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Drammi celtici
Deirdre
Al Pozzo dello Sparviero
Sulla Spiaggia di Baile
L'Unica Gelosia di Emer
Al Pozzo dello Sparviero
Sulla Spiaggia di Baile
L'Unica Gelosia di Emer
248 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1902
113 people are currently reading
969 people want to read
About the author
W.B. Yeats
2,043 books2,563 followersWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." He was the first Irishman so honored. Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929).
Yeats was born and educated in Dublin but spent his childhood in County Sligo. He studied poetry in his youth, and from an early age was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult. Those topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and those slow paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as to the Pre-Raphaelite poets. From 1900, Yeats' poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
--from Wikipedia
Yeats was born and educated in Dublin but spent his childhood in County Sligo. He studied poetry in his youth, and from an early age was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult. Those topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and those slow paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as to the Pre-Raphaelite poets. From 1900, Yeats' poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
--from Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
August 17, 2013
If I were to sing you a song of brave Cuchulain, hero and hound, loyal warrior, beardless boy better than three times fifty men of Ulster, I would surely run out of breath before you yet understood the heart of him, yet knew his many feats and the deeds that drew his name across the rocky ridge of the world in ogham. This book is a contagious classic, better for its aged language and seasoned anachronism, and better still for Lady Gregory's meticulously subtle whittling away of the density of the dialect that preceded this revised version. While the plot seems scattered at first, and the characters too numerous and complex to contain, I promise you that if you push through the pages you will find a past more glorious than the greatest action movie, more soaked in blood and brain, more steeped in righteous rage and honest tradition than any myth we could make today. Lady Gregory, with a careful and keen eye, strung together the old tales, trimming and stitching, binding and blending each, cutting out their contradictions and connecting their time lines until one fluid narrative came together to blanket us with heroes long lost to the laurels of time and battle. And I swear to you by the oaths my people swear by, that you will not find another collection of Western mythos with greater color or creativity, greater attention to detail or divination, than Cuchulain of Muirthemne: The Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster. But trust not the storyteller alone, for the Achilles of Ireland, and a better man besides, Cuchulain, the Hound of Culain, said it best himself, "It is little I would care...if my life were to last one day and one night only, so long as my name and the story of what I had done would live after me." And live they do.
June 16, 2014
I grew up in Dundalk (Dún Dealgan, homeplace of Chú Chulainn), I still remember Chu Chulainn's castle a few hundred yards from my home. I also grew up with these legends, and had to study them in the old Irish text which is completely different to the modern Irish language. Lady Gregory's account, while the english is not fantastic, there were many mistakes in the prose, but she did totally captivate the legend that was Chú Chulainn and in doing so, has brought this legend to the masses.
The stories themselves bear much resemblance to the Greek legend of Achilles, Chú Chulainn being considered half-god, half-man. The Red Branch Knights like the heroes of ancient Greece, warriors, poets, philosophers, men of honour.
I really enjoyed the free flowing text, and I especially enjoyed the ease of which the stories were told, without taking away from the original texts.
I would recommend this book to anybody looking to grab a taste of Irish legends and the ways of the people many moons ago.
The stories themselves bear much resemblance to the Greek legend of Achilles, Chú Chulainn being considered half-god, half-man. The Red Branch Knights like the heroes of ancient Greece, warriors, poets, philosophers, men of honour.
I really enjoyed the free flowing text, and I especially enjoyed the ease of which the stories were told, without taking away from the original texts.
I would recommend this book to anybody looking to grab a taste of Irish legends and the ways of the people many moons ago.
December 21, 2021
A more complete and wonderfully presented collection of the Ulster cycle of Irish mythology probably does not exist than this work Lady Augusta Gregory first published in 1902. She collects, transcribes, and pieces together the translations of many of the most significant sagas of Cuchulain and the people of Ulster. Her scholarship is remarkable and important, and so is the wealth of mythology here. This is every bit as grand a work as her publication of the Fenian and Mythological lore around the same time.
I have read many of these stories elsewhere, mostly in Early Irish Myths and Sagas, as well as the impossibly magnificent epic Tain Bo Cuailnge, but a few I had never read before, including most of those which take place after the Tain. Lady Augusta's telling is in an authentic prose that is not dolled up or stylized, preserving the delivery of these tales as their translations first presented them from the original manuscripts. The stories are presented somewhat chronologically. Since the majority of them involve Cuchulain or reference him and other recurring figures from the Ulster sagas, it is easy to understand the timeline of these stories.
All of these stories, even the most minor, are densely packed with the mysterious, alluring, bizarre, sometimes un-explainable magical myth-history of Irish sagas. The elements that give character and color to these tales have not been toned down, they have not been modified for contemporary audiences whose tastes are fleeting and formulaic, they have not been reworked to be more comfortable or familiar or sterile for popular consumption. They are presented with authenticity, with some clever fixing up by Lady Augusta simply for coherence and flow, but lacking none of the charming otherworldly, othertimely weirdness and glory and poetry and intensity that found its place in these myths of ancient ages. The unfamiliar becomes familiar through repeated exposure, such that the beliefs and values and ideas of these Gaels, which at first might appear alien and odd to the uninitiated, take on a fullness and a consistency and a life more real than the world around you.
The birth and childhood deeds of Cuchulain are here, detailing his early decision to live a short life of elite heroism, immortalized in saga, as are the legendary events at Bricriu’s feast as Cuchulain and Conall Cearnach and Laegaire attempt to outdo one another in amazing feats. This story finishes with a competition of beheadings performed by (and on) a seemingly supernatural entity capable of regrowing its head, which is thought to have been the inspiration for the similar competition seen in the Arthurian tale Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Also here is Cuchulain’s courting of Emer, and the demise of the High King of Ireland, Conaire, at Da Derga’s hostel by his foster brothers and Ingcel. The sagas describing the key developments that precede the mighty epic of the Tain are here complete, in a few tales that I had never read before. What was new to me also were many of the tales after the Tain epic ends.
