Finn and the Man in the Tree
When
the fian
were at
Badamair on the brink of the Suir, Cúldub the son of Ua
Birgge came out of the fairy-knoll on the plain of Femen
and carried off their cooking from them. For three nights
he did thus to them. The third time however Finn knew and
went before him to the fairy-knoll on Femen. Finn laid hold
of him as he went into the knoll, so that he fell yonder.
When he withdrew his hand, a woman met him [?] coming out
of the knoll with a dripping vessel in her hand, having
just distributed drink, and she jammed the door against the
knoll, and Finn squeezed his finger between the door and
the post. When he put his finger into his mouth. When he
took it out again he began to chant, the imbas illumines
him and he said [Here follows an untranslatable
‘rhetoric’].
Some time afterwards they (i.e. the fian)
carried off captive women from Dún Iascaig in the land of
the Dési. A beautiful maiden was taken by them. Finn’s mind
desired the woman for himself. She set her heart a servant
whom they had, even Derg Corra son of Ua Daigre. For this
was his was his practice. While food was being cooked by
them, the lad jumped to and fro across the cooking hearth.
It was for that the maid en loved him. And one day she said
to him that he should come to her and lie with her. Derg
Corra did not accept that on account of Finn
She incites Finn against him and said: ‘Let us set upon him
by force!’ Thereupon Finn said to him: ‘Go hence,’ said he,
‘out of my sight, and thou shalt have a truce of three days
and three nights, and after that beware of me!’
Then Derg Corra went into exile and took up his abode in a
wood and used to go about on shanks of deer for his
lightness. One day as Finn was in the wood seeking him he
saw a man in the top of a tree, a blackbird on his right
shoulder and in his left hand a white vessel of bronze,
filled with water, in which was a skittish trout, and a
stag at the foot of the tree. And this was the practice of
the man, cracking nuts; and he would give half the kernel
of a nut to the blackbird that was on his right shoulder
while he would himself eat the other half; ~ and he would
take an apple out of the bronze vessel that was in his left
hand, divide it in two, throw one half to the stag that was
at the foot of the tree, and then eat the other half
himself. And on it he would drink a sip of the bronze
vessel that was in his hand, so that he and the trout and
the stag and the blackbird drank together. Then his
followers asked of Finn who he in the tree was, for they
did not recognise him on account of the hood of disguise
which he wore.
Then Finn put his thumb into his mouth. When he took it out
again, his imbas
illumines
him and he chanted an incantation and said: “'Tis Derg
Corra son of Ua Daigre,’ said he, ‘that is in the tree.’
Revue
Celtique, vol.
xv, 1904