Early Irish Myths & Sagas
Review by Tom
Rating: 7/10
Irish, was the third great literary power language behind Greek and Latin, long before the Old Norse sagas started to come cascading out of Iceland in the 12th century. This collection of early myths and sagas date to around the 8th century, but the stories themselves are even older. Working within the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology (there are four; Mythological Cycle, Ulster Cycle, Fenian Cycle, and the Historical Cycle), these stories often blur the lines of historical fact and historical fiction. The main force with in these stories is the great Ulsterman and Irish hero Cú Chulaind (or Cúchulainn, meaning "Culann's Hound", his birth name is Sétanta meaning "one who knows the way"). He also appears in Scottish and Manx mythology and he is believed to be an incarnation of the Irish god Lugh, who is also his father (yes, there is a lot of this in Celtic mythology as reincarnation was a strong Celtic belif.). His mother is the mortal Deichtine, sister of Conchobar mac Nessa who is the high king of Ulster. His equivalent in Welsh mythology is Lleu Llaw Gyffes (“Lleu of the Dexterous Hand”). If you haven't guessed already there is a lot of crossover in Celtic mythology with the main story concepts being used as templates. With this in mind, the stories create an epic picture of Ireland and its heroic inhabitants.
It was quite interesting to carry on my deep dive into the Celtic mind as these stories backed up what I read in A Brief History Of The Celts in the terms of spirituality as many characters were of the sídhe, the otherworld beings. Unlike saga style writings, the Irish style is very descriptive and elaborate, which occasionally works to it's detriment as my only gripe was pages of long sprwaling paragraphs listing details, descriptions and names of people who only get that one mention in the whole story before being promptly killed. This is also to do with how the stories were transcribed, as the introduction states the scries were probably writing these down as they were being performed in the courts of the Irish kings, so whilst they start of illustriously they can fizzle out and end abruptly. This does lend to the book feeling like it should be performed and not read to get the full beauty of the writing on show. What is handy though is that there is a handy introduction to each story detailing what to expect, which I believe helped tie down the underlying themes of tehstories so you can gain a full comprehension. Jeffery Gantz also makes a full effort to use the traditional Old Irish/Gaelic names, which does make it more immersive even if you have no idea how to properly pronounce them.
Out of all the stories in the book, the one that I enjoyed the most was Fled Bricrenn ("Bricriu's Feast") as this sees an Irish equivalent to the Loki figure in Norse mythology. Bricriu is a bit of a trickster and in this epic tale incites discord between the three champions of Ulster; the aforementioned Cú Chulaind, Conall Cernach, and Lóegaire Búadach (who each feature throughout the book with their own merits) and their wives. Like most medieval literature though it centres around the deeds of men, so the champions go off and look for judgement as to who is worthy of the Champion's Portion of the feast (this appears a lot and is basically the biggest portion of any feast that is given to the mightiest warrior). There is one task that is very reminiscent of the great middle-English poem Sir Gawain & The Green Knight, with decapitation bargains.
Overall, the book is a pretty good resource in trying to get into the Celtic mind. Whilst this is only a small collection and like most medieval literature it has only just survived long enough to be committed to prints some of our knowledge is fragmentary. It's not my first brush with Celtic mythology as I have read a few tales about that other great Irish hero Fionn mac Cumhaill and his Finna warriors (eerily similar to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table) but he is the prominent character in Fenian Cycle, the cycle after the Ulster one in which these stories sit. Whilst some passages can be tediously rambling, I do recommend this book because the literature itself is utterly mesmerising and beautifully elaborate when it wants to be, which in turn will shatter some misconceptions of the "uneducated" medieval world. Next up for me is the Jeffrey Gantz translation of the Welsh equivalent for this book, The Mabinogion.
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