Bran and Sceólang

{{Short description|Hounds of Fionn mac Cumhaill}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Bran and Sceólang ("raven" and "survivor"{{cite journal |last1=Sayers |first1=William |title=Gunnar, His Irish Wolfhound Sámr, and the Passing of the Old Heroic Order in Njáls saga |journal=Arkiv för nordisk filologi |date=1997 |volume=112 |pages=43–66 |url=https://journals.lub.lu.se/anf/article/view/11563 |access-date=March 19, 2021}}) are the hounds of Fionn mac Cumhaill in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology.

The dogs are described as being mostly white, with purple haunches, a crimson tail, blue feet, and standing as tall as Fionn's shoulder.{{cite book |last1=Ó hÓgáin |first1=Dáithí |title=Fionn Mac Cumhaill: Images of the Gaelic Hero |date=1988 |publisher=Gill and Macmillan |location=Dublin |isbn=978-0-717-11532-7 |page=132 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=emJiAAAAMAAJ |access-date=March 19, 2021}} Bran is normally male, while Sceólang is normally female, although there definitely is a version by Soinbhe Lally, where Bran is female, and Sceolang's sex is unconfirmed.{{cite journal |last1=FitzGerald |first1=Lord Walter |title=Notes on the Feena-Erin, Finn MacCoole, and the latter's principal abode—The Hill of Allen in the County Kildare |journal=Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society |date=October 1907 |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=5–22 |doi=10.2307/27727797 |jstor=27727797 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27727797 |access-date=March 19, 2021}} Bran is also sometimes described as a merle. The hounds' mother, Uirne, was transformed into a dog while pregnant, hence the canine birth of her twin children.{{cite book |last1=Nagy |first1=Joseph Falaky |title=The Wisdom of the Outlaw: The Boyhood Deeds of Finn in Gaelic Narrative Tradition |date=1985 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles, California |isbn=0-520-05284-6 |page=95 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M0ycAAAACAAJ |access-date=March 19, 2021}} While Uirne is returned to full humanity after giving birth to her pups, Bran and Sceólang remain hounds throughout the duration of their mythos.{{cite journal |last1=Runge |first1=Roane |title=Survival, Power, and Panic: The Agency of Human-Animal Figures in Some Medieval Irish Texts |journal=ESharp |date=Summer 2019 |issue=27 |pages=45–52 |url=https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_673554_smxx.pdf#page=45 |access-date=March 19, 2021}} As Uirne is the sister of Fionn's mother Muirne, Bran and Sceólang would be their masters' cousins.{{cite book |last1=MacKillop |first1=James |title=Fionn mac Cumhaill: Celtic Myth in English Literature |date=1986 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |location=Syracuse, NY |isbn=0-8156-2344-5 |page=49 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MoKvGA2McVYC |access-date=March 19, 2021}}

The dogs appear throughout the Fenian Cycle. In particular, throughout Fionn's hunts, it is mentioned that Bran is always by his side, while certain later folk tales suggest that the dogs grew up alongside each other.{{cite journal |last1=Chadbourne |first1=Kate |title=The Beagle's Cry: Dogs in the Finn Ballads and Tales |journal=Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium |date=1996 |volume=16/17 |pages=1–14 |jstor=20557312 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20557312 |access-date=March 19, 2021}} Per legend, they were the first to discover Fionn's son Oisín wandering naked in the forest.{{cite journal |last1=Court |first1=Franklin E. |title=Clark's 'The Wind and the Snow of Winter' and Celtic Oisin |journal=Studies in Short Fiction |date=Spring 1996 |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=219–228}} Sceólang eventually dies in the 'Chase of Thrush Glen', after pursuing a half-black and half-white doe. (Thrush Glen is Glenasmole, in the mountains of south Co Dublin, favourite hunting place of the Fianna, and also where Fionn's son Oisín is reputed to have returned to Ireland from Tír na nÓg.) Bran, meanwhile, chooses to die by drowning after being struck by Fionn in an impulsive moment.{{cite journal |last1=Reinhard |first1=John R. |last2=Hull |first2=Vernam E. |title=Bran and Sceolang |journal=Speculum |date=January 1936 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=42–58 |doi=10.2307/2846874 |jstor=2846874 |s2cid=161192720 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2846874 |access-date=March 19, 2021}}