hey may
have been so few in number that their own saga or sagas died out. Or if
the Celtic occupation of the West Highlands originated first from
Ireland, the Irish may have been unable to impose their Cuchulainn saga
there, or if they themselves had already adopted the Fionn saga and
found it again in the Highlands, they would but be the more attached to
what was already localised there. This would cut the ground from the
theory that the Fionn saga was brought to Scotland from Ireland, and it
would account for its popularity in the Highlands, as well as for the
fact that many Fionn stories are attached to Highland as well as to
Irish localities, while many place-names in both countries have a Fian
origin. Finally, the theory would explain the existence of so many
_Maerchen_ about Fionn and his men, so few about Cuchulainn.

Returning to the theory of the historic aspect of the Fians, it should
be noted that, while, when seen through the eyes of the annalists, the
saga belongs to a definite historical period, when viewed by itself it
belongs to a mythic age, and though the Fians are regarded as champions
of Ireland, their foes are usually of a supernatural kind, and they
themselves move in a magic atmosphere. They are also brought into
connection with the unhistoric Tuatha De Danann; they fight with them or
for them; they have amours with or wed their women; and some of the gods
even become members of the Fian band. Diarmaid was the darling of the
gods Oengus and Manannan, and in his direst straits was assisted by the
former. In all this we are in the wonderland of myth, not the _terra
firma_ of history. There is a certain resemblance between the Cuchulainn
and Fionn sagas, but no more than that which obtains between all sagas
everywhere. Both contain similar incidents, but these are the stock
episodes of universal saga belief, fitted to the personages of
individual sagas. Hence we need not suppose with Professor Windisch that
the mythic incidents of the Fionn saga are derived from the Cuchulainn
cycle.

The personages against whom Fionn and his men fight show the mythic
nature of the saga. As champions of Leinster they fight the men of
Ulster and Connaught, but they also war against oversea invaders--the
Lochlanners. While Lochlann may mean any land beyond the sea, like the
Welsh _Llychlyn_ it probably meant "the fabulous land beneath the lakes
or the waves of the sea," or simply the abode of hostile, supernatural
be