Fionn Oisin

Telling tales of heroes and far away places here’s two more of our favourite Irish stories

THE SALMON OF KNOWLEDGE

As a child, the legendary Fionn Mac Cumhaill was sent to live with a man named Finnegas along the banks of the River Boyne. Finnegas was renowned across Ireland as being a man with more knowledge than any other man in the country. He was a poet and also knew the secrets of man, animals, plants and the stars. The young Fionn Mac Cumhaill was enraptured by Finnegas’s knowledge and wisdom as he had a seemingly insatiable thirst for knowledge.

This thirst sometimes led Finnegas to have no answers for the child and so he explained his reason for living on the banks of the Boyne. The river was the home, according to the Druids, of the Salmon of Knowledge. The Salmon of Knowledge acquired all of the knowledge in the world from eating nuts from the magical hazel trees that draped over the river. The prophecy states that the one to eat the salmon would in turn acquire the knowledge and so Finnegas spent much of his time in search of this catch. One day while fishing Finnegas caught the salmon and ran to Fionn instructing him to cook the fish straight away while also giving a stern warning not to eat a single morsel of the fish. Finnegas went to get more wood for the fire, but on his return he noticed a look of wisdom in Fionn’s eyes. He asked Fionn if he ate any of the salmon, even the skin and Fionn replied that he didn’t. However Fionn explained that he burnt his finger while turning the fish and put it in his mouth to calm the burn. Finnegas was devastated to realise that Fionn had obtained

the knowledge from the fish. Finnegas instructed Fionn to place his finger in his mouth again as this was the first touch he had of the Salmon on Knowledge. At that point Fionn felt a rush of wisdom and knowledge and at that point Finnegas declared that Fionn would grow up to become a wise poet, warrior and leader, which was realised when Fionn became the leader of Ireland’s great group of warriors, The Fianna.