Oisín (Old Irish, , roughly
uh-SHEEN; often anglicised to
Ossian or
Osheen), son of Fionn mac Cumhail and of Sadb (daughter of Bodb Dearg), was regarded in legend as the greatest poet of Ireland, and a warrior of the
fiannaIn early Ireland, fianna were small, semi-independent warrior bands who lived apart from society in the forests as mercenaries, bandits and hunters, but could be called upon by kings in times of war. They appear in Irish mythology, most notably in the stories of the Fenian Cycle, where they are...
in the Ossianic or
Fenian CycleThe Fenian Cycle or Fiannaidheacht , also known as the Fionn Cycle, Finn Cycle, Fianna Cycle, Finnian Tales, Fian Tales, Féinne Cycle, Feinné Cycle and Ossianic Cycle, is a body of prose and verse centering on the exploits of the mythical hero Fionn mac Cumhaill and his warriors the Fianna Éireann...
of
Irish mythologyThe mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology...
. He is the
narratorA narrator is, within any story , the entity that conveys the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for story-telling of any kind...
of much of the cycle.
His name literally means "young deer" or fawn, and the story is told that his mother,
SadbhIn Irish mythology, Sadhbh was the mother of Oisin by Fionn mac Cumhail.She was enchanted into the form of a deer on refusing the love of Feár Doirche, but she found he had no power over her while she was within the dún of the Fianna. Bran and Sceolan, Fionn's hounds, did not attempt to kill her...
, was turned into a deer by a
druidA druid was a member of the priestly and learned class active in Gaul, and perhaps in Celtic culture more generally, during the final centuries BCE...
, Fear Doirche (or Fer Doirich).
Oisín (Old Irish, , roughly
uh-SHEEN; often anglicised to
Ossian or
Osheen), son of Fionn mac Cumhail and of Sadb (daughter of Bodb Dearg), was regarded in legend as the greatest poet of Ireland, and a warrior of the
fiannaIn early Ireland, fianna were small, semi-independent warrior bands who lived apart from society in the forests as mercenaries, bandits and hunters, but could be called upon by kings in times of war. They appear in Irish mythology, most notably in the stories of the Fenian Cycle, where they are...
in the Ossianic or
Fenian CycleThe Fenian Cycle or Fiannaidheacht , also known as the Fionn Cycle, Finn Cycle, Fianna Cycle, Finnian Tales, Fian Tales, Féinne Cycle, Feinné Cycle and Ossianic Cycle, is a body of prose and verse centering on the exploits of the mythical hero Fionn mac Cumhaill and his warriors the Fianna Éireann...
of
Irish mythologyThe mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology...
. He is the
narratorA narrator is, within any story , the entity that conveys the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for story-telling of any kind...
of much of the cycle.
Legends
His name literally means "young deer" or fawn, and the story is told that his mother,
SadbhIn Irish mythology, Sadhbh was the mother of Oisin by Fionn mac Cumhail.She was enchanted into the form of a deer on refusing the love of Feár Doirche, but she found he had no power over her while she was within the dún of the Fianna. Bran and Sceolan, Fionn's hounds, did not attempt to kill her...
, was turned into a deer by a
druidA druid was a member of the priestly and learned class active in Gaul, and perhaps in Celtic culture more generally, during the final centuries BCE...
, Fear Doirche (or Fer Doirich). When Fionn was hunting he caught her but did not kill her, and she returned to human form. Fionn gave up hunting and fighting to settle down with Sadbh, and she was soon pregnant, but Fer Doirich turned her back into a deer and she returned to the wild. Seven years later Fionn found her child, naked, on Benbulbin.
Other stories have Oisín meet Fionn for the first time as an adult and contend over a roasting pig before they recognise each other.
In
Oisín in Tir na nÓgTír na nÓg is an Irish language name meaning roughly "Land of Youth". It is the most popular of the Otherworlds in Irish mythology. It is perhaps best known from the myth of Oisín, one of the few mortals who lived there, and his relationship with Niamh of the Golden Hair...
his most famous
echtraAn Echtra or Echtrae is one of a category of Old Irish literature about a hero's adventures in the Otherworld ; the otherworldly setting is the distinctive trait of these tales...
, or adventure tale, he is visited by a
fairyA fairy is a type of mythological being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.The word fairy derives from the term fae of medieval Western...
woman called Níamh Chinn Óir - Niamh of the Golden Hair or Head - one of the daughters of Manannán Mac Lir, a god of the sea - who announces she loves him and takes him away to Tir na nÓg ("the land of the young", also referred to as Tir Tairngire, "the land of promise"). Their union produces Oisín's famous son,
OscarOscar is a figure in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He is the warrior son of Oisín and the fairy woman Niamh, who also bore his sister, Plor na mBan. Oisín, in turn, was the son of the epic hero Fionn mac Cumhail...
, and a daughter,
Plor na mBanIn Irish mythology, Plor na mBan was the beautiful daughter of Oisín and Niamh....
- "Flower of Women". After what seems to him to be three years Oisín decides to return to Ireland, but 300 years have passed there. Niamh gives him her white horse, Embarr, and warns him not to dismount, because if his feet touch the ground those 300 years will catch up with him and he will become old and withered. Oisín returns home and finds the hill of Almu, Fionn's home, abandoned and in disrepair. Later, while trying to help some men lift a stone onto a wagon, his girth breaks and he falls to the ground, becoming an old man just as Niamh had predicted. The horse returns to Tir na nÓg.
