| Ferither Our was an inhabitant of Medieval Scotland. Join: Scotland Project Discuss: Scotland |
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No information from reliable sources have been found for Ferither Our.
Notes are provided from Geni to provide an impression of who Ferither Our may have been.
Ferither Our (Dun Our) was born about 591 at Rea Hall in Dumbartonshire, Scotland. [1]
He was the son of Smerviemore Amid Coslidh and his wife Adarian [1]
He married Demoray [1]
Listed as a chief of Clan Campbell. [2]
Ferither Our died in 620 (aged 29). [1]
He was the father of Duibh More [1]
Ferither Our and at least on other Ferither is named in "The Boar of Ben Laighal" in "the Lay of Diarmaid, No. 4."[3]
One more version carries the legend to the extreme northern and eastern Gaelic frontier. It varies somewhat from the others, but the main incidents are the [p. 93] same. The story is called THE BOAR OF BEN LAIGHAL, and is thus told:--
It may be interesting to shew this legend of "Diarmaid," as the word is spelt now-a-days, in another shape.The following is taken from a MS. which came from Cawdor Castle, and is now in my possession; it is called, Genealogy Abridgement of the Very Antient and Noble Family of Argyll, 1779The writer explains that--
The first statement is as follows:--
"VI. Ferither-our, i.e., Dun Ferither, A.D. 620.
"VII. Duimhn-Mor, who married a daughter of Duke Murdoch of Moravize, or Murray, or Elgin." and gave a name to the family, which has been variously explained. "Odinbhin" and Mac-Oduimhn might suggest a Scandinavian descent, and some old sea-rover for an ancestor, who called himself a son of Odin. It has been suggested that the warriors of Fionn were fair Norsemen. Some Campbells are proud of the "ginger-hackle" which commonly adorns their chins, and claim to be Northmen; but if the name be Gaelic, as I believe it to be, I am compelled to translate Diumhn-Mor, as the [p. 98] Great Brown. The Browns are a numerous and respectable clan, and there is no cause to be ashamed of the connection; for Brown is synonymous with Don, and there are Browns and Dons of high degree.
"VIII. Arthur Oig MacDuimhn, i.e., Young Arthur, son of Brown, 684.
"IX. Ferither eile MacDuimhn. The other Ferither, son of Brown, 730.
"X. Duimhn falt derig MacDuimhn. Brown of the red hair son of Brown, 786, who married the grand-daughter of Connal Gulban, one of the sons of Neal na Nidgheallach, king of Ireland, who was so called because he had nine chains, fetters, or prisons, for confining captives taken in the wars. This Neal was father to Longirius, who reigned when St. Patrick came to Ireland."
So here comes in another hero of Gaelic romance, Connal Gulban, of whom there are more stories told in Gaelic at the present day than of any other individual, Fionn always excepted. As St. Patrick here makes his appearance on the stage with Diarmaid and Connal Gulban, and as he brought Christianity, and mayhap civilization to Ireland, it seems reasonable to suppose that such an event would stimulate the bards; and that about the name of St. Patrick all the floating legends of the old Pagan history and mythology would group themselves, as they are in fact found to do, in the Irish dialogues between St. Patrick and Ossian. In these, the old blind poet tells the glories of his departed race, and argues with the saint in a very discontented and rebellious spirit, to say the least of it. Osin, whose tribe was exterminated about 277, converses with St. Patrick, who was born about 372, flourished in 430, and, according to this genealogy, was contemporary with Longirius and Connal Gulban.
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XI. Ferither finruo, i.e., reddish white MacDuimhn, son of Brown.
"XII. Duimhn dherig, i.e., Brown the red, 860.
"XIII. Duimhn donn, i.e., Brown Brown, 904, was contemporary with Constantine, seventy-fifth king of the Scots."
"XIV. Diarmaid Mac Duimhn, 943."
And having arrived at this Dirmaid, to whom all popular traditions trace the Campbell clan, the writer breaks off into a digression on the origin of surnames. Of Dirmaid he says:--
"This Dirmaid MacDuimhn, from whom the Campbells were called Siol Diarmaid, i.e., Diarmaid's seed, gained great reputation in Ireland, and in all their traditions there is honourable mention made of him for his conduct, valour, and loyalty. He was contemporary with Malcolm the first, seventy-sixth king of the Scots. He had to wife, Graine, niece to Cormac Vic Art Vic Chuin Cheud Chathach, and thus his son was great-grandchild to that famous Irish monarch, Conn Cheud Chathach, so called because he fought one hundred battles."
Diarmaid, say the Irish writers, was one of the Fenians, and they were exterminated A.D. 277; that is, 666 years before the date of the Dirmaid and Graine of the genealogy.
