ings. Lochlanners would thus be counterparts of the Fomorians, and the
conflicts of the Fians with them would reflect old myths. But with the
Norse invasions, the Norsemen became the true Lochlanners, against whom
Fionn and his men fight as Charlemagne fought Muhammadans--a sheer
impossibility. Professor Zimmer, however, supposes that the Fionn saga
took shape during the Norse occupation from the ninth century onwards.
Fionn is half Norse, half Irish, and equivalent to Caittil Find, who
commanded the apostate Irish in the ninth century, while Oisin and Oscar
are the Norse Asvin and Asgeirr. But it is difficult to understand why
one who was half a Norseman should become the chosen hero of the Celts
in the very age in which Norsemen were their bitter enemies, and why
Fionn, if of Norse origin, fights against Lochlanners, i.e. Norsemen. It
may also be inquired why the borrowing should have affected the saga
only, not the myths of the gods. No other Celtic scholar has given the
slightest support to this brilliant but audacious theory. On the other
hand, if the saga has Norse affinities, and if it is, in origin,
pre-Celtic, these may be sought in an earlier connection of Ireland with
Scandinavia in the early Bronze Age. Ireland had a flourishing
civilisation then, and exported beautiful gold ornaments to Scandinavia,
where they are still found in Bronze Age deposits.[507] This flourishing
civilisation was overwhelmed by the invasion of the Celtic barbarians.
But if the Scandinavians borrowed gold and artistic decorations from
Ireland, and if the Fionn saga or part of it was already in existence,
why should they not have borrowed some of its incidents, or why, on the
other hand, should not some episodes have found their way from the north
to Ireland? We should also consider, however, that similar incidents may
have been evolved in both countries on similar lines and quite
independently.

The various contents of the saga can only be alluded to in the briefest
manner. Fionn's birth-story belongs to the well-known "Expulsion and
Return" formula, applied to so many heroes of saga and folk-tale, but
highly elaborated in his case at the hands of the annalists. Thus his
father Cumal, uncle of Conn the Hundred Fighter, 122-157 A.D., wished to
wed Muirne, daughter of Conn's chief druid, Tadg. Tadg refused, knowing
that through this marriage he would lose his ancestral seat. Cumal
seized Muirne and married her, and the king, on Tadg's a