In the tale
Acallam na SenórachAcallam na Senórach is an important Middle Irish narrative dating to the last quarter of the 12th century...
(
Tales of the Elders), Oisín and his comrade
Caílte mac RónáinCaílte mac Rónáin was a nephew of Fionn mac Cumhail and a member of the fianna in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He could run at remarkable speed and communicate with animals, and was a great storyteller...
survived to the time of
Saint PatrickSaint Patrick Irish: Naomh Pádraig) was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognised patron saint of Ireland ....
and told the saint the stories of the fianna. This is the source of
William Butler YeatsWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
's poem
The Wanderings of OisinThe Wanderings of Oisin is an epic poem published by William Butler Yeats in 1889. It was his first publication outside of magazines, and immediately won him a reputation as a significant poet....
.
The grave site of Oisín is said to be located close to the foot of Glenann in the
Glens of AntrimThe Glens of Antrim or, simply, the Glens, or Antrim Mountains is a region of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, comprising nine glens, or valleys, that radiate from the Antrim Plateau to the coast. The inhabitants of the several glens are descended primarily from native Irish and Hebridean Scots...
in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
Macpherson's Ossian
OssianOssian is the narrator, and supposed author, of a cycle of poems which the Scottish poet James Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in the Scots Gaelic. He is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, a character from Irish mythology...
, the narrator and purported author of a series of poems published by
James MacphersonJames Macpherson was a Scottish poet, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of poems.-Early life:Macpherson was born at Ruthven in the parish of Kingussie, Badenoch, Inverness-shire, Highland...
in the 1760s, is based on Oisín. Macpherson claimed to have translated his poems from ancient sources in the
Scottish Gaelic languageScottish Gaelic is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages, and is distinct from the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages, which includes Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. Scottish, Manx and Irish Gaelic are all descended from Old Irish...
. These poems had widespread influence on many writers including
GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and polymath. Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy, humanism and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust...
and the young
Walter ScottSir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet, popular throughout Europe during his time....
, although their authenticity was widely disputed. Modern scholars have demonstrated that Macpherson based his poems on authentic Gaelic ballads, but had adapted them to contemporary sensibilities by altering the original characters and ideas and introduced a great deal of his own (see Derick Thomson's The Gaelic Sources of Macpherson's "Ossian", 1952).
Film and Literary References
Oisín is a minor character in
The Pursuit of Diarmuid and GrainneThe Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne is an Irish prose narrative surviving in many variants...
from the
Fenian cycleThe Fenian Cycle or Fiannaidheacht , also known as the Fionn Cycle, Finn Cycle, Fianna Cycle, Finnian Tales, Fian Tales, Féinne Cycle, Feinné Cycle and Ossianic Cycle, is a body of prose and verse centering on the exploits of the mythical hero Fionn mac Cumhaill and his warriors the Fianna Éireann...
of stories.
Tír na nÓg is the name given to a large white horse in the
Gabriel ByrneGabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, and writer, as well as an audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen début came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the spin-off...
film
Into the WestInto the West may refer to:* Into the West , a 1992 film* "Into the West" , an Academy Award-winning 2003 song from the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King...
. In the story, Grandfather Reilly is followed to Dublin by this white horse, and gives it to his grandsons, Ossie (Oisín) and Tito. Grandfather tells them the horse is called "Tír na nÓg" and relates a version of the story of Oisín going to
Tír na nÓgTír na nÓg is an Irish language name meaning roughly "Land of Youth". It is the most popular of the Otherworlds in Irish mythology. It is perhaps best known from the myth of Oisín, one of the few mortals who lived there, and his relationship with Niamh of the Golden Hair...
. As the family are "Travellers", or gypsies, Oisín is referred to in the grandfather's account as "the most handsome traveller who ever lived" rather than as the fenian character of legend. The horse is later confiscated by the police, but the boys steal it back, resulting in a chase across Ireland to the west coast.
In "The Fifth Generation" (a novel written for the LDS audience) the lead male character relates the story of Oisín's travels to and return from
Tir na nÓgTír na nÓg is an Irish language name meaning roughly "Land of Youth". It is the most popular of the Otherworlds in Irish mythology. It is perhaps best known from the myth of Oisín, one of the few mortals who lived there, and his relationship with Niamh of the Golden Hair...
as an allegory to human failings.
Use in genetics
Bryan SykesBryan Sykes is Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College.Sykes published the first report on retrieving DNA from ancient bone...
in his book
Blood of the Isles gives the populations associated with
Y-DNA Haplogroup R1bIn human genetics, Haplogroup R1b is the most frequently occurring Y-chromosome haplogroup in Western Europe.More specifically, R1b's frequency is highest in the populations of Atlantic Europe and, due to European emigration, in North America, South America, and Australia. In Ireland and the...
the name Oisín for a clan patriarch, much as he did for mitochondrial haplogroups in his work
The Seven Daughters of EveThe Seven Daughters of Eve is a book by Bryan Sykes that presents the theory of Human mitochondrial genetics to a general audience...
.
External links