WEBVTT - From the Vault: Finn McCool, Part 1 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:07.800 Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:11.080 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and today 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:13.640 we've got a vault episode for you. This one originally 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.639 published March fifteenth, twenty twenty two. It's part one of 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.560 our series on Finn McCool. But hey, we should be 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.759 back with all new content for you starting tomorrow, but 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:29.800 for today, let's get right into the Finn McCool. Soaca, 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:39.960 welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:42.080 welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.360 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it is the 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:47.680 week of Saint Patrick's Day. So I thought it would 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.880 be fun to turn our attention to Irish mythology once more. 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.040 And in this case we're going to be considering the 0:00:55.160 --> 0:01:00.760 mythic hero Finn McCool, noted warrior, wonder worker. We're going 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:02.800 to get into all of that. But I guess what 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.840 I was especially interested in, what kind of pulled me 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:10.880 in initially, was his thumb, the thumb of knowledge, upon 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.000 which he was said to suck, or to at least 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.520 to place the thumb inside of his mouth in order 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:21.520 to receive great insight or perhaps even see into the future. Yeah, Rob, 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.840 I was going to ask, so this topic was your idea, 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:27.000 and I was wondering, did you come to it thumb 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:29.600 first or hero first? Was it like, you're reading about 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.280 Finn McCool and all the legends and then you come 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.040 across this thumb story and you're like, let's talk about that, 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.840 or were you reading about legends of thumbs I was 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:42.120 reading about. I was actually reading about some other mythological 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.360 figures and then I was like, oh, what am I doing. 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.920 It's Saint Patrick's day. Irish mythology is so rich. There's 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:50.200 got to be something we haven't talked about on the 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.560 show before. And then I started reading about Finn McCool, 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:55.920 and when I read about the thumb, which I somehow 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.320 either they had never read about before or forgotten about, 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.960 was instantly in now. Finn itself is a common Irish 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:08.440 hero name for characters of all genders related to finn 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.640 or meaning white or fair. I've read, but refers to 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.320 wisdom rather than skin tone, according to the Encyclopedia of 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.520 Celtic Mythology and Folklore by Patricia Monaghan. Yeah, I was 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:25.280 reading that Finn is a variant of the Irish name Fun, 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:28.640 spelled like f io n or f io n, which 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.160 means white or fair, but usually I think referring to 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.040 hair color. And there are some legends of Finn McCool 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:36.440 that say he had white hair from an early age, 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:40.240 possibly due to some kind of magical rapid aging and 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.200 d aging procedure. Huh, all right, well, I mean it 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.960 would make sense like the association between like white hair 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.360 and age, and age and wisdom, and therefore as someone 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:54.280 had prematurely white hair, there could perhaps be some air 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.200 of oh, they have the wisdom of an older man 0:02:57.840 --> 0:02:59.640 or an older woman, despite the fact that they are 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.919 otherwise quite young. And speaking of the variant of the 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:06.440 name Finn versus Fion, I think it's worth saying at 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:09.480 the beginning that there are two different ways of spelling 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.239 the name that are essentially the same character, or slight 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:17.360 variations on the same character. One is commonly spelled in 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.919 the anglicized version, just like we're saying at Finn McCool, 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.560 but the other one is spelled more like fion. And 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:26.440 then the last name is mac cu m h a 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.799 i l or h a i l l, which from 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:32.480 what I understand. I know pronunciation a lot of these 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:36.360 of a lot of these Irish words is notoriously tricky 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:39.240 for English speakers like us. But I think that is 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:44.080 also pronounced pretty much just McCool. So Finn McCool. Great name, 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.040 by the way, it's one of these names that, especially today, 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:51.400 with connotations of cool and coolness. It's instantly interesting as 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.880 the hero's name, but if you're not familiar with them. 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:58.320 He stands alongside Cucullen as one of the two great 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:02.400 heroes of Irish mythology. He's a much later hero than 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.520 Colin Uh, and like any hero of myth there are 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.400 varying tales about him. It is interesting that both characters 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:14.000 are known for entering altered states of consciousness. Finn for 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.200 his prescient thumb state where he can you know his 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.160 well discuss can can place his thumb inside of his 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:24.160 mouth and uh and with with the you know some 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:28.200 other like chanting effects uh stare into the future, or 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.640 at least gain some sort of supernatural wisdom. And Cocolin, 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:33.799 as we discussed in our past episode on co Colin 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.520 was able to enter the warp spasm in battle where 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:40.640 he's in this altered state of of of a barbarian rage. 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:44.720 He sort of transforms into a semi monster. Yeah, kind 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.880 of like a hulk mode. