Wisdom Pool

The lake of Linn-Fec, home of the Salmon of Knowledge.

The prophecy said someone named Finn would eat it, and get absolute knowledge in the bargain.
Should this happen now, the lake would be overrun with hordes of fish-trap carrying Finns.
As it was, only one old bard called Finnegas spent his days at the lake with his fly-rod.
It took him seven years to catch the salmon, and then he gave it for cooking to his servant, a boy who in different sources is called Deimne or Demna, but whose real name was of course Finn.
The boy prepared the salmon, burned himself on the frying fish, put his thumb in his mouth, and seven years of Finnegas' efforts had been in vain.
Since then, Finn could see the future or tap the Source of Knowledge, simply by sucking his thumb.
Later, Finn became a first class Irish hero-brawler.
He was the leader of the Fianna, a gang of first class Irish hero-brawlers.
He also was strong and very smart, and one could recognise him from far away by his protruding teeth.

In "Wisdom Pool" I played with the interference patterns made by drops in the water.

The fishes are supposed to be salmons. I based them on the salmons in the Book of Kells. Although salmon formed a substantial part of the insular Celts' diet, the salmons drawn by the medieval monks rather look like sticklebacks.

Probably the illuminators never went as far as the kitchen.