Conchobar, king of Ulster, decides that the deeds and crimes of the people of Connacht and Leinster and Munster that occurred during their raid of Cúailnge for the mighty bull must be avenged. He demands satisfaction against Ailill and Madb, and against all the kings and warriors who aided their plot. The people of Ulster, including Cuchulain, agree. A massive battle follows, and Cuchulain, adding to the body count of warriors he has slain, destroys yet another man on the battlefield, Cairbre Niafer, whose son Erc will later seek vengeance.
There is the tale of Cuchulain’s son, whom Cuchulain is tricked into fighting years after the boy has undergone intense training, unrecognized due to his son’s hidden identity and thirst for blood. This might remind one of the Hildebrandslied from middle high Germanic epic, in which father and son engage in battle against one another, for they do not know they are fighting kin. This is an old German tale, put first to print around 830 AD, but the Cuchulain story might be just as old. Both come from older oral traditions. We’ll probably never know which came first, as the history of these myths get blurrier with age.
After the battle of Rosnaree I just mentioned, many of Cuchulain’s enemies conspire to end him. They are mostly the sons and daughters of those he has slain, including the daughters of Calatin who are trained in enchantments and witchcraft from a young age specifically so they may help defeat Cuchulain.
The blood-pumping, symphonic drama of this massive conspiracy grows, and it soon entails all those who wish to avenge the deaths of those Cuchulain killed during his defense of Ulster during the Tain, and it crescendos until a grueling, poetic, remarkable end. It is not only Cuchulain who is killed, but his charioteer, and then his faithful horse, who does not die immediately, but defends Cuchulain against his enemies until the bitter end, later alerting Ulster to his death by showing up covered in blood. Despite the tricks of the enchanters, despite the forces opposing him and the odds against him, despite knowing his fate, despite the emphatic pleas from his wife and his friends to avoid combat, at least until his friend Conall is able to come to his aid, he wishes to face death and to face the enemy alone, because his deeds and his name will live forever. Cuchulain engages the enemy and strikes down all he can until his end is met. The children of those he vanquished have had their revenge.
But as the people of Ulster lament his death and their inability to prevent it, Conall Cearnach rides out for revenge, remembering his oath to Cuchulain — if either died before the other, the other would seek satisfaction for their death before the next day, or before their blood was cold on the ground. Conall stays true to his promise and carves a path of red destruction across Ireland, eventually returning to Ulster and to Cuchulain’s wife, Emer, with the heads of all those he’s slain in vengeance. For each head, Emer asks who the person was, and Conall tells her who the head belonged to and where he left the body, or how they died. With this satisfaction, though her heart still broken, Emer can rest. She is buried with Cuchulain and dies of grief as she kisses him. Conall raises a stone for the two of them as all of Ulster is keening their deaths.
It seems that the post-Tain Ulster cycle is composed largely of a sequence of revenge upon revenge upon revenge, ending in ultimate tragedy.
This is one of the best collections of the immortal tales of maybe Ireland’s greatest hero and some of its most sensational, moving, and powerful sagas. Additional notes by Lady Gregory and WB Yeats provide excellent supplementary material, discussing Irish myth’s significance, and the scholarship behind bringing many of these stories to the public consciousness.
I have read many of these stories elsewhere, mostly in Early Irish Myths and Sagas, as well as the impossibly magnificent epic Tain Bo Cuailnge, but a few I had never read before, including most of those which take place after the Tain. Lady Augusta's telling is in an authentic prose that is not dolled up or stylized, preserving the delivery of these tales as their translations first presented them from the original manuscripts. The stories are presented somewhat chronologically. Since the majority of them involve Cuchulain or reference him and other recurring figures from the Ulster sagas, it is easy to understand the timeline of these stories.
All of these stories, even the most minor, are densely packed with the mysterious, alluring, bizarre, sometimes un-explainable magical myth-history of Irish sagas. The elements that give character and color to these tales have not been toned down, they have not been modified for contemporary audiences whose tastes are fleeting and formulaic, they have not been reworked to be more comfortable or familiar or sterile for popular consumption. They are presented with authenticity, with some clever fixing up by Lady Augusta simply for coherence and flow, but lacking none of the charming otherworldly, othertimely weirdness and glory and poetry and intensity that found its place in these myths of ancient ages. The unfamiliar becomes familiar through repeated exposure, such that the beliefs and values and ideas of these Gaels, which at first might appear alien and odd to the uninitiated, take on a fullness and a consistency and a life more real than the world around you.
The birth and childhood deeds of Cuchulain are here, detailing his early decision to live a short life of elite heroism, immortalized in saga, as are the legendary events at Bricriu’s feast as Cuchulain and Conall Cearnach and Laegaire attempt to outdo one another in amazing feats. This story finishes with a competition of beheadings performed by (and on) a seemingly supernatural entity capable of regrowing its head, which is thought to have been the inspiration for the similar competition seen in the Arthurian tale Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Also here is Cuchulain’s courting of Emer, and the demise of the High King of Ireland, Conaire, at Da Derga’s hostel by his foster brothers and Ingcel. The sagas describing the key developments that precede the mighty epic of the Tain are here complete, in a few tales that I had never read before. What was new to me also were many of the tales after the Tain epic ends.
