Adventure narratives

There are three types of adventure narrative which are commonly found within the ballad tradition - encounters with enemies, strangers or animals; expeditions to foreign lands; and hunts.  These are all well represented in BDL.

The narrative elegies on Diarmaid and Fraoch (see see Elegies and death-tales) describe the heroes' encounters with animals, while those on Oscar and Conlaoch concern their deaths in the context of heroic encounters.  They are therefore 'adventure narratives', but the death of the hero is the outcome.

Four poems describe the Fian warriors' encounters with exotic strangers.  Poem VI, a version of the popular tale 'Cath Fionntrágha', tells how they repulsed a great Viking attack on Ireland at Ventry.  This is the only BDL ballad on an overtly Viking theme, though Vikings are mentioned in other poems.  In Poem XX, the Fian are assembled at Assaroe (Co. Donegal) when a large and beautiful maiden comes across the waves in her coracle, and seeks the protection of the warriors.  She identifies herself as 'nighean Ríogh Thír fa Thuinn', and indicates that she is being pursued by a warrior who wishes to marry her against her will.  The Fian give battle, and he is eventually slain by Goll after an immense struggle.  The circumstances of the plot are reminiscent of Viking ballads.  A large sea-borne stranger also figures in BDL XVII.  On arrival, he asks Fionn to pick warriors who will accompany him on an expedition overseas.  The narrative is abruptly broken by the description of a magic mist which causes confusion among the Fian, and the potentially interesting theme of the overseas expedition is not developed.  This, too, is reminiscent of the Viking ballads.  In Poem VII, an altogether more mischievous stranger is described, namely a girl with a magic cloak capable of testing the chastity of the wives of the Fian by exposing parts of their bodies in proportion to the extent of their misdemeanours.  This ballad, which is deft in its plot and articulation, is unusual in containing a somewhat misogynistic strand, and in focusing on a female visitor of this kind.

Expeditions by the Fian are featured in two ballads.  In Poem XIV, eight of the warriors go overseas, where they fight in a succession of different countries: Alba, Sagsan, an Eadáil, an Fhraing, an Spáinn, and Breatan.  Their exploits are narrated very briefly.  Poem XVI is less transparent.  The frame of the poem tells how nine men of the Fian went on a search throughout Ireland for a particular object.  In the course of the adventure, they meet unusual creatures, including Catheads and Dogheads, and they defeat them by raising their banners.  The banners are described in a series of quatrains.  The entire poem has a strange, surrealist quality, the vagueness of its plot contrasting with the vivid portrayal of the banners and their powers.  A quest throughout Ireland is also portrayed in Poem IX, which tells how Caoilte, the fast man of the Fian, caught a couple of all wild animals as a ransom to free Fionn from the clutches of Cormac mac Airt. The ballad contains an extensive catalogue of animals, with a particular interest in birds, and a very marked onomastic component.

The hunt, which one might expect to be a particularly significant theme for the Fian warriors, is portrayed in only two ballads in BDL.  One of these tells of the death of Diarmaid (see Elegies and death-tales) , while the other, Poem V, describes what is claimed to be 'the greatest hunt of the Fian' on Sliabh na mBan bhFionn (Slievenamon, in Co. Tipperary).  The plot is somewhat generalised, and lacks development.