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, Finn McCool, 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.800 you know what's the origin story? Right, Every good hero 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.040 has an origin story. Well, we're told that his father 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:57.000 died when he was very young, either due to a 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.760 crime of his own doing or some conflict with a 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.400 val clan. There are different variations on that. Either way, 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:07.159 he ends up being raised by his mother and Monican 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.760 in the book that I referenced earlier, stresses the importance 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.360 of female energy in his raising, especially as his mother 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:20.040 mRNA claimed divine descent from Nuada of the Silver Hand, 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.799 the first king of the Tuatha Dudan and the Tuapha 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:28.760 Dudan and were the sort of fairy folk godlike beings 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.000 of Irish mythology, and I would say often having a 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.159 rather ambiguous character and relationship to humanity. They're not like 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.760 consistently either enemies or helpers. They can kind of be 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:42.920 either one. Yeah. You see a lot of their spirit 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:46.599 reflected in some of the modern ideas of elves in 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.120 fantasy settings. You know, they're they're superior to humans, but 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.240 they are of the previous age, there may be not 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:55.960 as invested in this world as they once were. That 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.919 sort of thing. Yeah, and according to some legends, like 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:02.440 they're they're strength in this world is waning. Like I know, 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:07.559 there's one story that involves Finn McCool and his band 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.000 of warriors, the Defenders of Ireland, who we'll talk about 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.839 more as we get on, but they in one story, 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.400 they end up going on a journey across the sea 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:18.880 to an island where they have been I think, sort 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.039 of lured by members of the Two author to dunn 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:25.600 And to come join them and sort of re energize 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.239 them or provide a supplemental strength to the waning strength 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:31.920 of these beings from a past age. By the way, 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:35.840 if you've seen the movie Hellboy Too, I believe the 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.800 antagonist in that film are supposed to be the Two 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.480 author to Dana, and I believe in fact that we're 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:46.680 supposed to see Nuada as the as the primary antagonist there. 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.920 That's the one that Hellboy has a big fight with. Anyway, 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.480 So Finn McCool, he's raised by his aunt and his 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:58.080 foster mother, the druid Bode Mall, and he's trained in 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:02.880 combat by the warrior woman Luthus Lurgan, and he accidentally 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.120 kills her in combat, and then the incident with the 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:08.760 salmon of Knowledge occurs around this time. We're going to 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:12.200 come back to that because it's it's it's it's quite 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:16.040 a tale. And also shortly after this he ends up 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.720 actually taking the name Finn after he defeats his first 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.560 enemy in combat, but then he goes on to study 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:27.040 his craft further under the warrior woman Buanan as well 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:32.640 as the male warrior Sethn mac fountain. Basically, he com 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.880 completes his Jedi training, he becomes this near perfect warrior 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.960 who also has this ability to tap into hidden wisdom 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.520 or see into the future, and then he assembles this 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:46.280 band of warriors to defend his province of Leinster, still 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.920 called that today in the southeast and east of Ireland, 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:51.320 and from the here on out. The story, you know, 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.760 includes various exploits and adventures, and we'll touch on some 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.280 of these, but he also engages in a number of 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:02.040 romantic conquests. They don't always go so well. His death 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:05.840 is told in various stories, and depending on where you're 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.440 hearing them or reading them, his death is said to 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.679 have taken place at different points at different places spread 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:15.200 across Ireland in Scotland. And there's also this idea that 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.679 he may have been reborn as the hero Mongan. Still, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:20.640 other tales say that he did not die at all, 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.480 but that he and his fianna wait in a cave 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.560 to one day rise up and defend Ireland once more, 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.800 you know, very much in keeping with the tales of 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.920 King Arthur, how one day King Arthur will return and 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.280 rise up and protect England. Yeah, when I was reading 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.640 these stories of Finn McCool, I kept noticing other parallels 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.040 to King Arthur, because so not only is there this 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.959 idea that he's you know, resting somewhere maybe one day 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:52.200 to be called up to defend his nation again, but 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:56.439 there is also a similarity to the Lancelot and Guinevere 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:00.120 story in that there's a story where Finn McCool his 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:04.240 wife falls in love with one of his greatest warriors, 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.240 a man named Diarmid, who obviously it reminds me a 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.880 lot of Lancelot and Guinevere, and they ultimately come to 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:14.520 I think, not battle each other, but I believe the 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.559 legend goes that Darmid has to go fight a bore 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:22.720 and then the boar gravely wounds him, and that Finn 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:26.160 McCool could save him by offering up water from his 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.040 hands that would be healing because of his