Читать книгу Literature of the Gaelic Landscape онлайн

40 страница из 54

Place-names associated with Fian lore can still be found all over the Highlands, attached to different landscape features. Sgòrr nam Fiannaidh - Peak of the Fianna (NN141583) lies at the western end of the An t-Aonach Eagach ridge in Glen Coe. Bealach nam Fiann - Pass of the Fianna (NC272382) is near Kylesku. Leac na[m] Fionn - Slab of the Fianna (NG454704) can be seen to the north of the Quiraing on the Trotternish peninsula in Skye. Associating Fionn and the Fianna with large landscape features emphasised their gigantic and superhuman status.

Plate 10: Leac na[m] Fionn – Slab of the Fianna, Trotternish, Isle of Skye. The flat-topped slab is just to the right of centre.

Fionn’s stature was of such a measure, that near Ardtalnaig on Loch Tayside he could stand with one foot on Cìoch na Maighdinn (mapped as Cìoch na Maighdean) - the Maiden’s Breast (NN736364) and his other on Ciste Buille a’ Chlaidheimh - Chest of the Sword Blow (NN729352), and wash his hands in Lochan nan Làmh – Little Loch of the Hands, possibly above Glen Lednock, and then turn around to drink from Loch Tay - Loch Tatha. Lochan nan Làmh cannot be traced with certainty on the maps, but from this description it could well be an unnamed water at NN741308, which is roughly equidistant with Loch Tay, from Fionn’s standpoint astride Gleann a’ Chilleine – The Glen of Concealment, to the southeast.