Conchobar, king of Ulster, decides that the deeds and crimes of the people of Connacht and Leinster and Munster that occurred during their raid of Cúailnge for the mighty bull must be avenged. He demands satisfaction against Ailill and Madb, and against all the kings and warriors who aided their plot. The people of Ulster, including Cuchulain, agree. A massive battle follows, and Cuchulain, adding to the body count of warriors he has slain, destroys yet another man on the battlefield, Cairbre Niafer, whose son Erc will later seek vengeance.
There is the tale of Cuchulain’s son, whom Cuchulain is tricked into fighting years after the boy has undergone intense training, unrecognized due to his son’s hidden identity and thirst for blood. This might remind one of the Hildebrandslied from middle high Germanic epic, in which father and son engage in battle against one another, for they do not know they are fighting kin. This is an old German tale, put first to print around 830 AD, but the Cuchulain story might be just as old. Both come from older oral traditions. We’ll probably never know which came first, as the history of these myths get blurrier with age.
After the battle of Rosnaree I just mentioned, many of Cuchulain’s enemies conspire to end him. They are mostly the sons and daughters of those he has slain, including the daughters of Calatin who are trained in enchantments and witchcraft from a young age specifically so they may help defeat Cuchulain.
The blood-pumping, symphonic drama of this massive conspiracy grows, and it soon entails all those who wish to avenge the deaths of those Cuchulain killed during his defense of Ulster during the Tain, and it crescendos until a grueling, poetic, remarkable end. It is not only Cuchulain who is killed, but his charioteer, and then his faithful horse, who does not die immediately, but defends Cuchulain against his enemies until the bitter end, later alerting Ulster to his death by showing up covered in blood. Despite the tricks of the enchanters, despite the forces opposing him and the odds against him, despite knowing his fate, despite the emphatic pleas from his wife and his friends to avoid combat, at least until his friend Conall is able to come to his aid, he wishes to face death and to face the enemy alone, because his deeds and his name will live forever. Cuchulain engages the enemy and strikes down all he can until his end is met. The children of those he vanquished have had their revenge.
But as the people of Ulster lament his death and their inability to prevent it, Conall Cearnach rides out for revenge, remembering his oath to Cuchulain — if either died before the other, the other would seek satisfaction for their death before the next day, or before their blood was cold on the ground. Conall stays true to his promise and carves a path of red destruction across Ireland, eventually returning to Ulster and to Cuchulain’s wife, Emer, with the heads of all those he’s slain in vengeance. For each head, Emer asks who the person was, and Conall tells her who the head belonged to and where he left the body, or how they died. With this satisfaction, though her heart still broken, Emer can rest. She is buried with Cuchulain and dies of grief as she kisses him. Conall raises a stone for the two of them as all of Ulster is keening their deaths.
It seems that the post-Tain Ulster cycle is composed largely of a sequence of revenge upon revenge upon revenge, ending in ultimate tragedy.
This is one of the best collections of the immortal tales of maybe Ireland’s greatest hero and some of its most sensational, moving, and powerful sagas. Additional notes by Lady Gregory and WB Yeats provide excellent supplementary material, discussing Irish myth’s significance, and the scholarship behind bringing many of these stories to the public consciousness.
November 20, 2025
I've read some strange plays in my time, this may be the strangest. I'm going to go read up about Cuchulain before I leave a star rating. I also didn't read this version with the manuscript material. Just the short play itself.
Uhm...not understanding Irish mythology made reading this so hard.
UPDATE: Okay, so Cuchulain is so cool based on the nine minute video I watched about him. Yeats does an interesting job on showing a vignette of the myth. There are some weird, late Yeats lines here, but it got me interested in the myth...and maybe that was the point?
Uhm...not understanding Irish mythology made reading this so hard.
UPDATE: Okay, so Cuchulain is so cool based on the nine minute video I watched about him. Yeats does an interesting job on showing a vignette of the myth. There are some weird, late Yeats lines here, but it got me interested in the myth...and maybe that was the point?
July 22, 2019
Ero molto interessata a conoscerne la storia e il suo mito, giunto a noi in maniera frammentaria, conservato e ritrovato a pezzi su diversi documenti di diversi autori. Non mi è stato possibile dunque ricostruire la sua storia in maniera lineare ma il lavoro fatto da Yeats mi è piaciuto moltissimo. Ho sentito tutta la sua ricerca, sia a livello di tecniche di scrittura che di sperimentazione ma soprattutto il grande lavoro su di sé tramite l’analisi del mito. Cinque atti unici che raccontano di altrettanti momenti topici della vita di Cuchulain, elaborati con un grande rispetto per l’aura dell’effetto del mito che è poi quello che affascina di più in questo tipo di narrazione e che viene ampliato magnificamente tramite la rappresentazione teatrale.
March 18, 2012
Gregory takes great care to use the syntax of common speech, which gives her versions of these stories a distinctly Irish voice, something that is sacrificed in polished English prose.
August 20, 2023
There are many things to say about this book. My edition was from the 80s and all decked up with sword&sandal illustrations, hoping to entice fantasy readers of the day; but it's a book that has a very strong claim to genealogical ancestry of the fantasy genre, both in its historical source materials and in the 20th century Irish audience for whom Lady Gregory wrote it. During the Fenian gesticulation of the Irish independence, this book and others (by Gregory, or about Cuchulain) were significantly popular and provided an Hibernian superego against the base & perfidious anglo colonial culture. Indeed, on a literary level this novel is the Irish mind on steroids: very well present are the eccentric fixations, rambling tone and incoherent symbology common to all Irish books from Swift to Beckett, but in the form of Cuchulain's almost unbelievably hyperbolic adventures and his omnipotent capacity for stupendous violence.
