User:Jnestorius/Fiona

< Fiona

Macpherson

It seems clear that Macpherson used "Fiona" not as a female personal name but as "the Fiona" meaning the Fianna.

This unreliable but non self-published book agrees.

Except in one place: "Fiona, a fair maid" is the footnote of the first 1762 edition of Fingal for the line "Let the sighs of Fiöna rise on the dark heaths of her lovely Ardan".

Who first linked Macpherson's use to the given name?

Texts

exclassics.com

THE POEMS OF OSSIAN by JAMES MACPHERSON

"A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE."

• There are handed down in that country traditional poems concerning the Fiona, or the heroes of Fion Mae Comnal.
• From the whole tenor of the Irish poems concerning the Fiona, it appears that Fion Mae Comnal flourished in the reign of Cormac, which is placed, by the universal consent of the senachies, in the third century. They even fix the death of Fingal in the year 268, yet his son Ossian is made contemporary with St. Patrick, who preached the gospel in Ireland about the middle of the fifth age.
• The title of this poem is "Teantach mor na Fiona." It appears to have been founded on the same story with the "Battle of Lora."
• From the instances given, the reader may form a complete idea of the Irish compositions concerning the Fiona. The greatest part of them make the heroes of Fion, "Siol Albin a n'nioma caoile. : The race of Albion of many firths." The rest make them natives of Ireland.
• If the Irish poems concerning the Fiona should appear ridiculous, it is but justice to observe, that they are scarcely more so than the poems of other nations at that period.

"FINGAL: AN ANCIENT EPIC POEM / FINGAL -- BOOK I."

• Mourn, ye sons of song, mourn the death of the noble Sith llin. Let the sons of Fiona rise, on the lone plains of her lovely Ardan. They fell, like two hinds of the desert, by the hands of the mighty Swaran; when, in the midst of thousands, he roared like the shrill spirit of a storm.

Gaelic "original" [and Latin translation]

Should find what corresponds to "Let the sons of Fiona rise, on the lone plains of her lovely Ardan"

• Macpherson, James (1807). The poems of Ossian in the original Gaelic. G. and W. Nicol. p. 36.
• Bi'bh brónach, a shíol nan dán, / Mu Shitháluinn nan garbh-thriath. / Tog-sa, Eibhir, d' uchd bán / Mu shár Ardan nan colg fiar; / Mar dhá eilid thuit o'n bheinn / Fo lámh Shuarain nan donn sgiath

I think it's a different English text, maybe the second edition? The Latin likewise is for Eber Finn which would make "sons of Eber Finn" be the Hibernians or the Hebrideans.

The 1807 was probably a back-translation from the English. So it would seem he interpreted "Fiona" as Eber Finn by then rather than as "a fair maid".

ossianonline.org

• Temora
  • xxii The pretensions of Ireland to Ossian proceed from another quarter. There are handed down, in that country, traditional poems, concerning the Fiona, or the heroes of Fion Mac Comnal.
  • xxv From the whole tenor of the Irish poems, concerning the Fiona, it appears, that Fion Mac Comnal flourished in the reign of Cormac, which is placed, by the universal consent of the senachies, in the third century. They even fix the death of Fingal in the year 286, yet his son Ossian is made cotemporary with St. Patrick, who preached the gospel in Ireland about the middle of the fifth age.
  • xxvi The title of this poem is, Teantach mor na Fiona. It appears to have been founded on the same story with the battle of Lora, one of the poems of the genuine Ossian.
  • xxxi From the instances given, the reader may form a compleat idea of the Irish compositions concerning the Fiona. The greatest part of them make the heroes of Fion,Siol Albin a n’nioma caoile.The race of Albion of many firths.The rest make them natives of Ireland.
  • xxxiv So ill qualified, however, were their bards to effectuate this change, that amidst all their desires to make the Fiona Irishmen, they every now and then call Siol Albin. It was, probably, after a succession of some generations, that the bards had effrontery enough to establish an Irish genealogy for Fion, and deduce him from the Milesian race of kings. ... If the Irish poems, concerning the Fiona, should appear ridiculous, it is but justice to observe, that they are scarcely more so than the poems of other nations, at that period.
• Fingal Book 1
  • 13 Mourn, ye sons of the song, the death of the noble Sithallin [Sithallin signifies a handsome man,—Fiona, a fair maid;—and Ardan, pride.] ——Let the sighs of Fiöna rise on the dark heaths of her lovely Ardan.——They fell, like two hinds of the desart, by the hands of the mighty Swaran; when, in the midst of thousands he roared like the shrill spirit of a storm, that sits dim, on the clouds of Gormal, and enjoys the death of the mariner.
• Fragments of Ancient Poetry
  • No matches

Google books

I think this matches exclassics.com:

• "Fingal : An Ancient Epic Poem; Book I". The Poems of Ossian, translated by James Macpherson. Thomas Nelson. 1842. p. 312.</ref>

This matches ossianonline Fingal:

• Macpherson, James (1762). Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem, in Six Books, Together with Several Other Poems, Composed by Ossian the Son of Fingal ; Translated from the Galic Language. Becket. p. 13. Retrieved 15 September 2018.

