"Fingal All the Way:" The legend behind the name of Strike's faux son.

As I mentioned on an earlier post, the funniest party of Lucy's dreadful Christmas party for me was Strike being manipulated into accepting paternity of a lad named "Fingal."

For the next hour he drank lager and made loud, empty conversation with various parents of children at Lucy’s kids’ schools. Some wanted to quiz him about his detective career, others wanted to tell him how lovely his sister was; a few, who were already drunk, seemed unable to place him from the school run, and were confused as to why anyone who didn’t take their children to the local school should be present. The exception was a sozzled, skinny woman, who was wearing a baggy dress that was probably the height of fashion, but which Strike thought looked like a postal sack: she insisted very loudly that she knew Strike ‘from taekwondo’, and that his son, Fingal, was very talented and shouldn’t be allowed to give it up. In the end he agreed with her, and promised to preach perseverance to Fingal, upon which she hugged him and he discovered that she stank of BO.

At the time, I thought the incident was merely tongue-in-cheek foreshadowing of Strike's later fears that he will genuinely be forced to accept paternity of a child he neither knows nor wants. But, thanks to Substack reader Bob Waite, I have learned of a legend behind the name of Fingal, that relates even better to Cormoran Strike. 

Fionn mac Cumheill (Scottish name Fingal) is a warrior-giant from Irish folklore and the inspiration for the name of Giant's Causeway of Northern Ireland and Fingal's Cave on the Scottish island of Staffa. As the story goes, the causeway was the result of a longtime feud between Fionn and a much larger Scottish giant, Benandonner, who hurled rocks and insults across the Irish Sea without ever meeting face-to-face. Finally, they decided to build a bridge between their two islands so they could battle in person. Fionn caught a glimpse of Benandonner on the bridge, and realized he was no match for the much bigger Scottish giant. Fionn's wife Oonaugh (another name familiar to Strikers) formulated a plan, wrapped her husband up in a sheet and put him in a cradle. When Benandonner arrived to fight, she told him Fionn was out hunting and it was only she and the "baby" at home. She offered Benandonner a cake she had filled with iron, while feeding an ironless one to her "child;" Benandonner chipped his teeth on his while the baby chowed down with no issue. Upon seeing this huge and apparently very strong baby, Brenandonner decided he would be no match for the infant's father, so he ran back to Scotland to hide in the cave, destroying the bridge behind him. 

Fingal's Cave is apparently an impressive geological structure, part of a nature preserve owned by the Scottish National Trust and a popular tourist destination. It inspired a Mendelssohn symphony and appeared in Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. I think it is going to join Sark on my bucket list for places to see in the U.K. 

In any case, in addition to giving us a funny "preview" of Strike being forced to claim a child as his own, the legend of Fingal also reminds us of another "giant" baby. Recall what Strike says to Robin in Chapter 48. 

“I was nearly eleven pounds. It’s how I got my name."

"What d’you mean?"

"'Cormoran'. He was a Cornish giant. My mother said she was going to call me that, as a joke, my aunt took her seriously and said she couldn’t, so of course that’s what I got called, to piss off Joan.”

I don't think it's coincidence that this fake "son" Strike was forced to claim as his own to keep peace at a miserable Christmas party was also, as Orlando Quine would say, "called like a giant."

Many thanks to Bob for the tip!