Pictish Mystic · Lore · Fomorians
The Fomorach Who Stole the Newborns: a Fomorian Raider in a Fionn Tale
A Fomorach that came to one king's house for seven years, on the night each child was born, and carried the infant away. This is what The Feast at Conan's House says about it, and about the birth of Fionn's hounds Bran and Sceolaing, told from the Fomorian side.
Conan's Question
In The Feast at Conan's House, Conan asks Fionn: “inform me what kindred have Bran and Sceoluing to you, where it was you found them.” Fionn answers with a story.
The Wand
Fionn's mother's sister Tuirreann was given in marriage to Iollann Eachtach, on condition “that the Fenian chiefs should become sureties for her safe return.” But Iollann “was attended by a familiar female spirit named Uchtdealbh.” She came to Tuirreann in disguise, and “she took her dark druidical wand from under her garment”, struck her, and “metamorphosed her into a greyhound, the handsomest that the human eye ever beheld.”
The King Who Hated Hounds
Uchtdealbh “brought her along with her to the house of Feargus Fionnliath, king of Ath-cliath Meaghraith.” Feargus was so unsociable that “he would not permit a hound to remain in the same house along with him”, yet he said: “yet I will not refuse Fionn's request respecting the first hound he ever sent me.” Soon “the hound never saw a wild animal that she would not run down.”
The Fomorach
“The wife of Fergus happened to be confined about that time; and she gave birth to an infant the same night that the hound whelped two puppies, a male and female. It so happened during the previous seven years, that whenever Fergus's wife was confined, a Fomorach used to come that same night, and carry away the infant.” At the end of a year, at a meeting in the house of Feargus Fionnliath, “they delivered Fergus from the plague of the Fomorach.” The tale gives the Fomorach no name and no shape, and does not say how it was driven off. It is not linked in the text to Balor, Bres or the Fomorians of Mag Tured.
Bran and Sceolaing
Uchtdealbh “restored her to her natural shape.” Fionn was told that the two pups could be “either human beings or dogs, they should accordingly be such”, and he answered: “I would prefer that they should remain hounds.” These were Bran and Sceolaing.
From Their Side
This part is a reading, not the text: the child and the two pups are born on the same night, and the Fomorach's raids end in the same breath. The tale never says the hounds drove it off. It only leaves them side by side.
Sources
- The Feast at Conan's House (Nicholas O'Kearney, Ossianic Society, 1855), Mary Jones, Celtic Literature Collective: https://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/f12.html
Story told by John.
These are legends from medieval manuscripts, not recorded history.
First shared on TikTok @johnshaw333.
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