Later uses

• Fiona pinnata, a marine mollusc, the only member of the genus Fiona and family Fionidae, was named in 1855 after by Joshua Alder and Albany Hancock after the character in Macpherson's Ossian.

Fiona, a leading racing yacht of the 1870s, was launched on the River Clyde 1865 for Emanuel Boutcher. The Caledonian Maritime Research Trust says it was originally called Phiona. A. W. B. Simpson says "Edouard" Boutcher acquired another Fiona in 1880.

The Nihilist, an 1866 fragment of a play by Leo Tolstoy, features a comical old lady named Fiona Andreievna. In the Tolstoy circle was Baroness Fiona [or: Khionija] Aleksandrovna Del'vig, née Chapkina (1840–1903). The Russian name appears to be Хиония (also Romanized Khioniya; anglicised Khioniya, not to be confused with Khione). Perhaps "Fiona" was an affectation of Russian Anglophiles or Scotophiles.

Fiona MacLeod

Adrian Room says Sharp based Fiona on fionn "fair". Sharp wrote to Catharine A. Janvier in 1894:

You have asked me once or twice about F. M., why I took her name: and how and when she came to write Pharais. It is too complex to tell you just now.... The name was born naturally: (of course I had associations with the name Macleod.) It, Fiona, is very rare now. Most Highlanders would tell you it was extinct—even as the diminutive of Fionaghal (Flora). But it is not. It is an old Celtic name (meaning “a fair maid”) still occasionally to be found. I know a little girl, the daughter of a Highland clergyman, who is called Fiona.

Grant Allen wrote to Fiona in 1894 asking:

How in English letters would you write Pharais phonetically, or as near it as our clumsy southern lips can compass? (I have not “the Gaelic,” and my Celtic blood is half Irish, half Breton.) And how “Fiona?” Is it something like Feena?

The reply letter stated:

My name is really Fiona (i. e. Fionnaghal—of which it is the diminutive: as Maggie, Nellie, or Dair are diminutives of Margaret, Helen, or Alasdair).

"Fiona" wrote to Ernest Rhys in 1896:

It may interest you to know that the name which seems to puzzle so many people is (though it does exist as the name “Fiona,” not only in Ossian but at the present day, though rarely) the Gaelic diminutive of “Fionaghal” (i. e. Flora).

In 1905, Sharp addressed a letter to himself as "Fionaghal nic Leoid".

John O'Donovan, writing in 1862 of old Irish names:

Finola (Finnghuala, of the fair shoulders) has nearly become obsolete since the beginning of the eighteenth century, but some few still retain it in the abbreviated form of Nuala.

Gaelic names

The Old Irish name Fine (fine = "vine") is attested only for an abbess of Kildare who died in 805. (Krossa, citing Ó Corráin) Modern "Fíona" is a Gaelicisation or back-formation of Fiona rather than a revival of the old name, whose modern reflex should be Fíne Irish pronunciation: [fʲin̠ʲə] with different N sound. (Krossa) Fionn "white [thing]" has plural fionna Irish pronunciation: [fʲɔn̪ˠə] with a different vowel.

Modern Irish for "vine" is fíniúin. Fíon "wine" has genitive fíona Irish pronunciation: [fʲinˠə] "of wine".

OUP

"It is also fashionable to bestow Gaelic names such as Fiona on children, and this has led not only to revivals but also to new coinages based on Gaelic, widely used by the Irish and by Highland Scots, including those who no longer speak the ancient language of their forebears."

• Fiona;
• [Appendix 6 : Irish Names ; Fíona] meaning ‘vine’. no connection with the Scottish
• [Appendix 11 : Scottish Names ; Fiona]

Irish census

Name	1901		1911
	Count	Age range	Count	Age range
Fiona	1	21	5	3–5–59
Finola	11	1–5–37	29	0–3–25
Fionnuala	0	—	2	3–7
Fionnghuala	0	—	4	1–8

Note "Mary [or Marie] Fiona Lyster-Jenings", listed above and in a genealogy of the Lyster family; of the Roscommon Lysters (lands listed in DB). Aged 59 in 1911 so born c.1852 but may have adopted name in later life. (Not listed at all in 1901 census, must have been abroad.)

References

• Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (January 2006). A dictionary of first names (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191726675.
• Krossa, Sharon L. (6 September 2002). "Concerning the Name Fiona". medievalscotland.org. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
• Sharp, Elizabeth A. (13 November 2014) [1910]. William Sharp (Fiona Macleod) A Memoir Compiled by his wife Elizabeth A. Sharp. EBooks. Project Gutenberg.