather to where Finn and his companions stood waiting for his coming.
    He was tall and finely dressed, with strings of coral and twisted silver about his neck, but his eyes under his golden brows were dark with trouble as they moved from one to another of the Fian hunters until they found and rested upon Finn.
    â€˜You are Finn Mac Cool, the Lord of the Fianna?’ he said.
    â€˜I am so,’ said Finn. ‘What is it that brings you seeking me?’
    â€˜I come asking for your help to save my child, for without it, I shall lose this small one as I have lost two sons before.’
    â€˜And how did this grief come