“All desires save one are fleeting, but that one lasts for ever. Fionn, with all desires, had the lasting one, for he would go anywhere and forsake anything for wisdom…”
— James Stephens, Irish Fairy Tales, 1920
Cover art by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Aillén Mac Midgna was a fierce warrior and member of the Tuatha Dé Danann described in the Fenian Cycle of Irish Mythology in the Macgnímartha Finn, Boyhood Deeds of Fionn. He was known as the ‘burner’.1 Aillén was a musician of the Tuatha Dé Danann who resided at the sídh Finnachaid, also a home at different times to Lir. He had the magical power of lulling people to sleep by playing fairie music from his stringed instrument, the tiompán, which is similar to a harp. For 23 years, Aillén terrorized the sacred seat of Ireland’s High King, the Hill of Tara. Each year, on Samhain Eve. he would arrive to the hill’s great feast playing his magical harp. Once everyone was asleep, he burned every structure and treasure to the ground leaving only ashes behind. He was indestructible, that is, until he met his match with hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill.
When the King of Ireland sent call for men to guard against Aillén, brave ten year old Fionn answered. Using the wisdom he acquired from the great Salmon of Knowledge, he learned how to yield the power of a poisonous spear that when its fumes were inhaled, would make him immune to the fairy’s music. When the fateful Samhain eve. night came, Fionn waited in hiding until Aillén was close enough to skewer and kill him with his spear. There was great joy and celebration and the King made Fionn leader of the entire band of Fianna warriors.
Footnotes
- MacKillop, James. 2004. Aillén mac Midgna, A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, Oxford University Press.