Salmon and trout are often linked to sacred wells and springs, places of physical healing and spiritual rebirth. The salmon are said to eat hazel nuts which fall into the pool from the tree of knowledge, thereby gaining the wisdom of the worlds. As symbols of sacred wisdom and foreknowledge, the fish represents renewed and sustained life.
According to Irish mythology the first thing to ever come into creation was a hazel tree, and in it's branches was contained all the knowledge of the universe. This hazel tree flourished over the Tobar Segais (Well of Wisdom) which lived a great speckled salmon. The story goes that the salmon ate the hazel nuts which fell into the well, acquiring all the wisdom of the universe. It was foretold that the first person to catch and eat the salmon would gain this knowledge.
Many tried and failed, until a poet named Finnegas having spent years fishing the Boyne caught it. Finnegas instructed his apprentice, a young boy named Deimne Maol, to prepare it for him. Deimne burned his thumb bursting a blister on the cooking salmon. Instinctively he put his thumb into his mouth to ease the pain and in an instant acquired all its knowledge. When Dimne brought the cooked meal to Finnegas, his master saw something in the boy's eyes that had not been there before. When asked by Finnegas, Deimne denied that he had eaten of the fish.
When pressed, he admitted his accidental taste. What the old poet hadn't known was that Deimne had another name, given to him by his mother - Fionn, meaning fair haired one. It was this incredible knowledge and wisdom gained from the Salmon of Knowledge that allowed Fionn mac Cumhaill to become the leader of the Fianna
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