From the field notes of Alys Thierry, Scholar of Breton Folklore.
Interview with Remy Medard, Age 74, retired Sea Captain. (Conducted 9th of Second Seed, 4E, 196). Remy lived with his niece's family in Northpoint, the city of his birth, and was a wellspring of information on local folklore. The following is a transcript of our conversation about a local hero or demi-god he called Finn.
- There's a name you mentioned earlier. Finn, I think it was. Who's he?
Surely you've heard the tales of Finn the Seafarer?
- No, but I'd like to hear them from you.
I'm forgetting, you're from Wayrest, aren't you? Little they'd know of the old tales there, begging your pardon.
Finn was a sailor, a real one, not one of those coast huggers who float around the Iliac Bay. He brought his ship safe through both the summer storms of the South and the ice-choked seas of the North. And through all his years sailing, he lost not a single man nor woman of his crew.
- When did Finn live?
Well, that depends whom you ask. Lived and died a couple thousand years ago, most folk say. But my Grand-Da said he met Finn once, so I don't know about that. Wizards do live long lives and Finn was a powerful wizard.
- How did your Grand-Da meet him?
He swore Finn himself pulled him from the icy water after Grand-Da's ship was wrecked in the Sea of Ghosts. Then Grand-Da fell asleep aboard Finn's ship and woke up in a Dawnstar tavern where Finn had paid his board for a week.
You're smiling. Well, you wouldn't be the first to doubt the old man's story. He told some tall tales, my Grand-Da did, but when he spoke of Finn, he'd always turn serious. Told the story in a hushed voice, like he was in Temple.
- Was this Finn elf or man?
A man of course! [snort] What sort of name would Finn be for an elf? Nah, he was a son of Northpoint like myself.
He did once sail to the High Elves' Island, just to see if they could teach him anything he didn't know about sailing. But they had nothing to show him. Instead, Finn taught them a good half of what they know today. But if you ask them about Finn, they'll deny it. Ungrateful lot.
- What did Finn teach the High Elves?
You're fixed on the Elves, aren't you? Let me see . . . I don't know any more stories about Finn and the Elves, but he probably gave them their Sea Legs like he did us.
- What do you mean by Sea Legs?
Sailing used to be a never-ending misery. Sailors couldn't stay steady and they never stopped being sick. It was Finn first showed sailors how to walk, how to bow their legs, how to move with the waves rather than against them.
- Did Finn have a special ring?
Aye. You sure you haven't heard of him? Finn used his ring to shield his ship and shipmates. He forged it himself: a ruby set in gold, with powerful enchantments upon it, and it never left his hand but the once.
- But the once?
Finn sailed all around Nirn. He visited the Elves' old homeland and the Nords' Atmora, and the land of the Snake People and many more places we haven't even heard of. He passed untouched through the sea's dangers, but at last he met his fate, as many a man does, in the form of a woman.
Finn was always a favourite with the lasses – some say with the lads as well – and this time he was wooing the daughter of a Gold Coast innkeeper. She must have been a pretty one, for after she'd taken Finn up to her room, she asked him if she might try on his ring, and he agreed. Once the ring was on her finger, her friend jumped out from a wardrobe and bashed Finn over the head. Killed him in one blow.
The young lady and her friend sailed off themselves with the ring, and she set herself up as a pirate queen in the Abecean Sea. They plundered ships and sacked cities for a year or so, then one day, while they were boarding a merchant ship, the ring up and disappeared off her finger. You see, Finn had enchanted the ring so that no matter where he'd left it, it'd return to him at last. Once they'd lost the ring, those pirates were cut to pieces pretty quickly.
- And the ring went back to Finn's body?
Aye. Finn's friends had brought his body back to Northpoint, and they built him a grand tomb up on the hill overlooking the harbour. There are a few blocks of marble sunk into the ground up there – left over from the old tomb – you can climb up there and take a look for yourself.