magic powers, 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.680 but he essentially denies that healing power to his rival 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:34.800 and he dies. Yeah, they's ry. One of the side 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.280 effects I guess of acquiring the Thumb of Knowledge is 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:41.559 that is that we're told that Finn McCool can can 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.800 form his hands into a cup collect water and that 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:48.200 water will have healing properties. Pretty great. Is even just 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.319 a second tier superpower if you asked me, well, it 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.800 feels like one of those pylon powers you know, where 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:56.400 you know, I really like a folk hero who has 0:09:56.480 --> 0:10:00.200 one power and it's a pretty specific power. But but 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.760 I don't know. The legendary heroes just tend to accumulate 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.360 more and more powers over the you know, in the telling, 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.160 over the years. At least it seems that way. Yeah, 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.400 in the same way that sometimes you'll have a mad 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:17.280 scientist in a fictional tale where they seem to have 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.800 too many interests, too many technologies at their disposal, Like 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:23.040 you know, are you a time traveler or are you 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:25.960 a power armor guy? Are you are you building robots 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.000 or do you have an invisibility belt, like you need 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:30.960 to like really focus in on one and exploit that 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:33.560 because otherwise we really don't know what we're dealing with. 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.800 Seem to see, I just make giant scorpions. That's it. 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.079 There you go. It behooves you to specialize in the 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.600 realm of mad science or or or being a mythological hero. 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.720 That's right, you know those giant scorpions or quality. It 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:56.080 takes focus to make them. All right, Well, let's get 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:58.760 into the exploits of Finn McCool here, and we're going 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:02.079 to start with a with a big one one. That is, 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:04.680 if you're familiar with Finn McCool and you're otherwise not 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.960 that familiar with Irish mythology, you probably know this one. Yes, 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.480 though it's weird because I think this might be one 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.080 of the best known Finn McCool stories. But I think 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.640 it's also sort of an outlier in that it portrays 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.760 Finn McCool with different properties than he usually has. And 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:24.760 I think these legends probably also come later than a 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.839 lot of the other legends. But anyway, this one we're 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:31.959 going to talk about is a piece of geo mythology 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.880 a story created to explain geological features of the Earth. Now, 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.760 a lot of the geomiths we've looked at in previous 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:43.280 episodes explain big masses of rock or bodies of water 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.319 as some part of the body of a god, whether 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:48.840 living or dead. But this story is one of the 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:53.480 other common types, which is explaining natural formations as architecture 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.920 that was built by the demigods of old. And the 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:01.319 feature explained in this story is known as the Giants Causeway. 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:03.880 So to start with the plain observation of nature, there 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.079 is a stretch of coast along the north of Northern 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:11.160 Ireland in County Antrim that is covered with tens of 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:16.560 thousands of hexagonal columns of basalt. Now this is not 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:18.400 the only place in the world that has columns of 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:21.000 this type. You might have seen them at Devil's Tower 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.240 in Wyoming or other places around the world. I know 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.720 there's some in the Northwest in the United States, like 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:32.160 in Washington State, but you can find these in various places. 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:35.680 They're usually made of basalt, but sometimes other volcanic rocks 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.480 will take this form. And if you haven't ever seen 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:43.839 these things known as columnar basalt, you should look them 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:47.200 up because They're absolutely beautiful, and they're one of those 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.440 natural formations that just doesn't look natural at all. I 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.439 think many people who look at columnar basalt, they consult 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.920 their intuitions and they immediately come to think this is artificial. 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:02.840 Somebody built this, somebody carved these rocks. And it might 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.839 be an interesting question to ask why our intuitions work 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:08.640 this way while you look at these columns of rock 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:12.320 that mostly take the form of a hexagon and think 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.360 that this has got to be made by a person 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:17.120 or by a god instead of by nature. I guess 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:21.520 it looks so strange because we tend to assume that clean, 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.680 regular lines and angles like the kind we see in 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.880 polygons like like a hexagon, are just not to be 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:31.160 found in nature. Nature should have, i don't know more 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:35.600 more irregular, fractal kind of edges. Yeah. I think that's 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:39.720 a huge part of it, along with the rough uniformity 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.240 of everything. Like, it's not just oh, here's an interesting 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.960 rock that has these these properties. No, look at all 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.000 of them. It looks like there was some sort of 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:54.400 industrial scale, you know, alien brickmaking project here, right. They 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:58.239 look like they were extruded out of a machine. Yeah, 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.360 but anyway, there's been this stretch of the coast along 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:06.120 northern Ireland that has had these columns there for millions 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:10.240 of years, and over the centuries there arose some folk 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:15.000 tales in order to explain the origins of these columns. Yeah, 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:20.160 so the Giant's causeway again, this is the the Irish 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:25.880 side in question. It's composed of roughly forty thousand interlocking columns, 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.200 and again this is due to a volcanic fissure eruption. 