Fionn mac Cumhaill escapes the monster's belly

Fionn mac Cumhaill escapes the monster's belly

Lough Derg--Folklore--Fion mac Cumhaill--Etymology

"…Fin M’Coul stood before the monster; but instead of innocently submitting to be sucked in like a common man, Fin, famed as he was above all the Fions for feats of agility, took a hop, step, and leap, and fairly and clearly jumped down its throat..."

Caesar Otway, 1780-1842

Otway, Caesar, Sketches in Ireland: Descriptive of Interesting, and Hitherto Unnoticed Districts, in the North and South, pp. 188-92

W. Curry, jun. and co.; [etc., etc.], Dublin; First published, in part, in the Christian examiner. cf. Pref. A series of letters signed "C. O.", the first four entitled "Sketches in Donegal", the last five "Sketches in the south of Ireland."

1827

Digitised by Google, sponsored by New York Public Library, archived on Hathi Trust digital library

Public domain

1 p., ℓ., iv, vi, 411 p. 19 cm.

English

Description and travel

Text

DD_0043

54.616218, -7.876212

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433066646450

"…Fin M’Coul stood before the monster; but instead of innocently submitting to be sucked in like a common man, Fin, famed as he was above all the Fions for feats of agility, took a hop, step, and leap, and fairly and clearly jumped down its throat, and without any accident he arrived at the bottom of its stomach ; and there looking about as well as such a dark
place would permit, he observed about 200 men and women alive, who had been lately swallowed—100 quite dead, and sundry more who, under the agency of the gastric juice of the monster, were passing through the
process of digestion and assimilation. You may be sure that Fin did not forego his activity in this black hole; and therefore he lost no time in ascertaining the topography of the aforesaid hole, when after some groping, he found that it lay about twenty yards below the region of the heart; and to work he fell with his short sword, and in a little space of time he opened an orifice about the size of a coach-house door in the monster's side, who, during the operation, no doubt, felt very alarming symptoms of cholera morbus, moreover, it is not to be supposed that Fin and his fellow prisoners were slow at making their exit from ‘durance vile’; and well it may be said, that such a jail delivery was not since the evacuation of the Trojan horse. And thus Fin not only released many captives, but he spoiled the appetite altogether of the ‘blatant beast’ who lay along bellowing, and its abominable blood streaming from its open side, and rushing like a mountain torrent into the lake, all whose waters were thereby dyed red; and so along the shore it lay, in purgatorial agony, suffering all the pains due to all its former voraciousness, until St. Patrick came ; and he in order to show unto the obstinate Pagans, what power was committed unto a Christian saint, commanded the monster to arise and proceed to its appointed place at the the bottom of the lough, where it lies to this day, living, and at times roaring, but for ever restrained by Patrick's power from coming ashore to perpetrate its former mischief—'Tis true in stormy weather, when the tempest sweeps over the lake, whose vexed billows appear like squadrons of white horsemen, making their battle charge on the eastern shores : then it is that the ancient monster is observed amidst the foam and fury of the elements, riding and bellowing across the lake ; and many an old man can testify that from the top of these hills he has seen the apparition, and has fled in terror, fearful of its coming ashore to resume its former destructiveness." (pp. 188-92)

Monograph