Salmon of Knowledge

An Bradán Feasa (The Salmon of Knowledge) was a magical fish which lived in a pool on the Boyne: whoever ate the salmon would gain all the knowledge in the world. The poet Finn Eces (Finneces, Finegas, Finnegas) -- under whom the young Fionn mac Cumhail studied -- had spent seven years trying to catch the salmon. Eventually he did, and told the boy to cook it for him. While cooking it Fionn burned his thumb, and instinctively put his thumb in his mouth, swallowing a piece of the salmon's skin. This imbued him with the salmon's wisdom. He then knew how to gain revenge against Goll, and in subsequent stories was able to call on the knowledge of the salmon by sucking his thumb.

The meanings of the "Old Parr" or "Grandfallar" and a young salmon comprise a pattern used throughout the book of old and young, beginning and end, death and resurrection in the same word or phrase. Other examples: "For Ark see Zoo" (FW 104.19), combining the beginning and end of the alphabet and perhaps encyclopedia entries; "Apophanypes" (FW 626.05), combining "apocalypse" and "epiphany" to encapsulate the beginning embedded in an ending, as exemplified by Vico's philosophy, the structure of the book, and the song Finnegan's Wake.

The salmon is a neat example of this self-contained beginning and ending, since they return to spawn and die where they were born, moving upstream along rivers that are themselves symbols of cyclical unending.