The novel is as much an Irish Iliad as a biography of Cuchulain; it features tangential narratives of notable figures like Baile&Aillin and Deirdre of the Sorrows, and as its center-piece the history of a lengthy war, involving a nearly 100 page exposition of the various relevant mythological contexts. This war, the war for the Bull of Culaigne, is a baffling story: Maeve has a pet bull, whose mother ate a talking eel, who wishes to fight another famous bull in Ulster. Maeve and all of Ireland goes to war with Conchubar, King of Ulster, in order to procure it, but fails to realize that her endless armies are no match for Cuchulain alone, who spends a 75 page chapter killing each Irish champion one by one, described in vivid detail. She therefore loses the war, but manages to kidnap the bull in the meantime; the two bulls fight, and despite prophecies to the contrary, Maeve's bull loses ... yet the victor bull climbs to the top of a mountain and lets out a victory cry so loud that its heart implodes, and it dies. The characters recur through the rest of the book, but nobody ever mentions this event again. This narrative is peppered with incoherent tangents, psalm like elegies, and lengthy poetic catalogues of clothing and soldiers. Nearly every story in this book features this same convoluted, spastically random sense (and, it should be noted, that this was the end result of lengthy, careful editing on the part of Augusta Gregory to linearize the source material). While many passages are unbelievably beautiful poetry, many others have the overtone of a child excitedly improvising a story.
Yeats, in his introductory essay, tries to make sense of this exceptionally (even for the Irish) bipolar tonality by theorizing that pre-modern man had a much freer and looser attachment to emotions, similar to the rabid nature of much of the Old Testament. Indeed, this book shares much with the the Tanakh, such as its convincing insistence on unity among widely disparate fragments, its many strophaic prose-poetic outbursts, and its fixation on specific numbers (characters often appear with seven swords, garlands of twenty jewels, etc). Yeats' ultimate point to this end was that this book was the ultimate fulfillment of the Irish wish for their own Bible, after so thorough a Christanization of their culture; while the genuine age of the source material (older than all the Scandinavian or Franco-Germanic accounts of legends) makes this a pretty authentic claim, it only makes the lack of any Christian imagery whatsoever all the more striking. As can be seen in Yeats' and others' collections of Irish imagery, all these tales about Sidhes and giants and even the mythological figures were so often told, in the oral tradition, with complex insertions of Christian imagery, metaphysics, and ecclesiastical figures; there is nothing of that in these tales of Cuchulain. This only heightens the circumstantial irony of the book: Cuchulain became a hero for the Fenian Irish striving for a total cultural rebellion, and yet this very Cuchulain spends the book fighting against the nation of Ireland on behalf of his home, Ulster which is today's North Ireland, a place that wanted absolutely nothing to do with the imminent Republic and, indeed, has been nearly reviled (to varying extents) by all the rest of Eire for that very purpose. From what I can tell, this might be Eire's defining paradox.
The novel is as much an Irish Iliad as a biography of Cuchulain; it features tangential narratives of notable figures like Baile&Aillin and Deirdre of the Sorrows, and as its center-piece the history of a lengthy war, involving a nearly 100 page exposition of the various relevant mythological contexts. This war, the war for the Bull of Culaigne, is a baffling story: Maeve has a pet bull, whose mother ate a talking eel, who wishes to fight another famous bull in Ulster. Maeve and all of Ireland goes to war with Conchubar, King of Ulster, in order to procure it, but fails to realize that her endless armies are no match for Cuchulain alone, who spends a 75 page chapter killing each Irish champion one by one, described in vivid detail. She therefore loses the war, but manages to kidnap the bull in the meantime; the two bulls fight, and despite prophecies to the contrary, Maeve's bull loses ... yet the victor bull climbs to the top of a mountain and lets out a victory cry so loud that its heart implodes, and it dies. The characters recur through the rest of the book, but nobody ever mentions this event again. This narrative is peppered with incoherent tangents, psalm like elegies, and lengthy poetic catalogues of clothing and soldiers. Nearly every story in this book features this same convoluted, spastically random sense (and, it should be noted, that this was the end result of lengthy, careful editing on the part of Augusta Gregory to linearize the source material). While many passages are unbelievably beautiful poetry, many others have the overtone of a child excitedly improvising a story.
Yeats, in his introductory essay, tries to make sense of this exceptionally (even for the Irish) bipolar tonality by theorizing that pre-modern man had a much freer and looser attachment to emotions, similar to the rabid nature of much of the Old Testament. Indeed, this book shares much with the the Tanakh, such as its convincing insistence on unity among widely disparate fragments, its many strophaic prose-poetic outbursts, and its fixation on specific numbers (characters often appear with seven swords, garlands of twenty jewels, etc). Yeats' ultimate point to this end was that this book was the ultimate fulfillment of the Irish wish for their own Bible, after so thorough a Christanization of their culture; while the genuine age of the source material (older than all the Scandinavian or Franco-Germanic accounts of legends) makes this a pretty authentic claim, it only makes the lack of any Christian imagery whatsoever all the more striking. As can be seen in Yeats' and others' collections of Irish imagery, all these tales about Sidhes and giants and even the mythological figures were so often told, in the oral tradition, with complex insertions of Christian imagery, metaphysics, and ecclesiastical figures; there is nothing of that in these tales of Cuchulain. This only heightens the circumstantial irony of the book: Cuchulain became a hero for the Fenian Irish striving for a total cultural rebellion, and yet this very Cuchulain spends the book fighting against the nation of Ireland on behalf of his home, Ulster which is today's North Ireland, a place that wanted absolutely nothing to do with the imminent Republic and, indeed, has been nearly reviled (to varying extents) by all the rest of Eire for that very purpose. From what I can tell, this might be Eire's defining paradox.
