I got this book a few years ago, while it always ended up on my tbr pile I kept near my bed, it has taken me quite a while to finally get around to reading it.
I keep wanting to learn more about Irish history, mythology, folklore, etc. and I picked up this book hoping to get a good insight into some of the major stories. Early Irish Myths And Sagas is a fantastic read. While there are inconsistencies and even a few missing passages, that’s to be expected. Irish stories have been mostly pieced together by whatever remains of books can be found. Being a mostly oral storytelling society, there’s not a lot of available records. Even so, this book does a good job of taking those mismatched bits of story and bringing them together in a readable way.
The stories in this book are part of what is known as The Ulster Cycle, that’s not an old term from when the stories were written, but rather a newer title given to help structure the old Irish tales into categories. Personally, I really enjoy reading stories about Ulster since my family is from Northern Ireland, which (despite the changes around the border) is the area that was once Ulster County.
Between my Irish literature course in college, my touring around Ireland, and my clinging to any and all Irish literary knowledge I came across through other books, podcasts, and videos, I am relatively familiar with some of the major characters in the story, most notably Cú Chulaind who’s basically the Irish Beowulf. He’s the hero of Ulster County.
My favorite story is definitely Exile of the Sons of Uisliu, but that might just be because it’s one of the Irish first stories I ever read in full. I actually first read a different translation in my Engish 201 course at college. I did end up having to correct the teacher’s pronunciation of the names though, especially when it came to Éogan and he kept saying Egg-an. >_< Sure, my Irish isn’t all that good now, and I definitely didn’t know much at all back then, but I have three cousins with that name so I know it’s not pronounced like that.
But I digress.
I feel like I would have to reread the stories to fully absorb everything. There are a lot of long lists of names, relationships, and descriptions (the Irish really love describing things in excruciating detail) and it can get a bit droll waiting for the action to start back up again, and when it does the action is relatively short compared to all the time spent describing everyone and their entourage.
Even with all the dry bits, I really did love reading these stories. It makes my little Irish heart happy and I look forward to reading more Irish stories in the future.
Happy reading!
Slán go foill!
Charlotte L Tracey 