20/04/98
13:02
Finn M'Cool and his Cat
2 quoted lines
Rostrum wrote:
The story of Finn M'Cool and his cat....
<snip>
1 quoted line
This is one story that seems to invite allegorical interpretation with the exchange: "Who are they? Well, one is wickedness, and the other a fairy cat." But while I enjoy this tall tale, I'm hard pressed to find any connections with Weer's story or tease out the allegory.
I've pondered this too, and my best guess is that the story is meant as an allegory of the founding of America. It's connection with the rest of the novel is that America is the subject of the rest of the novel, just as much as Weer is.
The last line of the story is something to the effect that the pieces the Cat and the Rat are tearing off each other are running off into the trees, the implication being (it has always semed to me) that these pieces will now colonize the new world. Thus America is born out of a mix of magic and wickedness. This is very much the way America is portrayed in the novel as a whole.
There is compelling evidence, by the way, that the voyage of St Brendan really did take place, and that the Irish got to America before even the Vikings did. Wolfe backs this theory in Castle of the Otter.