The Youth & Marriage Of Father Finny

The Youth & Marriage Of Father Finny

The myth of Fionn McCool as reimagined as an Appalachian folktale equal parts horror and romance

Priest – public domain

A semi-sequel to my southern Appalachian Beowulf retelling, this is a hypothetical of a local Scots-Irish Finn McCool tradition centered on the Kentucky/Tennessee area. This technically retells three of the chapters of Lady Gregory’s Gods and Fighting Men but with a lot of liberties and a lot of my own love of southern-set pulp fiction.

There was an Irish hunter in the mountains green His mind was sharp and his aim keen Orphaned by the fire of a musket bold He found himself alone at 9 years old

Two Cherokee hunters took the child in Taught him to hunt and live free from sin The women of the mountain paths Taught him to control his wraths

So when one day as a boy of fifteen He met a kindly priest very lean He offered him meat and fish And the priest sought to grant any one wish

The boy asked for his father’s name and home And was told the tale of the saviour’s tome. The priests said that Christ like the fish of fame Could bestow knowledge and a new name Thus from study and from dedication Did the boy obtain a priest’s education Father Finny was how he’d be known hunter-preacher across the mountains to roam

He set about to find his way His rifle ready to find its prey The men who killed his parents old Hid give them the words that The Lord told

Across many a stream and valley He walked or did he dilly-dally Giving his wisdom freely or with fire He saved widows and called out The Liar

Until it was that a lady from the deep forest came She bowed her head in tiredness and shame A witch come from lands of darkness and pain Did wish her marriage hand to gain The witch had hunted her like a doe in spring For her voice which did laugh and sing

Father Finny looked into the dark and the night And saw what was wrong and what was right He took the lady to holy ground And placed wooden stakes of them around No evil will come and no evil will go Without my rifle bringing them low

Thus for seven days and seven nights They waited until came the lights Of hell and domination did they scream The fires of a man who was angry and mean

Father Finny aimed his gun and prayed One shot and the great deer was laid Across the earth a thing of hell A man a beast the one named O’dell

Upon the place of the seven holy stake Did Father Finny take a break Build a church and take a wife To live for a while a normal Christian life But the call of the mountains he did hear He heard it year after year after year

With his gun and his back and his son at his hand He disappeared into a wild godless land To seek out what evil lives in dark places And protect all creeds and all races

When evil forces are many Out of the woods comes Father Finny

If you like weird myth retellings, I also have a genderbent Llew Llaw Gryffs.