And then we are told how Dirmaid and Graine had two sons--
"Arthur Armderig, 977 (red arms), and Duimhn Dedgheal, Brown white tooth, who had to his son Gilcolm or Malcolm MacDuimhn, who, after he had married a daughter of the lords of Carrick, by whom he had three sons, of whom afterwards, and after her death, in the reign of Kenneth the Third, the eightieth king of the Scots, the said Malcolm MacDuimhn went to Normandy in France and married the heretrix of Beauchamp, i.e., campus bellus, or pleasant field, sister's daughter to William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, afterwards King of England, of which lady he had three sons, who were called Campbells after the name of their lauds in Normandy."
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Further on we are told how the representative of the French branch came over and married the heiress of a knight of Lochawe, Evah, and how the clan took the name of Campus bellus; and how, centuries later, French worthies were entertained at Inverary, and acknowledged themselves to be of the same race and descent as their entertainer. And other genealogical incidents are related in the same quaint style down to the writer's time, and to John Duke of Argyll.
"44. John Campbell, XXVIII. Campbell, XX. MacCallen Mor, V. Duke, 1768; who (amongst other deeds) caused remove the old burgh of Inverary, but has reared up a much prettyer and more fashionable burgh royal, about a furlong south of the palace, upon the Gallow failean point."
So here are Diarmaid and Graidhne, the hero and heroine of so many Gaelic myths, stories, poems, and proverbs, the Venus and Adonis of Gaelic mythology, brought into juxtaposition with King Arthur and his knights, honestly married and planted in Scotland, A.D. 943, as Mr. and Mrs. Brown; a family tree grafted on their stock, and the growth of the tree itself all set forth as true family history in 1789.
There probably were people who bore these names. There are hundreds of Dermotts, and Dermids, and Donns, and Dons, and Guns, Mae-Dermotts and MacDiarmaids, still to be found in Ireland and in Scotland. There are Gwynnes in Wales, and there are many similar family names in France which have been booked into the family tree, which springs from Oduimhn; but it is surely time to give up the attempt to convert Celtic mythology into comparatively modern history, and to fix a time and place for the slaying of Diarmaid by the venomous boar of Beingulban.
In a learned note in the Transactions of the Ossianic
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[paragraph continues] Society (vol. v., p. 62, 1860), I find that the Celtic legends about magic boars which pervade Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, have already attracted the notice of Irish scholars, and that they are taking a wide view of their popular lore. The sacred swine of the ancient Celts are supposed to have given rise to this tradition. It is suggested that there was a "Porcine worship which was analogous to, if not identical with, the existing worship of the Hindoo deity Vishnoo, in his avatar as a boar." And that Diarmaid was a reformer who tried to abolish the worship of pigs, and died in the attempt.
To me it seems perfectly hopeless to attempt to explain a legend which is at least as old as the loves of Venus and Adonis, by referring it to any one time or place.
It is like making Hercules a doctor or a drainer, and the Hydra sulphuretted hydrogen embodied in an epidemic, and cured with steel.
Let this tale of Diarmaid rather be taken as one phase of a myth which pervades half the world, and which is still extant in the Highlands of Scotland, and in Ireland, amongst all classes of the Gaelic population. Let all that can be got concerning it be gathered from the most unsuspecting and the most unlearned witnesses; and when the traditions are compared with what is known to the learned, there is some chance of digging knowledge out of these old mines of fable. At all events, I have now shewn the same legend in a poem, a popular tale, a proverb, a family tradition, and a family history; I have shewn it in Ireland, Cantyre, Islay, Lorn, Skye, the Long Island, and Sutherland; and I believe it to be an ancient pagan myth, which belonged especially to a tribe of Celts who took possession
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of Argyll, and which has been transferred to the family of the chief of the most numerous clan, and perhaps to the real leader of the tribe, together with every thing else which a race of family historians thought likely to adorn their favourite topic.
There would seem to be two distinct forms of the myth; one the wildest and best known to the people, the other more rational and best known to the educated, classes. [4]
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I. Constantine, who came over from France in 404 and died anno domine 420, was succeeded by his eldest son. II. Aurelius Ambrose, who was contemporary with Constantine I., and forty-third king of the Scots, died anno 460. III. Uther, the second son, succeeded his brother, and died anno 520, and left the throne to IV. Arthur of the Round Table, so named from his causing one of that form to be made to quell dis- putes for precedency among his nobles. His first wife died childless. By his second, a daughter of a king of the Franks, he had a son, Smerviemore, and died in the twenty-fourth year of his age. V. Smerviemore, born at a place called Rea Hall, in Dumbartonshire ; [1]
Birthdate: 591 (29) Birthplace: Rea Hall, Dumbartonshire, Scotland Death: 620 (29) Immediate Family: Son of Smerviemore Amid Coslidh and Adarian MISS ADRIAN Husband of Demoray DE MORAY Father of Duibh More Brother of Oilliol ab Smerviemore, of Leinster. [1]