Cover art by William Henry Bartlett
Fionn and the Fianna are out hunting when Bran and Sceólang begin to give chase to a deer. Fionn follows them as far as a lake, where he encounters a beautiful young woman. She is crying, and informs him that she has lost her most prized possession, a gold ring (or bracelet), in the water. Fionn reassures her that he will go in and retrieve it, and then enters the lake. In Kerry tellings, she places a geis on Fionn to retrieve it. He has little trouble finding the ring, but upon touching it, he is instantly transformed into a feeble old man with white hair. The young woman disappears before Fionn comes ashore. The Fianna realise that Fionn has been gone for a long time and set out looking for him. When they see Fionn in his elderly form, they don’t recognise him at first, but understand that it is him when he begins to speak. They then find the young woman and make her change Fionn back. In County Louth tellings, he is brought back to his youthful form but decides to leave his hair white. In some versions, the young woman’s actions are explained by the fact that both she and her sister are in love with Fionn. As such, it is noted that she either turned Fionn into an old man as act of revenge for him preferring her sister, or because the sister had once vowed that she would never marry an old man with white hair. In the latter version, the young woman was planning to turn Fionn back into a young man after she herself had married him.
The Druid's Cauldron
We are a registered non-profit, The Druid’s Cauldron Inc. 501(c)(3) The Druid’s Cauldron is an independent journal established in 2016, dedicated to the preservation and exploration of the druids, culture, native wisdom, and the living traditions of the isles. We exist to recover folklore, herbalism, spiritual philosophy, and ecological knowledge embedded in the roots of the early Irish Gaelic and broader Celtic world.
Through deep research into traditional folklore, herbalism and mythology as well as personal artistic endeavors, we seek to cultivate a deeper relationship with the land, the seasons, and to one another. We are committed to serious inquiry and evidence-based information, or it is alluded that it’s personal philosophy and labeled as such. The Druid’s Cauldron is a space for the curious, the contemplative, and those who feel called to remember older ways of being in right relationship with the land and each other.
Leave a Reply