     oisÃ­n ( ; ), also spelt in english ossian ( ) or osheen, was regarded in legend as the greatest poet of ireland, and is a warrior of the fianna in the ossianic or fenian cycle of irish mythology.beresford ellis, peter: "a dictionary of irish mythology", page 189. constable, london, 1987. isbn 0-09-467540-6 he is the son of fionn mac cumhaill and of sadhbh (daughter of bodb dearg), and is the narrator of much of the cycle. ==legends== his name literally means "young deer" or fawn, and the story is told that his mother, sadbh, was turned into a deer by a druid, fear doirche (or fer doirich). when fionn was hunting he caught her but did not kill her, and she returned to human form. fionn gave up hunting and fighting to settle down with sadbh, and she was soon pregnant, but fer doirich turned her back into a deer and she returned to the wild. seven years later fionn found his child, naked, on benbulbin.gregory, lady: "gods and fighting men", page 149. colin smythe, 1987. isbn 0-901072-37-0 other stories have oisÃ­n meet fionn for the first time as an adult and contend over a roasting pig before they recognise each other. in oisÃ­n in tir na nÃg, his most famous echtra or adventure tale, he is visited by a fairy woman called niamh chinn Ãir (niamh of the golden hair or head, one of the daughters of manannÃ¡n mac lir, a god of the sea) who announces she loves him and takes him away to tir na nÃg ("the land of the young", also referred to as tir tairngire, "the land of promise"). their union produces oisÃ­n's famous son, oscar, and a daughter, plor na mban ("flower of women"). after what seems to him to be three years oisÃ­n decides to return to ireland, but 300 years have passed there. niamh gives him her white horse, embarr, and warns him not to dismount, because if his feet touch the ground, those 300 years will catch up with him and he will become old and withered. oisÃ­n returns home and finds the hill of almu, fionn's home, abandoned and in disrepair. later, while trying to help some men who were building a road in gleann na smÃ³l lift a stone out of the way onto a wagon, his girth breaks and he falls to the ground, becoming an old man just as niamh had forewarned. the horse returns to tir na nÃg. in some versions of the story, just before he dies oisÃ­n is visited by [[sain
Fenian_Cycle Irish_poets Voyagers_in_Celtic_mythology