September 21, 2024
This is the second installment following Lady Gregory's retellings of Irish myth, this time following the epic tale of Cuchulain of Muirthemne and the Ulster Cycle. Another difficult read like the first but poetic and haunting; I enjoyed the beautiful way with words she describes the bizarre ways hundreds of these characters weave themselves into legend before, during, and after the war, as enemies and allies both. Magical but gruesome, at some points comedic and other times heartbreaking. The tale of Aoife sending her son to exact revenge upon his father is cruel and Cuchulain's grief upon learning who he'd really just slain is tangible- by far one of my favorite chapters.
Many life lessons are spread through little tales across the book which are still relevant today. The distinction in Cuchulain's near perfect roots in godhood to his very imperfect ego which costs him everything is very reminiscent of similar Greek heroes, which I was happy to see the footnote at the end making the same comparison, that Cuchulain was "the Irish Achilles." But these Irish stories have all the wonderful drama and intrigue in their own right that deserve far more recognition. I plan to read Kinsella's and Carson's versions next, but I do think Gregory's will remain my favorite of all.
Many life lessons are spread through little tales across the book which are still relevant today. The distinction in Cuchulain's near perfect roots in godhood to his very imperfect ego which costs him everything is very reminiscent of similar Greek heroes, which I was happy to see the footnote at the end making the same comparison, that Cuchulain was "the Irish Achilles." But these Irish stories have all the wonderful drama and intrigue in their own right that deserve far more recognition. I plan to read Kinsella's and Carson's versions next, but I do think Gregory's will remain my favorite of all.
June 11, 2020
The Celtic mythology is one of the most intriguing mythology that existed in the whole world. Besides being very original, the Celtic myths have also inspired several writers and poets alike. During the late nineteenth century the Irish Revival played a major role in the translation of Celtic myths into the English language. Such myths were often used by the Romantics, the ones that considered national legends a great source of inspiration. Yeats was one of those poets that attempted to use Celtic myths in his beautiful and awe-inspiring poems that are considered the national treasure of the Irish. When thinking about mythology, in general, we shall consider it the treasure of the collective unconscious, like Carl Gustav Jung would say. Myths, legends, they are like the dreams of a culture. They were kept for centuries in the legends of folk people, becoming part of the folklore. Lady Augusta Gregory was an Irish woman that attempted to translate such Celtic myths into the English language. She wrote two books that made Irish myths more popular among the people. One deals with the gods, while the other is about the great hero that was called Cu Cuchulain.
Cu Cuchulain is the most famous Celtic hero from the Celtic mythology. He is like any ancient hero: brave and powerful. He can be compared to Heracles, the Greek hero that had a lot of strength and a brave heart. Cu Cuchulain is very brave and often helps people to win battles, such as in the great battle/war of the bulls against a foreign queen. From the beginning, his life seems different. He is the son of the daughter of the king of Ulster and the god Lug. That makes him a demigod, a powerful one. When he was a boy he killed a hound from the feast of the king, being named Cu Cuchulain. A prophecy said that he would become famous, and yet he would die young. He had a son, but he killed him by mistake. He has many lovers, but Emer is the most famous of them. Emer became jealous one time, after he fell in love with a fairy. His death is also very popular. After breaking the taboo of eating dog meat, he became weak and his enemies attacked him and he died, in a courageous manner.
The stories about heroes are becoming very popular nowadays. Children and teenagers are very attracted to super-heroes, not knowing that the popularity of heroes has had a very long tradition. All the mythologies have had their heroes, each being known for their brave acts. The stories of heroes teach us to act bravely, to be courageous despite the many enemies and obstacles that we face in our life. Each story can teach us virtues, such as friendship, courage, calmness, and so on. Such ethical issues can become appropriate for adults, as well, to make them remember the virtues of human nature, despite the hardships we encounter.
Cu Cuchulain is the most famous Celtic hero from the Celtic mythology. He is like any ancient hero: brave and powerful. He can be compared to Heracles, the Greek hero that had a lot of strength and a brave heart. Cu Cuchulain is very brave and often helps people to win battles, such as in the great battle/war of the bulls against a foreign queen. From the beginning, his life seems different. He is the son of the daughter of the king of Ulster and the god Lug. That makes him a demigod, a powerful one. When he was a boy he killed a hound from the feast of the king, being named Cu Cuchulain. A prophecy said that he would become famous, and yet he would die young. He had a son, but he killed him by mistake. He has many lovers, but Emer is the most famous of them. Emer became jealous one time, after he fell in love with a fairy. His death is also very popular. After breaking the taboo of eating dog meat, he became weak and his enemies attacked him and he died, in a courageous manner.
The stories about heroes are becoming very popular nowadays. Children and teenagers are very attracted to super-heroes, not knowing that the popularity of heroes has had a very long tradition. All the mythologies have had their heroes, each being known for their brave acts. The stories of heroes teach us to act bravely, to be courageous despite the many enemies and obstacles that we face in our life. Each story can teach us virtues, such as friendship, courage, calmness, and so on. Such ethical issues can become appropriate for adults, as well, to make them remember the virtues of human nature, despite the hardships we encounter.
October 12, 2018
First Thoughts:
A great heroic epic. The story of Cú Chulainn, hound of Ulster and what is.. basically an Irish demingod. A story of a young man grasping a prophesy trading a long happy life for a shot one filled with glory and one where his name would be passed down through generations.
Familiar story aint it?
