Author Archives: Aidan Bates

THE SALMON OF KNOWLEDGE – Tale / myth

Nationality: Irish
Age: 59
Occupation: Court Investigator
Residence: San Jose
Performance Date: May 2 2021
Primary Language: English

Transcript – Informant speaking
Mother: “That was kind of one of the stories from Irish folklore. There were a lot about Finn MacCool, his dad. (reference previous story from informant) I just know one where there was supposed to be the salmon of knowledge, em and basically if you ate the salmon, you were supposed to have all the knowledge in the world. So it was claimed that Finn MacCool had managed to, had been a student of this… kind of sage, this storyteller who was very knowledgeable. And the storyteller was getting worried ’cause he’d given Finn MacCool pretty much all the information he knew. But it was supposed to be this Salmon, if you could catch the salmon and cook this salmon, whoever ate the salmon would have all the knowledge in the world. So the sage went out and managed to catch the salmon. But he asked Finn McCool to cook it for him, and, but not too eat it and not to do anything to it, just to cook it for him. And so apparently the story was that Finn MacCool, when he was cooking it, em, burned his finger and put his finger in the mouth and that was enough to give him all the knowledge of the salmon rather than the sage that he cooked the salmon for.”

Background
During a conversation between me and my parents about Irish folklore, my mother told me this story. It was directly after a different story (which has also been posted under the title of “Tír Nan Óg”) that was about Finn MacCool’s son. Finn MacCool, while a seemingly ridiculous name, holds a vast amount of importance in the culture. I barely ever hear anything about him, but my parents both grew up with many stories about him. In a way, he’s one of the biggest staples in Irish folk literature.

Context
This story was provided during a facetime with my folks. The speaker has a very thick Northern Irish accent. It should also be noted that in a
Scottish version, Finn is not living there as a pupil but just as a boy who had been forced out of his form. Link to this version below:
https://tracscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/The-Salmon-of-Knowledge.pdf

Thoughts
This tale is interesting. While it’s still tragic (like the Tír Nan Óg tale) it’s only tragic for the sage, which means for us we likely respond to it by laughing. But like in the previous story, we do see that even though this tale had a more lighthearted ending, all of the characters were still largely at the mercy of fate and luck. In truth, MacCool eating the salmon was just as much of a happy accident as his son falling off his horse was. I found that very interesting. And while this might be a bit of a stereotypical conclusion, it does seem to point to a worldview very invested in luck.

CHILDREN OF LIR – Tale

Nationality: Irish
Age: 59
Occupation: Court Investigator
Residence: San Jose
Performance Date: May 2
Primary Language: English

Transcript – Informant speaking
Mother: “And then there were the children of Lir, L-I-R, em, and that’s basically, that Swan Lake, the Russian ballet is based on the story of the children of Lir. And that’s one of these kind of evil stepmother stories where I think there were four children and their mother died. The father remarried. I think it was supposed to be his wife, the mother’s sister, who had magical powers, and she was very jealous of the love between the father and the children. Em, so she turned them into Swans, em and they lived for hundreds of years, but… they were able to tell – even though they were Swans, they were still able to sing, and they were able to tell their father in song what had happened to them. So that didn’t do much for the relationship between the father and the stepmother. So they lived apparently for 300 years or something like that. So that’s kind of all I know about that one.”

Background
During a conversation between me and my parents about Irish folklore, my mother told me this story. This is a story that is part of their culture, however, i’m guessing by the way that my mom’s telling it that she likely heard it more from authored literature, or from a childrens book, than from actual folk talk. I also didn’t feel a very strong attachment to this piece in particular from either of them.

Context
My mom has a very thick northern irish accent which is palpable while speaking. Also, while I would love to give context on the Russian Ballet story, I… literally don’t remember anything about it.

Thoughts
What’s interesting is how familiar it feels to stuff like Hansel and Gretel, as well as other grim stories. But unlike the others, there does seem to be some tragic positivity. While the children don’t stop being swans, they live long and gain beautiful voices. Moreover, everything is set right in the end when the witch gets her comeuppance.

FIN MACCOOL THROWS ROCKS AT A GIANT – Myth

Nationality: Irish
Age: 63
Occupation: Biomedical Research
Residence: San Jose
Performance Date: May 2
Primary Language: English

Transcript – Informant speaking
Father: “Back to Finn MacCool, you remember visiting the Giant’s Causeway? So, so apparently, Finn McCool had a big argument with another giant in Scotland, called Benandonner, and they start hurling rocks at each other and that’s how the Giants Causeway was supposed to be formed and also the Isle of Man, which is an island in the middle of the Irish Sea between Scotland and Northern Ireland.”
Mother: “And wasn’t that where one of the Loughs came from them, was them pulling up the earth created Lough Neagh?-”
Father: “-Created Lough Neagh, yes.”

