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The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cool
The Irish and Scottish legends of Finn MacCool, drawn together in the form of a continuous narrative.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
About the author
Rosemary Sutcliff
108 books685 followersRosemary Sutcliff, CBE (1920-1992) was a British novelist, best known as a writer of highly acclaimed historical fiction. Although primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults. She once commented that she wrote "for children of all ages, from nine to ninety."
Born in West Clandon, Surrey, Sutcliff spent her early youth in Malta and other naval bases where her father was stationed as a naval officer. She contracted Still's Disease when she was very young and was confined to a wheelchair for most of her life. Due to her chronic sickness, she spent the majority of her time with her mother, a tireless storyteller, from whom she learned many of the Celtic and Saxon legends that she would later expand into works of historical fiction. Her early schooling being continually interrupted by moving house and her disabling condition, Sutcliff didn't learn to read until she was nine, and left school at fourteen to enter the Bideford Art School, which she attended for three years, graduating from the General Art Course. She then worked as a painter of miniatures.
Rosemary Sutcliff began her career as a writer in 1950 with The Chronicles of Robin Hood. She found her voice when she wrote The Eagle of the Ninth in 1954. In 1959, she won the Carnegie Medal for The Lantern Bearers and was runner-up in 1972 with Tristan and Iseult. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Her The Mark of the Horse Lord won the first Phoenix Award in 1985.
Sutcliff lived for many years in Walberton near Arundel, Sussex. In 1975 she was appointed OBE for services to Children's Literature and promoted to CBE in 1992. She wrote incessantly throughout her life, and was still writing on the morning of her death. She never married.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/rosema...
Born in West Clandon, Surrey, Sutcliff spent her early youth in Malta and other naval bases where her father was stationed as a naval officer. She contracted Still's Disease when she was very young and was confined to a wheelchair for most of her life. Due to her chronic sickness, she spent the majority of her time with her mother, a tireless storyteller, from whom she learned many of the Celtic and Saxon legends that she would later expand into works of historical fiction. Her early schooling being continually interrupted by moving house and her disabling condition, Sutcliff didn't learn to read until she was nine, and left school at fourteen to enter the Bideford Art School, which she attended for three years, graduating from the General Art Course. She then worked as a painter of miniatures.
Rosemary Sutcliff began her career as a writer in 1950 with The Chronicles of Robin Hood. She found her voice when she wrote The Eagle of the Ninth in 1954. In 1959, she won the Carnegie Medal for The Lantern Bearers and was runner-up in 1972 with Tristan and Iseult. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Her The Mark of the Horse Lord won the first Phoenix Award in 1985.
Sutcliff lived for many years in Walberton near Arundel, Sussex. In 1975 she was appointed OBE for services to Children's Literature and promoted to CBE in 1992. She wrote incessantly throughout her life, and was still writing on the morning of her death. She never married.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/rosema...
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 9, 2017
If I have to recommend one book to anyone to start on the legends of the Fianna, I usually recommend this one. Despite the fact that it was not written by an Irish author, this book was my first love of Fionn and his men, and every time I re-read it I fall in love with it even more. While there are many longer, more elaborate, and certainly more authentic sources of Fianna tales to devour (and I have, most of them), this one has a certain charm to it, mostly provided by Sutcliff's eloquent and enchanting language that carries almost like an oral recitation, rather than written literature. She treated the stories and the heroes with respect and also obvious care. There are some tales in this book that I love in her re-telling (the Grey Hound, the Horses of the Fianna, and especially the Hostel of the Quicken Trees), as they have many small details that make them great for oral storytelling.
Definitely an important addition to anyone's bookshelf, if they want to immerse themselves in Fianna stories.
Definitely an important addition to anyone's bookshelf, if they want to immerse themselves in Fianna stories.
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January 16, 2019It felt like a big gap in my Sutcliff education not to have read this one, given my love of fianaigecht material, so I finally tracked down a copy of my own. It's mostly very enjoyable, and I can imagine it being a great one to read aloud to kids because her style feels more oral than literary in places. She maintains a lot of the mood and ideas of the original, while working them into a more comprehensive narrative for modern readers.