But the Irish version has its its own set of tropes. The laws of hospitality even between enemies, honour, bonds and just the general style of the writing. Its also the very first time where ive seen one of the heroes of these stories act in profound shame over one of his hasty actions and directly offer apology and change from the better in one of the old stories.
The interaction with the Sidhe was also extremely interesting, and ive never quite seen a cultures stories reflect the supernatural in quite this way before. It certainly gives me a better appreciation for lore about Fae in modern works.
Otherwise the formatting (as it often is when you get stories that old) was a little bumpy at times but manageable, and the translation still kept the stories interesting and distinctly different than some of the other works out of western Europe/Britain. I wouldnt recommend reading it if you were not already interested in this kind of thing. But Its something I enjoyed and looking back it helps me appreciate some other stories more too.
A great heroic epic. The story of Cú Chulainn, hound of Ulster and what is.. basically an Irish demingod. A story of a young man grasping a prophesy trading a long happy life for a shot one filled with glory and one where his name would be passed down through generations.
Familiar story aint it?
But the Irish version has its its own set of tropes. The laws of hospitality even between enemies, honour, bonds and just the general style of the writing. Its also the very first time where ive seen one of the heroes of these stories act in profound shame over one of his hasty actions and directly offer apology and change from the better in one of the old stories.
The interaction with the Sidhe was also extremely interesting, and ive never quite seen a cultures stories reflect the supernatural in quite this way before. It certainly gives me a better appreciation for lore about Fae in modern works.
Otherwise the formatting (as it often is when you get stories that old) was a little bumpy at times but manageable, and the translation still kept the stories interesting and distinctly different than some of the other works out of western Europe/Britain. I wouldnt recommend reading it if you were not already interested in this kind of thing. But Its something I enjoyed and looking back it helps me appreciate some other stories more too.
August 6, 2017
This is very personal, I know Cuchulainn is all but forgotten these days, but I just love this book. The power, the sheer strength it conveys washed me away when I first read it, years ago. I just can`t understand how come it is not more popular.
The book is a re-write of a mythological cycle collected in medieval Irish texts. Lady Gregory turned these scattered legends into one only book, apt for a modern reader.
Now imagine an ancient world where warriors ride charriots into battle, where druids hold a wisdom which has come down to them from Prehistory and conceal it by speaking in riddles, imagine pagan gods who cross the border of the Otherworld and help human heroes. See Ireland, see Europe as it was during Iron age, when kings fought over cattle and every banquet might turn into a bloody feud.
This book is a time machine into a long forgotten world. Forget history novels, forget Simon Scarrow. These are real Celts talking for themselves. Nothing can be more exciting:
For my husband is pleasant Conall of the great shield, the Victorious; he is proud, going with brave steps up to the spears of the fight; he is proud coming back to me after it, with the heads of his enemies in his hands.
Damn, ain`t it cool??
The book is a re-write of a mythological cycle collected in medieval Irish texts. Lady Gregory turned these scattered legends into one only book, apt for a modern reader.
Now imagine an ancient world where warriors ride charriots into battle, where druids hold a wisdom which has come down to them from Prehistory and conceal it by speaking in riddles, imagine pagan gods who cross the border of the Otherworld and help human heroes. See Ireland, see Europe as it was during Iron age, when kings fought over cattle and every banquet might turn into a bloody feud.
This book is a time machine into a long forgotten world. Forget history novels, forget Simon Scarrow. These are real Celts talking for themselves. Nothing can be more exciting:
For my husband is pleasant Conall of the great shield, the Victorious; he is proud, going with brave steps up to the spears of the fight; he is proud coming back to me after it, with the heads of his enemies in his hands.
Damn, ain`t it cool??
January 29, 2015
Lo confieso. No lo he podido terminar. Lo he dejado al 40%. El tema suena fantástico, pero su lectura es como un capítulo de Tom y Jerry, pero con nombres irlandeses impronunciables. Y en vez de un ratón y un gato, una plaga de "marditos" roedores perseguidos por los mismos gatos.
Continuos episodios de valientes guerreros que o bien destrozan al enemigo ellos solos, como les cortan la cabeza y siguen hablando, como se teletransportan, como pegan saltos propios de spiderman. Y mucha repetición de las cosas, y descripciones que sólo aportan sueño.
En fin, espero la reacción airada de algún irlandés que quiera poner mi cabeza en la punta de su lanza, pero es lo que hay.
Ah, y nada comparable con la saga artúrica. Ésta es mucho más amena y divertida.
Continuos episodios de valientes guerreros que o bien destrozan al enemigo ellos solos, como les cortan la cabeza y siguen hablando, como se teletransportan, como pegan saltos propios de spiderman. Y mucha repetición de las cosas, y descripciones que sólo aportan sueño.
En fin, espero la reacción airada de algún irlandés que quiera poner mi cabeza en la punta de su lanza, pero es lo que hay.
Ah, y nada comparable con la saga artúrica. Ésta es mucho más amena y divertida.
January 18, 2012
A book read for background in understanding old myths and symbolism in Yeat's poetry. To a modern mind, it might be hard to read in places. The myths seem to be similar in theme to tall tales, as the heroes are capable of taking on armies single-handed. Warriors are overstuffed with pride, often tricked into fighting for slight causes.
January 22, 2009
Ever since I was a little kid, these were some of my favorite stories, and I think Lady Gregory's version is probably the most complete and readable version of this particular hero cycle.
Want to read
March 17, 2009Object of parody in 'Ulysses' and 'Two Birds'...
December 16, 2011
Men of Ulster stories. Language is old timey and folklore-y so not the easiest read, but as a rookie to these stories I enjoyed them.
January 18, 2013
Superb language and stories.
July 16, 2014
Helpful with my essay of a mythological hero.
