Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures Book Talk

Natasha Sumner (Celtic Languages and Literatures) discusses her new book Heroes of the Gael: A History of Fionn and the Fianna (Princeton University Press, 2026).

Stories about Fionn mac Cumhaill (also known as Finn McCool) and his roving warrior band, the Fianna, have engaged audiences for more than a millennium. Fionn and the Fianna—Gaeldom’s defenders during a legendary third-century golden age—are the heroes of the most prolific body of narrative in the Gaelic tradition, spanning 1,400 years of oral and written transmission, from the earliest extant records to the present day. In this book, Natasha Sumner traces these stories across the centuries and throughout the Gaelic world, examining the fates of Fionn and the Fianna and investigating the persistent popularity of these tales.