The Scottish Celtic review

116 The Mioileartach.that word. Of the reciters, some believed it to record areal, some a possible event—thus agreeing with Mr. Campbell,who says {West Highland Tales, iii., 144), "I suspect thepoem was composed in remembrance of some real invasionof Ireland by the sea-rovers of Lochlann, in which they gotthe worst of the fight, and that it has been preservedtraditionally in the Hebrides ever since." The Muileartach(Western Sea), here personified, is appropriately represented in thetale as the nurse or foster-mother of Manus, King of Lochlin, whofalls to be identified with Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway.That potentate is said in history to have made, towards the endof the eleventh century, extensive conquests along the north andwest coasts of Scotland, and also in Ireland. He was killed nearDublin, in 1103. The epithets applied to the Muileartach leaveno doubt as to the personification. The sea-rover is her fosterchild.She is ill-streaming (ml-shruth), abounding in seas {muircach),bald-red (maol-ruadh), white-maned {niiiing-fhionn). Shehas long streaming hair, and is finally subdued by being let downinto the ground to the waist, the mode in which water is bestsubdued. She is also represented as terrific (uamhannach), ashaving a roaring wide-open mouth (bha gair 'n a craos), &c.Anyone, who has seen the sea in a storm, will understand the appropriatenessof the description. It is also to be observed that,uniformly in popular lore, she is slain by Fin-Mac-Coul himself,and not by the band of men of whom he was leader. Fin wasnot the strongest of the Fe'inne or Fian-band, but the solver ofquestions (fear-fiuisgladh ceisd) and advisei-. The blades of theFians passed as harmlessly through the body of the Muileartachas a knife through flame. Fin, who represents brain, intellect,subdued her by letting her down into the ground. Manus, whowas acquainted with northern seas, imagines, as the only way inwhich .she could be killed, (1) her being swallowed by a hole inthe ground, or (2) her being frozen over.It is said that this was the first day on which the Fian fair-play(cothrom na Fe'inne) was broken. Previously, it was a law of theband to oppose only one to one ; but this day, Fin told them toattack the Muileartach before and behind (air a cidthaohh 's aira heulthaohh).Another tale of popular lore relating to the Fian-Band, in whichpersonification is unquestionably at work, is that of Ciuthach macan Doill, whose name is but a slight alteration from Ceathach,