Benandonner

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mythical giant from Scottish and Irish folklore who was a rival of the hero Finn McCool
2. The legendary giant of Celtic folklore who challenged Finn McCool and was said to live across the sea in Scotland
3. In Gaelic myth, a towering giant whose feud with Finn McCool is a famous tale tied to the Giant's Causeway

Etymology: Benandonner is the giant who appears in the Scottish and Irish legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill, and the name is a hint at the story's geography. In the tale, Benandonner lives across the sea in Alba (Scotland), and Fionn, a giant from Ireland, builds a causeway to reach him. The name appears in the Ulster-cycle style narrative as a rival who fails to fight Fionn after seeing him, and the figure is usually linked to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and the basalt columns of Staffa in Scotland. The name itself is recorded in Middle Irish and Scottish Gaelic sources, and its meaning is usually taken to be "the horned/peaked one" or a compound built on "ben", a peak or mountain, but the exact etymology is uncertain. Scholars have not settled on one reading, so the name is best understood as a traditional personal name whose sense has been lost. The character's most memorable role is the moment he flees home in terror, tearing up the causeway behind him so that Fionn could not follow. Because the legend ties the two landmarks together, many visitors to both sites still hear the story when they look at the matching rock formations.