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New Day Cafe: Before St. Pat, There Was Finn MacCool [1]
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Date: 2023-03-17
Your soundtrack for today:
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In pre-Christian Ireland, there was a hero known as Finn MacCool (Fionn Mac Cumhaill), son of Cumhal. A liminal figure, Finn is more mercurial than the better-known hero Cú Chulainn. (For more on Cú Chulainn, Google “The Cattle Raid of Cooley.”)
Finn was born a hero. His father, leader of the Fianna, has been killed in battle before his birth, and the infant Finn is being spirited away from home for his safety when his nurse accidentally drops him in the river they are crossing. Undaunted, the baby surfaces, clutching a salmon — an early indication of the skilled hunter he would become: killing a wild boar when he was only about age 11, for example.
And of the mystic aura which would surround him.
In addition to becoming a warrior and the leader of his father’s warriors the Fianna, Finn was also apprenticed as a poet. His blind master, who has been trying to catch the Salmon of Wisdom, eventually succeeds. But as Finn is cooking that for him, a bubble develops on the salmon’s skin, and without thinking Finn pops the bubble with his thumb, then licks (or puts his thumb against a tooth — I’ve seen both versions) and in doing so, Finn gains the salmon’s wisdom. All he has to do in the future is put his thumb to his mouth (tooth?) to tap that fount.
His master is furious, of course.
After that, Finn has to leave. But thanks to that salmon, he’s now a seer, as well as a poet — and he’s ready to take his place as a warrior and the leader of the Fianna.
I only read “The Boyhood Deeds of Finn” but there’s much, much more you can find through Teh Google.
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Who’s your favorite Irish hero?
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So c’mon in the cafe and grab a cuppa...
x Drinking an Irish coffee in Ireland 🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/I604DGUrO4 — yo grandpa’s favorite (@__PoeticK) February 26, 2023
..and a nice nosh...
x Swing by the shop and try out our new, homemade 'Irish Soda Bread' pastries! pic.twitter.com/KyaNYwdtKy — Aurora Coffee Co. (@auroracoffeeco) March 8, 2017
..and join us!
New Day Cafe is an open thread. What do you want to talk about today?
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/17/2151113/-New-Day-Cafe-Before-St-Pat-There-Was-Finn-MacCool
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