Having said that, she does make a few strange choices, and I'm also not a huge fan of the inconsistent Anglicisation of names (Keelta for Caílte, Skolawn for Sceolan), as that threw me off in places. But on the whole it was enjoyable enough as a retelling.
Having said that, she does make a few strange choices, and I'm also not a huge fan of the inconsistent Anglicisation of names (Keelta for Caílte, Skolawn for Sceolan), as that threw me off in places. But on the whole it was enjoyable enough as a retelling.
October 25, 2009
i found these stories very interesting.written in a style that keep you reading.strong and powerful and involving.
September 23, 2018
Probably my favourite book ever!
I was a little wary at the beginning but a few pages later I was hooked. My family also loves this book, everyone should read it at least once.
I was a little wary at the beginning but a few pages later I was hooked. My family also loves this book, everyone should read it at least once.
March 14, 2023
Finn MacCool. A better man never stuck his hand into a king's hand and whatever they said about Finn, he was three times better. Sutcliff is a grand master of re-telling myths
February 28, 2018
"The stories of the Fianna are full of loose ends and contradictions, and unexplained wisps of strangeness that seem to have drifted in for no special reason except they are curious or beautiful and happened to be floating by". The difference between the Ulster and Fennian cycles in Irish mythology are pretty stark and Sutcliff understood this perfectly. Most of the adventures of Finn take place among the soft heather and dense woodland instead of the smoky halls of kings and chieftains. I may be biased because Finn is my favorite hero from Irish myth but I thought this was a nicely comprehensive introduction to the Fennian cycle. There were even a few tales that I was not so familiar with (maybe they are Scottish in origin??). And throughout, the whimsical, musical style used by Sutcliff really brought the characters to life.
March 5, 2018
One of Sutcliffe's best. Reasonable enough anglicization of the Irish names. Save for the final killjoy Christian chapter the stories seem internally consistent and believably of their own culture. Would definitely recommend for all ages as Sutcliffe's retelling is sparsely poetic. It works very well for bedtime reading.
March 16, 2015
Another cracker from Rosemary Stucliff. My childhood would have been a dull lonely place without her vivid characters.
December 30, 2018
An excellent retelling of some of the legends of Finn MacCool.
January 31, 2024
The stories of Finn and the Fianna often get overshadowed (in England) by the legends of Arthur, but the Irish saga is often far weirder and more magical. Nature itself feels enchanted in these stories, and there's a powerful sense that 'our' world is but one of many. I read Sutcliff's version of them as a girl, and they did me immense harm, in that I spent years hoping I'd meet Diarmud Ua Duibhne (whose only rival for my affections was Fritz Leiber's The Gray Mouser). I never forgotten the enchanting language Sutcliff uses and now, reading the stories at a time when I'm glad I haven't met Diarmud, I have been reveling in their poetry once again. I defy anyone with an ear for language not to fall under their spell when they read them aloud. If only those pesky Christians hadn't shown up at the end, this would be a glowing 5. As it is, it gets one for the beauty of the writing and for the brilliant tales themselves, such as Finn's catching of the Salmon of Knowledge and the desolate account of Finn's first marriage. A book to treasure.
June 1, 2020
It just doesn't make for an interesting story.
Chapter one - the birth and boyhood of finn
Chapter two - he gets admission to his father's warband by some heroic act
Chapter three - introduction to people in his warband
Chapter four - how he gets his pet dogs
I assume it continues like this.
Not the most gripping of tales. And the individual stories aren't particularly interesting in their own right.
Where's the struggle? I've liked other Rosemary Sutcliff books quite a lot, but they actually had tension and plotlines.
Chapter one - the birth and boyhood of finn
Chapter two - he gets admission to his father's warband by some heroic act
Chapter three - introduction to people in his warband
Chapter four - how he gets his pet dogs
I assume it continues like this.