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.600 No no alien brickmaking involved here. This all went down 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.880 roughly fifty to sixty million years ago. That's what we 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:41.880 know now. But according to Irish mythology, however, it was 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.680 built by Finn McCool and not just any Finn mcool, 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:48.000 not the regular sort of a superhero Finn McCool. This 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:52.200 is a giant Finn McCool. Yes, when you read accounts 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.720 of this, generally he's described as a giant, despite the 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.360 fact that he's not really described as a giant in 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.800 any other telling. Finn mccool's generally you as a you know, 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.600 a human hero or a hero with human proportions. It's 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.920 only in this case where he's he's gigantic. Now, one 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.440 thing I did read was that there's there's some thinking 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:16.240 that this formation may have originally been associated with other 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:20.880 mythological creators. There may have been different geomethology and play. 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:24.160 It might have been attributed to the monstrous Fomorians, which 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:27.040 were this these you know, giant race that were said 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:30.640 to be you know, previous occupiers of the territory who 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:35.360 were cast out at one point or another. So you know, 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.480 it could have been later on where someone's like, well, 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:41.720 the Fomorians are all right, but but Finn McCool is awesome. Uh, 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.240 let's let's adjust the story somewhat and Finn McCool becomes 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:49.360 the creator of the Giant's causeway. The basic idea with 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.360 Finn McCool and these formations as is that, okay, we 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.880 have these formations in Ireland, and then we also have 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:59.920 a very similar formations found at Fingal's Cave on the 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:04.720 Isle of Staffa in Scotland. And the idea here is 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.240 that well, on both sides here we must have the 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:12.080 remnants of a mythological bridge between these two lands. And 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:14.560 so the idea is that Finn is said to have 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.480 built the bridge as a means of reaching the other 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:21.960 side and battling a rival giant. Yes, and this is 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.480 the tale of the Giant's causeway. So there appeared to 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:27.680 be a lot of versions of this story. From what 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.240 I can tell, this is a folk tale that emerges 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:34.440 from oral tellings without a canonical original text, so I 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.480 think it's pointless to try to quest after the original here. 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:39.040 I'm just going to tell it as a kind of 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.680 synthesis of the multiple versions I have read. I have 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.680 no idea which form of this story is oldest or 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.520 could claim to be closest to the original, but here 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.040 it goes in my synthesized form. Once upon a time 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.160 there was a giant named Finn McCool who lived in 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:59.240 Ireland with his wife Una. And Finn McCool was brave 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.840 and strong, but he was also hot tempered and rash, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.600 and far across the water in Scotland there was another giant. 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:10.159 This was a nasty brute named Ben and Donner, or 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.920 the Red Man, and Ben and Donner used to harass 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:18.320 Finn McCool and his neighbors, shouting vicious slander and hair 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.160 raising taunts across the water at them. You can imagine 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:24.760 the kind of the French taunter from monty Python and 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:29.160 the Holy Grail. Just brutal, brutal put downs. Your mother 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:31.919 was a hamster, all that kind of stuff. And Finn 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:36.159 became so furious at the other giant that he uprooted 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.680 an enormous boulder and hurled it at the Scottish ogre. 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.879 But he missed, and the boulder landed in the sea, 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:46.399 and this boulder became the Isle of Man. And so 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:50.960 Finn sat around stewing, thinking, I must destroy this fool, 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.080 But I don't want to get my feet wet by 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.280 swimming over there, So how can I reach him? And 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.959 then he came up with an idea. He would build 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.920 a bridge out of stone. So between the Irish shore 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.040 and the rocky coast of Scotland he put together a 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.040 stone causeway that would allow him to walk all the 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:13.119 way across. And this causeway was the origin of the 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.600 basalt pillars that we can still see today. But of 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.520 course the pillars don't go all the way across anymore. 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:24.040 So what happened there? Well, having completed his causeway, Finn, 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.040 you know, he gets his blood up and he decides 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:29.159 to run across the sea to the other side and 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.239 give Ben and Donner a good walloping to shut him up. 