How the Shannon got it's name - a retelling
Fadó, Fadó, Fadó, Fadó before the longest river on this land was born there was a well called Connla's Well where nine hazel trees stood around it's mouth dropping their fruit of hazel in. Within the well the salmon waited for nuts to fall and grew well big because of them.
Many of you might have heard of this well or if not this then many have heard of the salmon from another tale where a young Fionn MacCumhall gained his knowledge for it is the very same well from which that salmon came that we talk of.
There was a young girl from a time long before that warrior king MacCumhall who also had heard of the well and she heard that anyone who ate the salmon that swam under the hazels at Connla's well would know everything for they were 'the salmon of knowledge'.
This young girl was Sinann, daughter of Lodan Luchair-glan of the Tuatha De Danann and she was already blessed with beauty and grace and all good things but she yearned for all the knowledge of the world. She was yellow- haired and bright of face, sweet-voiced red-lipped, and every sort of fame was at her command but she wanted more.
And so she went to the Well of Connla where six streams flowed to make great rivers and soon there would be a seventh, longer and greater than the rest.
She had often heard that the waters bubbled strong and the salmon were slippery and hard to catch. She had also heard that though a man might catch the salmon, eat of the salmon and gain the knowledge and that though a man might enter the grove where this well was no woman was allowed under the peril of death but all the warnings didn't stop her yearning for the mystic art of knowledge of everything and so she went.
She went to the well and the waters bubbled high. She fished for the salmon and the waters bubbled higher, she set herself a fire on which to cook the salmon and the waters bubbled higher, she tasted the fish and the joy of knowing all and everything flashed from her fair face for a brief moment as the waters bubbled higher and while she bathed in the knowing of all things the seventh stream sprung forth from the well and rushed forth across the land to create the longest of the rivers of this land and brought her with it to the sea.
That fair river was named in her honour the Shannon so she'd never be forgotten and the beginning of the river became the Shannon Pot for at that spot she cooked her salmon on a pot over a fire before the well quenched it and her.
Some say the lesson for Sinann was that she had already so much and should be thankful but her desire for more was so great that she briefly gained the knowledge she wanted before it was taken from her and with her to the sea, others say that knowledge was always meant for Fionn MacCumhall and he alone and so it had to be taken back from her, others say that Sinann became the river and hence a goddess who distributed the salmon and so the knowledge to all in the land because it should never be kept for one man or a few men alone.
https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T106500C/index.html
https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T106500C/index.html
