The Coming of Finn
And now we tell how Finn came to the captaincy of the Fianna of Erinn.
At this time Ireland was ruled by one of the mightiest of her native
kings, Conn, son of Felimy, who was surnamed Conn of the Hundred
Battles. And Conn sat in his great banqueting hall at Tara, while the
yearly Assembly of the lords and princes of the Gael went forward,
during which it was the inviolable law that no quarrel should be
raised and no weapon drawn, so that every man who had a right to come
to that Assembly might come there and sit next his deadliest foe in
peace. Below him sat at meat the provincial kings and the chiefs of
clans, and the High King's officers and fighting-men of the Fianna,
with Goll and the sons of Morna at their head. And there, too, sat
modestly a strange youth, tall and fair, whom no one had seen in that
place before. Conn marked him with the eye of a king that is
accustomed to mark men, and by and by he sent him a horn full of wine
from his own table and bade the youth declare his name and lineage.
"I am Finn, son of Cumhal," said the youth, standing among them, tall
as a warriors spear, and a start and a low murmur ran through the
Assembly while the captains of the Fianna stared upon him like men who
see a vision of the dead. "What seek you here?" said Conn, and Finn
replied, "To be your man, O King, and to do you service in war as my
father did." "It is well," said the King. "Thou art a friend's son and
the son of man of trust." So Finn put his hand in the Kind's and swore
fealty and service to him, and Conn set him beside his own son Art,
and all fell to talking again and wondering what new things that day
would bring forth, and the feasting went merrily forward.
Now at this time the people of the royal burg of Tara were sorely
afflicted by a goblin of the Fairy Folk, who was wont to approach the
place at night-fall, there to work what harm to man, or beast, or
dwelling that he found in his evil mind to do. And he could not be
resisted, for as he came he played on a magic harp a strain so keen
and sweet, that each man who heard it must needs stand entranced and
motionless until the fairy music had passed away. The King proclaimed
a mighty reward to any man who would save Tara from the goblin, and
Finn thought in his heart, "I am the man to do that." So he said to
the King, "Shall I have my rightful heritage as captain of the Fianna
of Erin if I slay the goblin?" Conn said, "I promise thee that," and
he bound himself by the sureties of all the provincial Kings of
Ireland and of the Druid Kithro and his magicians.
Now there was among the following of Conn a man named Fiacha, who had
been as a youth a trusty friend and follower of Cumhal. He came to
Finn and brought with him a spear having a head of dark bronze with
glittering edges, and fastened with thirty rivets of Arabian gold, and
the spear-head was laced up within a leathern case. "By this weapon of
enchantment," said Fiacha, "you shall overcome the enchanter," and he
taught Finn what to do with it when the hour of need should come.
So Finn took the spear, and left the strings of the case loose, and he
paced with it towards night-fall around the ramparts of royal Tara.
And when he had once made the circuit of the rampart, and the light
had now almost quite faded from the summer sky, and the wide low
plains around the Hill of Tara were a sea of white mist, he heard far
off in the deepening gloom the first notes of the fairy harp. Never
such music was made by mortal hand, for it had in it sorrows that man
has never felt, and joys for which man has no name, and it seemed as
if a man listening to that music might burst from time into eternity
and be as one of the Immortals for evermore. And Finn listened, amazed
and rapt, till at last as the triumphant melody grew nearer and louder
he saw dimly a Shadow Shape playing as it were on a harp, and coming
swiftly towards him. Then with a mighty effort he roused himself from
dreams, and tore the cover from the spear-head and laid the metal to
his brow. And the demoniac energy that had been beaten into the blade
by the hammers of unearthly craftsmen in ancient days thrilled
through him and made him fighting-mad, and he rushed forward shouting
his battle-cry, and swinging the spear aloft. But the Shadow turned
and fled before him, and Finn chased it northward to the Fairy Mound
of Slieve Fuad, and there he drove the spear through its back. And
what it was that fell there in the night, and what it was that passed
like the shadow of a shadow into the Fairy Mound, none can tell, but
Finn bore back with him next day a pale, sorrowful head on the point
of Fiacha's spear, and the goblin troubled the folk of royal Tara no
more.
But Conn of the Hundred Battles called the Fianna together, and he set
Finn at his right hand and said, "Here is your Captain by birth-right
and by sword-right. Let who will now obey him hence-forward, and who
will not, let him go in peace and serve Arthur of Britain or Arist of
Alba, or whatsoever King he will." And Goll, son of Morna, said, "For
my part I will be Finn's man under thee, O King," and he swore
obedience and loyalty to Finn before them all. Nor was it hard for any
man to step where Goll had gone before, so they all took their oaths
of Fian service to Finn mac Cumhal. And thus it was that Finn came to
the captaincy of the Fianna of Erinn, and he ruled the Fianna many a
year till he died in battle with the Clan Urgrenn at Brea upon the
Boyne.