Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

218 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Raceregions is reflected in the ethical temper of the tales.In the Ultonian Cycle it will have been noticed that howeverextravagantly the supernatural element may be employed, thefinal significance of almost every tale, the end to which all thesupernatural machinery is worked, is something real and human,something that has to do with the virtues or vices, the passionsor the duties or men and women. In the Ossianic Cycle, broadlyspeaking, this is not so. The nobler vein of literature seems tohave been exhausted, and we have now beauty for the sake ofbeauty, romance for the sake of romance, horror or mystery forthe sake of the excitement they arouse. The Ossianic tales are, attheir best,“Lovely apparitions, sent To be a moment's ornament.”[255]They lack that something, found in the noblest art as in thenoblest personalities, which has power “to warn, to comfort, andcommand.”The Coming of FinnKing Cormac mac Art was certainly a historical character,which is more, perhaps, than we can say of Conor mac Nessa.Whether there is any real personage behind the glorious figureof his great captain, Finn, it is more difficult to say. But for ourpurpose it is not necessary to go into this question. He was acreation of the Celtic mind in one land and in one stage of itsdevelopment, and our part here is to show what kind of characterthe Irish mind liked to idealise and make stories about.Finn, like most of the Irish heroes, had a partly Danaanancestry. His mother, Murna of the White Neck, was granddaughterof Nuada of the Silver Hand, who had wedded thatEthlinn, daughter of Balor the Fomorian, who bore the Sun-godLugh to Kian. Cumhal son of Trenmōr was Finn's father. He waschief of the Clan Bascna, who were contending with the Clan