There are two tales of what happened next. One is that tomb robbers broke into Finn's tomb, looking for treasure, and found the ring back on his skeleton's finger. And since then, it's been the same story over and over. Someone steals the ring, then loses it at the worst moment. And back it goes to the tomb for the next fool to find.
- And the other tale?
The other tale is that when the ring came back to Finn's finger, it sent the life back into his body, just as he'd enchanted it to do. He blasted the stone lid off his coffin and then walked out of his tomb, fresh as a daisy. Off he went sailing again. And never stopped sailing, if Grand-Da's to be trusted.
- Which version do you believe?
I don't rightly know. But I'd like to believe Finn's still out there looking out for good sailors. Folk still go up the hill to dig for the ring, from time to time, and no one's ever found it that I've heard. But then, if they did find it, they'd keep their mouths shut, wouldn't they? So maybe it is up there somewhere. Are you thinking of looking for it yourself?
- I collect stories, not treasures. But I'd like to see the place.
Our Gilles can take you up tomorrow morning.
Remy's great-nephew Gilles guided me to the site the next day. As Remy had said, there was nothing much left at the site: only a few blocks of weathered marble. There were also signs of recent digging. With its history of looting, I doubt there is anything left for archaeologists to find.
On a previous occasion, I had asked Remy if he had ever heard the name Phynaster, and he said he hadn't. This is ripe ground for future research. I'd like to work out the full implications of the Finn legend along the northern coast.
End Notes: Varieties of Faith: The Bretons says of Phynaster:
Phynaster: Hero-god who taught the Altmer how to naturally live another hundred years by using a shorter walking stride. Patron deity and "teacher" of the Direnni. Often worshiped by those Breton mages who emphasize their Elven blood.
But forget those snobs, I wanted to write about how Phynaster might be a more homegrown hero to some Bretons. The Altmer would definitely call this a corrupted legend of the real Phynaster, who was absolutely an Altmer hero-god from the Summerset Isles, but the more you look into Phynaster's in-game provenance, the more complicated it becomes who Phynaster was, or even if he was just one person.
My starting point here was a comment on the teslore subreddit by Atharaon's which among other things points out Phynaster's connection to sailing in ESO. (I'm starting to see Phynaster as a filling something of the same role as St. Nicholas is European legends/devotions, who was the patron of a dozen or so seemingly unconnected fields, and showed up in plenty of fairy tales to help out sailors.) His comment also described an unfinished ESO quest where the Vestige would re-create the Ring of Phynaster and be hailed as Phynaster reborn, which suggest that mortals may mantle Phynaster.
Tamrielic Lore says of the Ring of Phynaster:
The Ring of Phynaster was made hundreds of years ago by a man who needed good defenses to survive his adventurous life. Thanks to the Ring, Phynaster lived for hundreds of years, and since then it has passed from person to person. The Ring improves its wearer's overall resistance to poison, magicka, and shock. Still, Phynaster was cunning and cursed the ring so that it eventually disappears from its holder's possessions and returns to another resting place, discontent to stay anywhere but with Phynaster himself.
But back in Arena, there was a somewhat different story of Phynaster:
You know who Phynaster was, don't you? He was a [race], like yourself, with a marvelous ring that allowed him invulnerability to magic and poison.
And
You know that Phynaster was killed by the Wharf Rats for his Ring? It's true. He was buried somewhere in the Forest of Elborn and the Ring has ever since been stored in one of their hundreds of underground headquarters. Even should the Ring be taken by thieves, a charm has been cast on it so it will eventually return to one of the Rats' sanctuaries.
That tale seems to have been retconned, but I enjoyed working a version of it into this piece.
After I wrote this, TheInducer pointed out there's Finn's Lute in Skyrim, and I'm convinced it was his instrument with which he wooed the lads and lasses. Damn Nords have Finn's Lute!
This is part of a series of High Rock folklore collected by my Breton scholar Alys Thierry. The general idea is to take a look at Breton religion as reflected in its folklore, rather than as the priests hand it down at temple, and to explore the influence of Aldmeri religion and culture on High Rock.