Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/262

164 cycle received continual additions. New stories were written, new incidents invented or borrowed from existing folk-tale or saga, until comparatively recent times. Again, unlike the Cúchulainn saga, the Fionn cycle contains numerous poems; while the former has fewer folk-tale versions of its literary stories than the latter.

The interest of Fionn's ancestral line begins with Cumhal. The Boyish Deeds shows him engaging in a clan feud with the clanna Luagni, assisted by the clanna of which Morna was chief. Morna's son Aodh took a leading part in the battle and was prominent afterward under the name Goll ("OneEyed "), because he lost an eye there; Cumhal fell at his stroke.$7$ A different account of the battle is given in the Leabhar na hllidhre. In this, Tadg, a Druid, succeeded to Almha, the castle of his father Nuada, who also was a Druid; and Tadg's daughter Muirne was sought in marriage by Cumhal, but refused, because Tadg foresaw that he would lose Almha through him. Cumhal then abducted her, whereupon Tadg complained to the High King, Conn, who ordered Cumhal to give her up or leave the country. He refused, however, and collecting an army, fought Conn's men, including Uirgreann, Morna, and Goll, the latter of whom slew him, whence there was feud between Cumhal's descendants and Goll.$8$

Although Tadg and Nuada are called Druids, Nuada is elsewhere one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and he is probably the god Nuada who fought at Mag-Tured;$9$ while Tadg is also said to be from the síd of Almha, which is thus regarded both as a divine dwelling and as a fort. Hence Fionn is affiliated to the gods, and another tradition makes his mother's father Bracan, a warrior of the Tuatha Dé Danann.$10$ Cumhal has been identified with a god Camulos, known from inscriptions in Gaul and Scotland, whose name is also found in Camulodunum (.^Colchester). As Camulos was equated with Mars, he was a warrior-god—a character in keeping with that of Cumhal, though if the latter was a non-Celtic hero,