Lmst

#SundayLit Prompt: Physical appearance

Flann O’Brien’s description of Fionn mac Cumhaill is the mic-drop for physical appearance depictions in literature.

#FinnMacCool #FionnMacCumhall #FlannOBrien #BrianONolan

With that he rose to a full treehigh standing, the sable catguts which held his bogcloth drawers to the hems of his jacket of pleated fustian clanging together in melodious discourse. Too great was he for standing. The neck to him was as the bole of a great oak, knotted and seized together with musclehumps and carbuncles of tangled sinew, the better for good feasting and contending with the bards. The chest to him was wider than the poles of a good chariot, coming now out, now in, and pastured from chin to navel with meadows of black manhair and meated with layers of fine manmeat the better to hide his bones and fashion the semblance of his twin bubs. The arms to him were like the necks of beasts, ballswollen with their bunchedup brawnstrings and bloodveins, the better for harping and hunting and contending with the bards. Each thigh to him was to the thickness of a horse’s belly, narrowing to a greenveined calf to the thickness of a foal. Three fifties of fosterlings could engage with handball against the wideness of his backside, which was wide enough to halt the march of warriors through a mountainpass.

...he searched hither and thither for a fortnight, till at last he found that island, which was an island indeed with the sea over it and around it and beneath it. There dwelt the red-haired ocean-nymphs in glittering palaces among the sea-flowers...

From The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland, by T. W. Rolleston, et al, Illustrated by Stephen Reid

#FairyTale #Nymphs #SeaNymphs #Fantasy #illustration #Celtic #FinnMacCool #FionnMacCumhaill #mastodaoine #StephenReid

Brian, one of the sons of Turenn, under the water, surrounded by sea nymphs.

From the fairy tale "How Fin went to the Kingdom of the Big Men." (Jacobs, 1895)

Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/More_Celtic_Fairy_Tales/How_Fin_Went_to_the_Kingdom_of_the_Big_Men

#FairyTale #Monster #Fantasy #illustration #Celtic #FinnMacCool #FionnMacCumhaill #mastodaoine

A black-and-white illustration of a monster emerging from the waters of the ocean, its great claws raised and long, sharp teeth exposed.

Ich bin allen Ernstes letztes Jahr einmal abends wieder aus dem Bett geklettert und habe nachgeschaut, ob die Rewe Bio Finn-Toasties als "nordische" oder "nordirische" Spezialität beworben werden.

Es ist "nordisch" und "Finn" meint wahrscheinlich Finnland, ich muss aber immer auch an Finn MacCool denken, den "legendary hero of old Ireland", den Flann O'Brien in "At Swim-Two-Birds" so schön auf die Schippe nahm.

#FlannOBrien #FinnMacCool #FionnMacCumhaill #Toasties

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fionn_mac_Cumhaill

Photo of a packet of "REWE Bio Finn-Toasties". At one point I couldn't remember whether they were advertised as a "nordische" (nordic) or "nordirische" (northern irish) speciality. The "Finn" makes sense both ways, if you think of Finn MacCool.

"Nearer and nearer the music came, then ceased; but Fionn, gazing steadily before him, became aware of a gigantic figure standing some distance away, like a darker blot on the starlit darkness of the night ... Then through the darkness came a shaft of flame, blown from the enchanter's mouth, and Fionn raised his shield to catch it."

Excerpt from "Heroes of the Dawn" (Russell 1914) https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Heroes_of_the_dawn/The_Enchantment_of_Tara

#mastodaoine #folklore #FionnMacCumhaill #FinnMacCool #FionnMacCool #IrishMythology

#FinnMacCool

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