In honor of St. Patrick’s Day having just passed, this is a look into the Irish myth of Fionn Mac Cumhail and the Man in the Tree.
According to theirishroadtrip.com, “Fionn was a hunter-warrior who was as intelligent as he was strong.” He won many battles with both brains and brawn. One night, he and his Fian (a group of young males who couldn’t own property and lived in the wild, working as mercenaries) were in a forested clearing on the bank of the Súir river. When they took their food out of the boiling pits, they were shocked: their food was gone! They ate no meat that night, having no choice but to eat greenery and nuts before sleeping.
Their meat continued to be stolen for the next two nights. The culprit ended up being a man named Cúldub, the son of Ua Birgge, who came out of the Fairy Knoll (a hill). After catching Cúldub, a fairy appeared. Fionn chased after her, but she got within a structure. Fionn’s thumb was still between the door of the entrance of the structure and got jammed in it when the fairy slammed it. He put his finger in his mouth, and imbas (the ancient Irish sense of intuition) overtook him. When he took his thumb out, he spoke words that he did not know.
Fionn went on to carry off captive women from Dún Iascaigoc in the land of the Dési. Fionn fell for one of these women. Unfortunately, the woman was not interested in him, and had fallen for Derg Corra (one of Fionn’s servants) instead. She fancied how he his red hair seemed to shine like a sunset as he would jump across their cooking fires. Derg Corra, being loyal to Fionn, did not accept her invitation to lay with her. She lied to Fionn and said that Derg had made advances on her. Fionn gave him three days and nights to get away, believing the woman, and warned him not to cross paths with them again. He took to living in a tree and hunting deer.
One day, Fionn and his Fian came upon a man in the tree who had a hood on. He had a blackbird on his shoulder, a stag below the tree, and 2 bronze vessels in his hand. One was filled with water and a trout, and the other contained an apple. He cracked a nut he had in half, gave half of it to the raven, and ate the other half. “And on it he drank a sip of the bronze vessel that was in his hand, so that he, the trout, the stag, and the blackbird drank together,” according to ancienttexts.org. Fionn’s followers asked who the man was. Fionn put his thumb in his mouth and imbas gave him the answer: Derg Corra was in the tree.
The meaning of this myth is debated. Some believe that it speaks to the bond between the ancient people of Ireland and nature. Others think it represents the Christian faith, with the bird being the cosmos, the stag the earth, and the fish being the Mediterranean and aquatic. It can also be interpreted as a story of perseverance: even when things go wrong, it’s still possible to survive. After being kicked out of the group wrongfully and forced to live alone in the forest, anyone would think that Derg had little chance to make it through the forest alone. But he still managed to acclimate to being alone in nature and thrived in it. And with Earth Day coming up next month, maybe you can take inspiration from this myth and embrace the beauty of nature.
