Painting the Fénnid

Having sorted out my Picts for the Great Raid my attention naturally turned to the Irish.  As we know it’s likely that a significant number of the Irish participating in the action were fénnid warriors. They looked very distinctive to their contemporaries.  The problem is we don’t quite know why.

The one solid visual description we have is from St Patrick who likens the marks on fénnid faces to those made with the chrism in the Christian baptism ceremony.  So, marks on the forehead then? Made with what we don’t know.  Presumably something readily available or less likely, in my opinion, a tattoo.  I'll note that woad was cultivated in Ireland as a dye. We know St Patrick saw fénnid aplenty and we can rely on the description he provides.  The marks were the culmination of the oath of the fian to the service of Bríg Ambue as part of a fénnid band.

Bartlett* suggests fénnid wore tokens in their hair each representing a kill or an intended one. There may have been a specific hair style too.  The legal or literary phrases dlaoi fulla (hair of vagrancy) and stigmata diabolica, stigmatibus/ signa malignis (Devil’s mark/ Evil sign) tell the story.  I do incline to the hair style theory.

We might consider clothing next.  The cloak colours identified in the Táin, that is Green, Dark Grey, Purple, Yellow, Grey, Striped, Multi Coloured, Red and Black could with the addition of natural colours be applied.  I was interested to note that Nerys Patterson thinks that the domestic cat (a Roman import) may have been raised in Ireland for its fur.  Wolf skins are another possibility.   

Beyond that we can turn to The Annals of the Four Masters and its magisterial legal summary:

“One colour in the clothes of slaves, two in clothes of soldiers, three in the clothes of goodly heroes, or young lords of territories; six in the clothes of ollamhs; seven in the clothes of kings and queens.

The colours mentioned in early Irish texts include white, black, blue, red, green, and yellow. No doubt these all appeared in many shades and gradations of colour.

 

Modern commentators sometimes consider the foregoing impractical.  Not so, it was deeply practical.  The legal concept of Lóg n enech (face price) was embedded in Ireland. 

Insults verbal or physical had to be paid for.  The scale of the fine was determined by the status of the injured party and the extent of the damage.  Justice was ruthlessly pursued.

Failure by the offender to make restitution led to the despatch of the aire échta (lord of slaughter). Interestingly for us he “was required to have the attributes of a fian.” and was accompanied by four warrior companions and a war dog. 

As the law intended societal sartorial colour coding let everyone know where they stood before mischief struck. 

This was especially important at tuatha or wider celebratory or legal gatherings where meeting strangers was unavoidable.  To put it plainly bad behaviour always came with a cost and it was best to know the price in advance.

If the Irish sumptuary laws applied, we might use them as a guide.  This is not without difficulty,  they may not have applied to the fénnid.  By definition to be a fian was to be outside of the law. 

I think the practical reason for this outlaw status is that in a culture that majored in kin group responsibility for legal compensation having a fian in the family would financially ruinous.  The extended family of a fian received no compensation if he were injured or slain. On the upside nor were they responsible for his predations, or the killings or injuries he caused.

Contra McCrone, I don’t believe becoming a fian was an Irish young male rite of passage.  Many, surely most, young Irishmen clearly didn’t choose to.  Nor do I think that membership was limited to the very numerous young aristocrats of Ireland.  It is more likely, in my view, any of the young free men of the clans could opt to try and do so.

All that said, let’s accept that our fénnid will wear the usual clothes for their time and place and let’s use the colours listed above. Likewise, we can safely assume the same about armament, spear, javelins, short broad sword and small shied.  In both cases they had what was readily available to them.

How then, can we distinguish our fénnid from the rest?

I’ve gone for black shields and the marks on the forehead.  The rationale for black shields follows below:

Celtic religion was chthonic.  You put your offerings into the ground or into water (did you ever toss a coin into a fountain/well for luck?). That is to say your offerings went into the dark.

It seems to me that a ritually dedicated fénnid warrior might be seen as an offering (to Bríg Ambue ) albeit perhaps a temporary one.  If so, a black shield, black being the darkest of colours, could reflect that view. 

Should you not fancy that, try blue.  Blue is associated with St Brigid and Brigid with the goddess Brigantia and Brigantia with fearsome Bríg Ambue goddess of the fénnid.

We have absolutely no evidence for either being the case but it will help on the table top. 

Let's conclude on Irish shield colours in general.  The texts mention dark red, dark purple, white, red, variegated, blue and black.  White was common enough for finnén to become another word for shield.

As so often in our period I have been unable in the end to provide definitive answers. That said I hope the journey was of interest.

*I think this was Bartlett and have a note of it but no page number.