Not the most gripping of tales. And the individual stories aren't particularly interesting in their own right.
Where's the struggle? I've liked other Rosemary Sutcliff books quite a lot, but they actually had tension and plotlines.
June 7, 2020
I am a fan of Rosemary Sutcliff's writing. "Finn MacCool" was a retelling of the Finn legends rather than an example of historical fiction. It was more like the "Light in the Forest" and her Arthurian books than it was like the Roman series. I enjoyed "Finn", but was not as involved as I am when I read her historical fiction.
November 19, 2023
This young adult adaptation of the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology has humor, comic relief, and plenty to discuss. Set in ancient Ireland, a world parallel to a Faerie Danaan land and filled with witches, magicians, and brave heroes who cross between, these stories explore family loyalty, the pursuit of excellence, and the cascading consequences of hubris.
January 25, 2026
Great retelling of the main Finn legends, for kids. I need to move from this Puffin to Standish O'Grady's Silva Gedelica and I am wishing there was a step in between that focussed on the original sources but that wasn't a multi-volume epic costing hundreds of dollars.
I have this exact edition.
I have this exact edition.
February 20, 2019
A really nice introduction to Irish Celtic mythology - although light on character development. I can image this being fun to read to little kids before bed. If you liked Gaiman's Norse Mythology ,you'll enjoy this one, too.
May 4, 2019
Great retelling of the old legends.Rosemary always delivered & she got the old Irish in me flowing but Finn was a prick to Dearmid O` Dyna.His kids were more noble but they had the fairy kind in them
November 25, 2019
Children's books are really going to get me through this degree it seems
March 10, 2023
The Finn stories were always my favourite of the big Irish cycles, and Rosemary Sutcliff is the perfect one to tell them. She has that bone-deep affinity for Celtic myth, its fire and bittersweetness, that flair for bringing to life the natural world that the Fianna tales are so intimately interwoven with (to say nothing of sharing Finn's love of a good dog!), that sensitivity for the numinous and Otherworldly - and, perhaps crucially, that genius for evoking the wistfulness for a vanished world. This is a beautifully written collection of tales, full of evocative detail and atmosphere. She perfectly captures the shimmering, earthy magic of the Fairy Folk, as well as the fire of battle and the hunt - "The Hostel of the Quicken Trees" is an especially exciting tale.
It's almost impossible not to compare this to Sutcliff's full-length novels, so the short story format does inevitably sometimes make it seem less developed in comparison, and the little sketches of characterisation that we get does make you wish that this was a full-length novel, to do justice to them all. But leaving this aside, this is a beautiful retelling of these timeless tales.
It's almost impossible not to compare this to Sutcliff's full-length novels, so the short story format does inevitably sometimes make it seem less developed in comparison, and the little sketches of characterisation that we get does make you wish that this was a full-length novel, to do justice to them all. But leaving this aside, this is a beautiful retelling of these timeless tales.
July 7, 2014
On a recent book hunt I discovered this small paperback hiding on one of my shelved. So I asked myself, how can this be? A Sutcliff on my shelf that I have not read and didn't even know we owned? So I remedied the situation by reading it. Almost a companion book to The Hound of Ulster it is the tale of another hero in Irish mythology, only in a slightly more idyllic setting, less brutal and more honorable than the earlier work. Enjoyable, especially for those interested in Celtic mythology, but not a deep or brilliant work.
January 25, 2026
Good history book for young girls. I loved Sutcliff's historical novels as a child and young teenager, she was one of my favourite authors. I am not going review them all individually because all her books are good. If your looking for children's historical novels, just start at the beginning of her books and read them all. This is how I learned history.
June 21, 2011
Another of the retellings Sutcliff did in her early career; I don't think I'd ever read the Finn MacCool legends, apart from Diarmuid and Grania, so this was an amusing new read for me.
January 31, 2014
a very approachable retelling of the legends of Finn and the Fianna.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews