"Who dares to quench my torches?" cried the son in fury, dancing and hopping like a madman. Quick as a wink, Bran nudged the torches over the edge of the roof until they landed with a splash in the flowing stream below. Sure enough one of the sons soon flew in over the place, leaping from tree top to tree top, and with a single mighty bound he sprang over the entire edifice, dropping blazing torches on the thatching as he did so! They ate and drank and shared stories, then Fionn chewed his thumb again and knew what to do.īran leaped up on top of the half built fortress and kept watch, waiting for the nightly visitors. "Better than you have tried and failed," they said, but Fionn went to the king anyway and got his permission to try his hand at the task. "I will save the dún," said Fionn, to the general merriment and laughter of the workers. It came to him that there was a wicked old hag on the eastern side of the forest with her three sons, and each night one of them would go out and burn down the king's fortress. It is said that the king will cut the heads off the lot of them in one sitting."įionn had the gift of illumination and true seeing which he could call upon by chewing his thumb, and chew his thumb is what he did. When the king dies the husband of his daughter will have it all, but beware! Any man who promises to save the dún and fails ends up in the king's dungeon, awaiting his judgement. "The king has but one child, a daughter, and he has promised her in marriage to any man who can stop this arson from taking place. "What are you up to?" asked Fionn of the workers, and they told him they were building a dún for the king, but they were running into trouble – every night it was being burned to the ground! Young Fionn Mac Cumhaill was out walking with his dog Bran one fine morning, and he happened to pass into a deep and thick dark wood of the kind that once covered all of Ireland, for the hunting was better there, when what did he come across but a thousand horses hauling timber and men chopping down the trees and preparing the logs. Fionn and the Hag Irish and Celtic myths and legends, Irish folklore and Irish fairy tales from the Fenian Cycle Battle is done for the king's Dún
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