The Raid: A Dramatic Retelling of Ireland's Epic Tale

Ulster #1

by Randy Lee Eickhoff

Queen Maeve has declared war upon the province of Ulster in an effort to take possession of the Brown Bull of Cooley. Ultimately, this is an attempt to match the wealth of her husband, King Ailill of Connacht, who owns a magnificent white bull. Only Cuchulainn, a boy warrior, stands between Ulster and certain annihilation. Supported by the Morrigan, the goddess of war, he begins a reign of terror upon the Connacht warriors. In his heroic stand, the reader discovers the genesis of the determination of the Irish people, their will to stand alone against oppression.

Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Historical Fiction, Mythology, Fantasy, Irish Literature, Historical

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1997

Reviews

[Max Carmichael · Rating 1 out of 5]

A strange product of an enigmatic author who seems to exist on the margins of formal scholarship. He claims that this volume, a fever dream of disembowelments, decapitations, impalements and mass rapes, is a standard textbook. His prose adaptation of the legend has been professionally edited and shows some lyrical flair, but his vaunted carnal descriptions evoke Hefner's Playboy culture of the 60s - it's all about big breasts and creamy thighs - and probably say more about the author's predilections than about the sex life of the ancient Celts.

With no access to the source material, I can't judge this work's faithfulness, but I know there are better things for the Irish to be proud of than adolescent fantasies of murder, mutilation and sexual violence. I suspect that stories like this may derive ultimately not from Gaelic tradition but from the berserker cult of the invading Vikings. In any event, it's not a tradition to be celebrated.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

My problem isn’t with the story itself, the Táin Bó Cuailnge. I want to make that clear first. In fact, I would wholeheartedly recommend Thomas Kinsella quintessential translation, which feels more complete, more dignified, more alive. Because that’s the thing about Eickhoff’s retelling—there’s no life to it. It reads like a dry grocery-list recounting of events rather than a retelling of an epic and fantastic story. Eickhoff's The Raid is, at the structural level, a novel, but it doesn’t feel like a novel. It feels like a basic retelling—it’s a bit like when an English teacher has you translate, say, the Odyssey into simplified prose to make sure you understand what’s going on. That’s what it feels like Eickhoff has done here. There’s none of the depth and exploration of the novel and none of the charm and beauty of verse. It’s sort of just…prose. And so I’m left asking…what’s the point? This isn’t just a new translation of the Tain; it has pretensions of being something more. On the other hand, he doesn’t seem to really be doing anything new with the material. There’s no new perspective, no new questioning or analysis, no political commentary. So why write this? It vaguely reminds me of when, a few years ago, the Swedish film Let the Right One In was given a completely redundant American remake that more or less followed the original shot-for-shot? Why?
Eickhoff’s version does, however, give us the Brown Bull of Cuailnge being spanked with a stick and told, “Men have died for the likes of you. At least fight with honor!” This, although brief, is much better than Kinsella’s version of the event, so at least there’s that.

[Pye Josephus Joestar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a great start but as you progress through the chapters you begin to find that the writing is lazy. especially the juicy bits, meaning the combat or large scale battles. The writer literally will say something along the lines of "Chuhulain drew his blade and began mortal combat with his foe, and cutting his head off and winning the fight." it was very much lacking in description for these areas. another strange thing in the book was the naming of all the areas someone died in. "braundach was trampled by five million horses and thus the land was name braundach horsetrample hill from then on." and finally the other thing that i found odd was the incredibly long winded lists of warrior names at certain points of the book. I'm not sure if I'm suppose to know these names but it will literally be a full page of irish warriors being named and then the story will continue from where it left off. the story of Chuhulain is very interesting although the character himself is a massive marry-sue and is described to have quite the monstrous appearance such as seven fingers and toes, with seven pupils in each eye. however people don't think that's out of place for a human being. All in all the book was enjoyable but poorly written and slightly confusing at times.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of boasts from the marriage bed of the King and Queen of Connacht leads to a daring raid to steal the brown bull of Cooley.

Following a decades long curse which befalls the men of Ulster at times of crisis, only one man stands against them. Cúchulain, the Hound of Ulster.

Lively and lyrical, this gory tale from Irish mythology is a tale of hubris as well as great courage, where brother turns against brother.

[Patricia J. O'Brien]

I'm too distracted by what's happening in the world to write a review of this novelized version of an ancient epic tale. However, my main takeaway is the original tale was no doubt written by a man as have subsequent takes on it like this one. It's chest-thumping male ego combined with women as sex objects. I had read it because of interest in Queen Maeve but she is reduced to thighs and breasts and bitchiness.

[Ryan Farrell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just full of tits. That’s all. Bland writing and tits. It’s written like a shopping list or some smutty fan fiction. I was looking for the story of Cú Chulainn, not some old American’s fan fiction.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Otto]

A

[Echo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read and heard so many references to this story that I thought I really should read it. It was interesting, and I thought the writer did a good job of bringing the tale to life in English.
However, it was a little difficult for me to get through at times because I kept wondering: "Why is all this necessary?" I mean, a woman gets into an argument with her husband about who brings more to the table. The one area he seems to have one up on her is in the territory of livestock, so she decides to go get this fabulous brown bull from these other people. But they don't want to give it to her, so she and her husband wage war (only, on account of a warrior that is more awesome than everyone else, they essentially just send an endless supply of people to be killed) for this bull so she can win this argument with her husband. Dude. Is this necessary? And why is her husband sending all these people to get killed to help her win an argument against him? I'm still a little bit baffled by all of this.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

For as old and culture-bound as this story is, Eickhoff does a nice job of making it accessible to the modern reader. I was surprised by how into it I got. There was some poetry I skipped and some "begat" style repetition at one point I skipped but didn't lose the thread of the story. And I'd have to say I skipped more in the Lord of the Rings trilogy than I did in this. (Those landscape descriptions get pretty tedious.) And speaking of Tolken and that ilk, (Lewis too) you can see how tales like this were a major influence.

[tory · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting take on an early Irish epic. I don't know anything about Irish history, so I can't comment on accuracy or translation, but it was certainly entertaining. Much more human and accessible than other European historic epics or Greek and Roman epics. Lots of sex, killing, and drinking. Delightful.

[Candace]

I won't make any statements regarding the quality of this book, I just didn't like it very much; it didn't hold my interest. Plus, it's super awkward. :)