Background
One of the few Irish myths I was able to collect. This was during a conversation between me and my parents, who are both irish. Hence their collection to the folklore. However, I didn’t feel as though they were too attached to the lore, even though they found it engaging. As for where they heard it, I wouldn’t be surprised if my dad was just remembering the stuff he’d heard on the tour.

Context
My dad has a very thick Irish accent, which should be noted. Also, the opening line on “Back to Finn MacCool” was in response to two other stories they had told about this figure. My mom had taken a break to talk about the Children of Lir, but my dad wanted to go back. What’s interesting is how this story was told in the context of the memory of a trip we took. We once visited the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, which is what prompted my dad to start telling this story.

Thoughts
What’s interesting is how this story was told in the context of the memory of a trip we took. We once visited the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, which is what prompted my dad to start telling this story. Myths are usually very formative, and I feel like very few people ever bring them up in normal conversation. Even in conversations about folklore. In this case, it took a former location to prompt the story. This was mainly because the myth itself explained that place’s existence.

LEPRECHAUNS – Legend

Nationality: Irish
Age: 63
Occupation: Biomedical Research
Residence: San Jose
Performance Date: May 2 2021
Primary Language: English

Transcript – Informant speaking
Father: “Well, of course there’s the leprechauns, and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Let’s go for an obvious one. Let’s go for low hanging fruit.”
Mother: “They were supposed to be tricky little Devils, so they were. But it was, if you could manage to capture one, I think you were ent- you were supposed to be able to get 3 wishes. But you had to be very careful about how you phrased it, because it could come back to bite you, you know?”
Father: “Just like Aladdin, right?”

Background
As you can likely tell, this story was told almost as a joke. It was during a conversation between me and my parents on Irish folklore. Both of them grew up in Northern Ireland, hence their connection. For the most part, they weren’t too attached to the tale. They mostly just found it funny, and were both giving off what they’d heard about these creatures. Neither of them believe in their existence.

Context
It should be noted that both my parents have thick irish accents. It should also be noted that I’ve been to Ireland with both of them before, many times. Not once have I heard anyone actually mention leaprocons there. They seem to be this strange idea that the majority of the rest of the world places far more value in than the culture itself. In this sense, they’re more of a joke to most Irish people, including my parents.

Thoughts
It was really funny to actually hear my dad talk about leprechauns though. But what I find interesting on the description of these creatures is their tragically comic element (giving people their literal wish) gives off the same humor and vibe as a lot of the legends on Finn MacCool and Tír Nan Óg. It feels playful, but with a real tragic element to it.

ST. PATRICK – Myth / Legend

Nationality: Irish
Age: 63
Occupation: Biomedical Research
Residence: San Jose
Performance Date: May 2
Primary Language: English

Transcript – Informant speaking
Mother: “It was supposed to be that he, Saint Patrick’s the reason that there’s no snakes in Ireland, that he banished all the snakes from Ireland… There’s a lot of kind of, of the Irish stories that kind of have a mixture of kind of the old paganism and then the Christianity thing coming in.”
Me: “So is there anything like how he did it?”
Mother: “No, I’ve never. I never, ever (laughs) I never figured out how he was supposed to have done it, but basic- you might want to google that and see if you can get more information on that. But that was always what we heard, and right enough, I’ve never seen a snake in Ireland.”
Father: “Well… I actually read somewhere that there were never any snakes in Ireland. Because-”
Mother: “(laughs) which is probably the case-”
Father “-because its an island and they never got there.”

Background
This quote was given to me by my parents in a conversation about Irish folklore. They’re from Northern Ireland, hence the connection. And St. Patrick being a big irish figure, they obviously have a big connection to him, as he was brought up frequently in schooling and in church. But it should also be noted that (due to a lot of the trauma going on in Northern Ireland while growing up) my parents both hold a very shaky relationship with the religion they were brought up on.

Context
Obviously St. Patricks Day is a big thing in America, but not so much in Ireland. That being said, if you’re christian (which most of everyone in Northern Ireland is) then you’ve probably heard of St. Patrick. He was a big influence on the adoption of Christianity on the island. And… he’s also said to have banished the snakes from Ireland (snakes in christianity are associated with the devil, so this holds a lot of weight). However, as seen by my dad (who isn’t religious at all) this is also said to be a known fabrication. So while it can kind of be construed as a creation story for Ireland, it’s also heavily questioned. And either way, you get the sense that a lot of this knowledge here has been imposed by the religion.

Thoughts
The idea that Ireland needed to be fixed by a christian is something that I find interesting (and a little bit troubling). More so, the idea of a myth (a sacred story of creation for Ireland) to explain a situation that was likely a constant for Ireland, is something very unusual. More-so, it illustrates the clear transformation of Ireland from a Celtic to a Christian society, and the fact that the myth is upheld primarily by the Irish says it all.