October 28, 2025
Note: This book was published in 1902. The translation of Recension 1 of the Táin (The Brown Bull of Cooley) wasn't released by Faraday until 1904
This book in Gregory's Irish Myths and Legends is not as good as the previous, which I call 'the green book.' This recounting of the Ulster Cycle does not have the same lyricism as the green book, which is a pity. It also reminded me just how misogynistic the Ulster Cycle is! - particularly Recension 2 of Táin Bó Cualinge, The Brown Bull of Cooley which Gregory bases off of mixed translations that are mostly based on the Book of Leinster version of the narrative.
Her writing style shines in the earlier half, with 'The Courting of Emer,' the 'Fate of the Sons of Usnach' (Uisliu, in other versions) and 'Cruachan' which is located in Roscommon and rumoured to be the origin place of Halloween. She tells his boyhood deeds well also, and his downfall.
However, a lot of the nuance is missing here. This is not the best introduction to the Ulster Cycle for someone who doesn't know the tales, not just because of it's age (there are more recent translations and scholarly work that you can find here: https://celt.ucc.ie/
Cúchulainn comes off as a bit of a pain. Gregory doesn't explain the Emer/Eithne thing during 'The only Jealousy of Emer' - scholars believe that they are in fact the same person but Gregory goes with them being different. Also 'The Gathering of Muirthemne''s Niamh character was a complete stranger to me (and I studied the Ulster Cycle in university!)
This is definitely an interesting read, but research and translations have moved on. Unlike Gods and Fighting Men, this doesn't have the lyricism and nuance, and with missing context, a beginner to Ulster Cycle literature would be missing out on needed contextual information. Another thing this book did for me was remind me of how integral Westmeath was to the Brown Bull narrative, with so much of the war taking place where I actually live!
This book in Gregory's Irish Myths and Legends is not as good as the previous, which I call 'the green book.' This recounting of the Ulster Cycle does not have the same lyricism as the green book, which is a pity. It also reminded me just how misogynistic the Ulster Cycle is! - particularly Recension 2 of Táin Bó Cualinge, The Brown Bull of Cooley which Gregory bases off of mixed translations that are mostly based on the Book of Leinster version of the narrative.
Her writing style shines in the earlier half, with 'The Courting of Emer,' the 'Fate of the Sons of Usnach' (Uisliu, in other versions) and 'Cruachan' which is located in Roscommon and rumoured to be the origin place of Halloween. She tells his boyhood deeds well also, and his downfall.
However, a lot of the nuance is missing here. This is not the best introduction to the Ulster Cycle for someone who doesn't know the tales, not just because of it's age (there are more recent translations and scholarly work that you can find here: https://celt.ucc.ie/
Cúchulainn comes off as a bit of a pain. Gregory doesn't explain the Emer/Eithne thing during 'The only Jealousy of Emer' - scholars believe that they are in fact the same person but Gregory goes with them being different. Also 'The Gathering of Muirthemne''s Niamh character was a complete stranger to me (and I studied the Ulster Cycle in university!)
This is definitely an interesting read, but research and translations have moved on. Unlike Gods and Fighting Men, this doesn't have the lyricism and nuance, and with missing context, a beginner to Ulster Cycle literature would be missing out on needed contextual information. Another thing this book did for me was remind me of how integral Westmeath was to the Brown Bull narrative, with so much of the war taking place where I actually live!
June 10, 2025
Having fortunately been born in Ireland I have always been interested in Irish History both fictional and non-fictional!
Fictional History has been a brutal battle against oppression and occupation to gain true freedom…
Still on-going!
Non-fictional has been a whimsical collection of story’s told to explain things not easily understood or not making sense. These stories would be told by the “Sianchaí”(Shan-a-key) The old Irish Story Tellers who would wonder the entire island telling their stories in exchange for some food and a place to sleep. Hopefully to gain an apprentice to continue his work.
Among these stories would be The little people or Fairies, Leprechauns, Banshee’s, Sirens and Goblins, St.Patrick and the Devil… but the best stories are of the amazing feats of Cuchulain of Muirthemne. Loved by all women and feared by all men (unless he was on your side). He was a shining example of Honor and Loyalty to his fault.
Lady Gregory has sifted through troves of legends and has brought to light some of the most exciting!
I’ll have to admit the reading was difficult at times due to translation problems, I found myself reading the same paragraph several times to try to understand it… but I found a lot of joy in reading about the heroic feats of my favorite fictional character.
Enjoyable reading but not for the weak of heart!
Fictional History has been a brutal battle against oppression and occupation to gain true freedom…
Still on-going!
Non-fictional has been a whimsical collection of story’s told to explain things not easily understood or not making sense. These stories would be told by the “Sianchaí”(Shan-a-key) The old Irish Story Tellers who would wonder the entire island telling their stories in exchange for some food and a place to sleep. Hopefully to gain an apprentice to continue his work.
Among these stories would be The little people or Fairies, Leprechauns, Banshee’s, Sirens and Goblins, St.Patrick and the Devil… but the best stories are of the amazing feats of Cuchulain of Muirthemne. Loved by all women and feared by all men (unless he was on your side). He was a shining example of Honor and Loyalty to his fault.
Lady Gregory has sifted through troves of legends and has brought to light some of the most exciting!
I’ll have to admit the reading was difficult at times due to translation problems, I found myself reading the same paragraph several times to try to understand it… but I found a lot of joy in reading about the heroic feats of my favorite fictional character.
Enjoyable reading but not for the weak of heart!
