Sequel adventure in ancient Ireland by 2 modern adolescents who use a magic spell to return in search of their uncle. Ending up in a later time (800 AD) than their previous adventure, they nevertheless track him down at a monastery after getting help from a druid/witch and making friends with a slightly older boy. This is much more rustic than the monasteries we may be familiar with from reading about the middle ages and is threatened by invaders. They have a shapeshift experience (a la T H White) as ravens which allows the story to cover more history. ( )

The sequel to The Wizard Children of Finn, The Lost Legend of Finn has Fiona and Bran McCool again traveling back in time to ancient Ireland, this time to hopefully find information and answers regarding their mysterious father. However, Bran's magic goes a bit awry, and instead of traveling back to the ancient Ireland of 2000 years ago (which they had wanted to do, where their friend Finn is leader of the Fianna), they end up in early Mediaeval Ireland, a Christian Ireland being threatened by Viking invaders from the pagan north.

An ancient (and perhaps timeless and everlasting) druid named Biddy Gwynn transforms Bran and Fiona into ravens, sending them into a lost chapter of the Legend of Finn. Within the story, the legend, Fiona and Bran again encounter their friend Finn (but only as raven observers, he is unaware of their presence). However, much to their consternation, they also encounter their own mother (Sadie), as Sabdh, one of the Everlasting Ones, in the form of a red deer. Sabdh, who is being pursued by Fear Doriche, the Dark Druid of the Men of Dea, places herself under Finn's protection (under his protection, she no longer needs to be a deer), actually marrying him, and Bran and Fiona realise in astonishment that their friend Finn (from their previous adventures in ancient Ireland) is much more closely connected to them than they ever could have guessed, that he is their father.

The Lost Legend of Finn is again an enaging and exciting romp through ancient Ireland, with for the most part well conceptualised and realistically portrayed characters. Especially Fiona has come into her own; I feel very close to her and I also love the character of Legaire (I was really saddened when he was killed during the Viking raid on the monastery). Bran, on the other hand, I like much better in The Wizard Children of Finn. In the sequel, he has become quite egotistical, seemingly only caring about his own wishes and desires (just consider how Bran is constantly thinking of joining Finn in ancient Ireland, not giving any, or just scant thought to the fact that this would surely be traumatic for his 20th century mother). I guess in many ways, Bran and Uncle Rupert are very similar in their attitudes, caring more about themselves, their ideals, projects and desires, not all that concerned, or even all that aware of the consequences that their actions have or might have on others, especially their families. Fiona, on the other hand, always seems to think of the consequences that her actions, her thoughts, her words have or might have.

As much as I enjoyed The Lost Legend of Finn, I do think that the first book, The Wizard Children of Finn is superior in both content and style. Even the first book has some leaps of logic, some aspects of the fantastical that just do not entirely make sense, even if one takes into account that the story is, indeed, a fantasy. However, in The Wizard Children of Finn, the leaps of logic are not all that distracting, and are for the most part nicely balanced by the folkloric content. This only partially occurs in the sequel. Not only are the leaps of logic more pronounced at times, some of the folkloric content itself feels problematic (and I am still trying to figure out how and why Sadie/Sabdh ended up in 20th century America, or wether it was actually the Sadie of the 20th century who somehow went back in time to ancient Ireland and there became Sabdh, that is probably the one leap of logic I found and still find the most difficult to understand, to explain to myself).

I am a bit of a folklore purist (and very interested in folklore, myths and legends), so of course, I attempted to research the folkloric elements I encountered in The Lost Legend of Finn on the internet. And this proved rather frustrating at first, as the author (Mary Tannen) seemed to have either accidentally or deliberately used a different spelling for both Fiona and Bran's mother (her name when she was a red deer) and for the Dark Druid. In the novel, Sadie is called Sabdh and the Dark Druid of the Men of Dea is called Fear Doriche. I spent hours trying to unsuccessfully research these names on the internet, until I finally realised that Mary Tannen had made use of the legend of the birth of Finn's son Oisin (he is the son of Sadhbh and Finn, and Sadhbh was, indeed, pursued by and later fell victim to the Dark Druid, Fer Doirch or Fear Doirche). By misspelling "Sadhbh" (Sabdh), but especially by misspelling "Fear Doirche" (Fear Doriche), Mary Tannen not only makes researching the folkloric background to the story more difficult, there is also a slight feeling, an impression of disrespect for Irish folklore and mythology present (at least in my opinion). However, my LT friend Abigail has since pointed out that especially the spellings of ancient Irish names etc. are by no means consistent. And thus, while I still find the different spellings encountered in the book rather frustrating, I can now see that these were likely not only not deliberate misspellings, but that they might actually not have been mistakes in the first place, but accepted variations.

Stylistically, I think that The Lost Legend of Finn at times really shows that it is a book written and published in the early 80s. There are quite a number of instances where distinctly 80s slang and 80s expressions are used, and while in the first book The Wizard Children of Finn, these expressions seem balanced and not over-used, in the sequel, it sometimes feels as though the author is going slightly overboard trying to show Fiona and Bran as typical 80s (or rather 20th century) children (a few exclamations of jerk, bird-brain and other such insults, expressions which I actually remember from high school, would have been great, and would have felt nostalgic, the over-use just dates the book, making the narrative style, the flow of the text feel old-fashioned and rather exaggerated on occasion). I did however, chuckle with nostalgic fondness and a feeling of being rather old, when Uncle Rupert mentions John Davidson's ABC television show That's Incredible (gosh, I actually used to watch that show when I was in high school). And in that particular case, Mary Tannen (or rather Uncle Rupert) makes a very astute, profound observation. A time-traveling historian such as Uncle Rupert has become would not likely have been accepted as legitimate and might very well have only gotten a place on a pseudo-science show like That's Incredible. His fellow academics would most probably not have accepted him, would not have believed that Uncle Rupert had time-traveled, could time-travel.

I would recommend The Lost Legend of Finn to children and adults interested in ancient Irish myth and folklore. And although some reviews I have read claim that The Lost Legend of Finn is a fine stand-alone book, I would say that in order to truly enjoy and understand this story, you should really first read The Wizard Children of Finn (not only is it a slightly better book, but I believe that one does need the information, the story-line of the first book, in order to truly understand and enjoy sequel). ( )