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.800 But unfortunately, as brave and strong as Finn McCool was, 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:40.000 once he got a look at the Scottish giant up close, 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:44.800 his blood ran cold because Ben and Donner was a monster, 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.600 a beast even bigger and stronger than Finn himself. And 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.480 Finn knew that he would not win a fair fight 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:58.560 with Ben and Donner, so bravely ran away away. When 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.560 danger reared its ugly head, he turned his yellowtail and fled, 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.760 and so he ran back home to hide. But unfortunately, 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.159 now that he had built a causeway, it could be 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.880 crossed in both directions, so Ben and Donner soon came 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:16.240 over the bridge to Ireland looking for Finn. Finn did 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.440 not know what to do, but fortunately his wife Una 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:23.360 was diabolically clever, much cleverer than her husband, and she 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:26.280 came up with a plan. And it goes like this. 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:30.320 Una dressed Finn up as a baby and made him 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:35.760 lay down inside a giant cradle. You with me? So far? Yeah? 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.640 So soon Ben and Donner came knocking at their door 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:41.440 and he said, open the door, Finn McCool, come out 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.359 and fight me and I'll give you a beating. You'll 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:47.800 never forget. Instead, Una opened the door and she welcomed 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.800 Ben and Donna inside and showed him hospitality. She said, 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:53.520 my husband is not home right now, but he'll be 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.040 glad to fight you when he gets back. In the meantime, 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:58.720 please sit down and help yourself to some bread. I 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.560 baked it just the way my husband likes it. So 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:03.920 Ben and Donner broke off a piece of the loaf 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:06.760 and bit into it, but immediately he spat it out, 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:11.000 and he shouted, this bread cracks my teeth. Because secretly 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:15.439 Una had baked bars of iron into the dough. And 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:19.200 so she feigned, you know, she feigned ignorance and said, 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:21.560 I'm sorry. I didn't think it would trouble such a 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.119 strong man as yourself. My husband loves that recipe. Even 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:29.280 our baby eats it that way. And this directed Ben 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:32.520 and Donner's attention to the baby, which was again Finn 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:36.320 himself in disguise as a baby in a crib. And 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:38.439 so when Ben and Donner went over and got a 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:40.479 look at the child, he said to himself, if the 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.000 baby is already an iron eating giant as he lies 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.919 in his crib, his father must be the size of 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:50.680 a mountain. I cannot beat this guy. So here at 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:53.960 this moment, Ben and Donner is seized with fears. He 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.240 is fully bought into Unna's trickery, and Ben and Donna 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:00.359 runs away, and as he flees, he destroyed is the 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.040 bridge of stone that Finn had built so that his 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:06.160 enemy can never come and find him. And all that's 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:08.320 left is the part of the bridge on the Irish 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:10.640 shore and the part on the Scottish side. Again that's 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:13.320 near the place called Fingal's Cave. And this is one 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:16.520 of my favorite showdown stories of all time. Now, defeating 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:19.479 your enemy by dressing as a baby, it is so good. 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:21.480 I love it. Yeah, you think you're going to get 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:24.480 just this giant battle throw down and instead you get 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:31.080 this comedic game of deception. I love it. Now. There 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:33.679 is another version that actually has a fight, though it 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:35.920 involves a lot of the same elements. So this other 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:39.480 version I was reading about. I was reading about it 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:41.840 in a book that I know you're going to reference later, 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:45.840 the one by James McKillop called Fian McCool Celtic Myth 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.399 in English Literature, published by Syracuse University Press in nineteen 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:54.639 eighty five, and McKillop draws attention to a version of 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:58.760 the story told in William Carlton's The Legend of Knockmany, 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:02.240 And this is from the Midnight eighteenth century, and the 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:06.480 variations in Carlton's version are that the other giant is 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:11.359 not named Ben and Donner, but is named ku Cullen. Interesting, 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:14.920 you know, that's the name of another Irish folk hero 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:18.400 that originally had nothing to do with this story. So 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:20.280 I don't know what's going on there. Maybe it's just 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:24.120 sort of blending together of strong man in folk stories, 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:26.760 or just realizing we've got to have these two characters 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.960 fight each other. This is like the Batman Superman of 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:32.359 the day. Well, so many elements of the story are 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:34.480 the same as the version I just told, but some 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:37.680 things are different. This version includes a detail that when 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:41.040 Finn returns home to Una, he says he's afraid that 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:43.320 he will be skivered like a rabbit if he has 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:47.919 to fight Kucullen. But Una knows that Kucullen's power is 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:51.600 contained in the middle finger of his right hand. He 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:54.560 has a magic middle finger, and she knows if you 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:58.800 can compromise the finger, you sap his beastly magic, and 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:01.400 he who loses strength, he won't be able to fight. 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:04.040 So it's kind of like I don't know Samson's hair 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:06.439 or something, except this is the middle finger of his 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:10.040 right hand. So like in the version I told, Cucullen 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:14.040 comes over and Una feeds him bread with metal or 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:17.040