Read
June 25, 2025Esiteks häirib mind see pikk eesõna, mis räägib kui hea raamat see ikka on. Mis siis et autoriks W. B. Yeats, ikka tahaks enne ise lugeda. Teiseks olen tünga saamud: see on üks õhuke vihuke paksust teosest, alapealkiri jäi algul täitsa märkamata. Vist ei müünud Eestis hästi, et edasi ei kirjastatud.
Paljud leheküljed libisevad must jälge jätmata mööda, need on on inimeste ja kohtade nimed, mis ei ütle mulle absoluutselt midagi.
Peaksin vist lõpetama selle vanade kangelaslugude lugemise, kus mehelikkusege mõõt on lõigatud peade arv.
Paljud leheküljed libisevad must jälge jätmata mööda, need on on inimeste ja kohtade nimed, mis ei ütle mulle absoluutselt midagi.
Peaksin vist lõpetama selle vanade kangelaslugude lugemise, kus mehelikkusege mõõt on lõigatud peade arv.
April 8, 2021
The earlier work by Lady Gregory about the hero of the Red Branch of the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. Excellent!
May 23, 2021
Leaves out a lot of the true Cuchulain, and a great deal of the more tragic and brutal stuff.
February 17, 2023
Early Yeats > late Yeats & Yeats poems > Yeats plays
July 15, 2024
Entertaining stories, but this ebook is full of typos and missing/incorrect punctuation. A pronunciation guide at the beginning would have been helpful too.
September 30, 2023
Sobre la vida de Cuchulain de Muirthemne, hijo de Dechtire y de Lugh de la Mano Larga, dios o sidh de la isla. Es un hombre sinigual, el más fuerte, rápido y valeroso que existe. Se crío con los hombres de Ulster, al mando de Conchubar, y desde allí fue tejiendo su leyenda, donde termina enfrentándose a Irlanda entera.
Esta historia de los Hombres de la Rama Roja de Ulster representa una de las más grandes epopeyas mitológicas celtas. La aparición de este héroe junto a varios guerreros, brujas, hadas, los Tuatha de danaan, la Morrigu, la reina Maeve, el Toro Colorado de Cuailgne, el Astiblanco de Cruachan y otros personajes, son el corazón del universo mágico de Eire y embelesa ante tamaña fantasía.
Excelente trabajo de Lady Gregory, traducción erudita y fidedigna, y para que hablar de la edición de Siruela, otra joya del Ojo sin Párpado, con prólogo de Yeats incluido y notas que incluyen la identificación de los lugares en la isla. Simplemente perfecto.
(2.2.2005)
Esta historia de los Hombres de la Rama Roja de Ulster representa una de las más grandes epopeyas mitológicas celtas. La aparición de este héroe junto a varios guerreros, brujas, hadas, los Tuatha de danaan, la Morrigu, la reina Maeve, el Toro Colorado de Cuailgne, el Astiblanco de Cruachan y otros personajes, son el corazón del universo mágico de Eire y embelesa ante tamaña fantasía.
Excelente trabajo de Lady Gregory, traducción erudita y fidedigna, y para que hablar de la edición de Siruela, otra joya del Ojo sin Párpado, con prólogo de Yeats incluido y notas que incluyen la identificación de los lugares en la isla. Simplemente perfecto.
(2.2.2005)
August 27, 2016
Oeh jah.
No ses mõttes on kindlasti oluline, et sellised lood oleksid kogutud ja tulevastele põlvedele teadmiseks kirja pandud (nagu meilgi Kalevipoeg ju), aga isiklikult oleks ehk eelistanud, et keegi oleks need siinolevad mulle otse ümber jutustanud ja säästnud mind nendest pikkadest võõramaistest, keelt krussi väänavatest nimede rodudest, mida kohati jagus ikka lehekülgede kaupa.
Muud sisu siin justkui väga polnudki. Oli palju kangelasi ja siis nad kemplesid ja suurustlesid, kes on kõvem tegija, kui teised. Möödaminnes raiuti ohtrasti päid...
No ses mõttes on kindlasti oluline, et sellised lood oleksid kogutud ja tulevastele põlvedele teadmiseks kirja pandud (nagu meilgi Kalevipoeg ju), aga isiklikult oleks ehk eelistanud, et keegi oleks need siinolevad mulle otse ümber jutustanud ja säästnud mind nendest pikkadest võõramaistest, keelt krussi väänavatest nimede rodudest, mida kohati jagus ikka lehekülgede kaupa.
Muud sisu siin justkui väga polnudki. Oli palju kangelasi ja siis nad kemplesid ja suurustlesid, kes on kõvem tegija, kui teised. Möödaminnes raiuti ohtrasti päid...
April 13, 2022
Plaaaaaah. En mitenkään jaksanut lukea tätä jaarittelua 50 sivua pidemmälle, selailin vaan loppuun. Kirja on kirjoitettu 1900-luvun alussa, joten toisaalta en ihmettele, että kieli ja sisältö on mitä on. Päähenkilöä Cuchulainnia ylistetään jokaisella sivulla niin paljon, että oksettaa. Hänen ällöttäviä "urotekojaan" ylistetään niin, että menee maku. Koiran tappaminen lapsenakin esitetään jonain urotyönä, just joo.
Ei ollut minun makuuni tämä kirja ollenkaan.
Ei ollut minun makuuni tämä kirja ollenkaan.
April 5, 2024
In his Introduction, WB Yeats claims that this is the best book to come out of Ireland recently.
It is a good account of Cuchulainn from his birth, through his training, warrior life and death. I blogged through this on FaceBook (Meta).
It is a good account of Cuchulainn from his birth, through his training, warrior life and death. I blogged through this on FaceBook (Meta).
January 24, 2023
My favorite. I have no idea how many times I’ve read these tales.
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