The Coming of Cuculain

by Standish J. O'Grady, 1stworld Library (Editor)

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - Cuculain and his friends are historical characters, seen as it were through mists of love and wonder, whom men could not forget, but for centuries continued to celebrate in countless songs and stories. They were not literary phantoms, but actual existences; imaginary and fictitious characters, mere creatures of idle fancy, do not live and flourish so in the world's memory. And as to the gigantic stature and superhuman prowess and achievements of those antique heroes, it must not be forgotten that all art magnifies, as if in obedience to some strong law; and so, even in our own times, Grattan, where he stands in artistic bronze, is twice as great as the real Grattan thundering in the Senate. I will therefore ask the reader, remembering the large manner of the antique literature from which our tale is drawn, to forget for a while that there is such a thing as scientific history, to give his imagination a holiday, and follow with kindly interest the singular story of the boyhood of Cuculain, "battle-prop of the valour and torch of the chivalry of the Ultonians."

148 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1894

About the author

Please be careful not confuse him with his cousin Standish Hayes O'Grady.

Standish James O'Grady

His father was the Reverend Thomas O'Grady, the scholarly Church of Ireland minister of Castletown Berehaven, County Cork, and his mother Susanna Doe (or Dowe). Standish O'Grady's childhood home - the Glebe - lies a mile west of Castletownbere near a famine mass grave and ruined Roman Catholic chapel. He was a cousin of Standish Hayes O'Grady, another noted figure in Celtic literature, and of Standish O'Grady, 1st Viscount Guillamore.

He married Margaret Fisher and had three sons. Advised to move away from Ireland for the sake of his health, he passed his later years living with his eldest son, a clergyman in England, and died on the Isle of Wight.

His eldest son, Hugh Art O'Grady, was for a time editor of the Cork Free Press before he enlisted in the Great War early in 1915. He became better known as Dr Hugh O'Grady, later Professor of the Transvaal University College, Pretoria (later the University of Pretoria), who wrote the biography of his father in 1929.

After a rather severe education at Tipperary Grammar School, Standish James O'Grady followed his father to Trinity College, Dublin, where he won several prize medals and distinguished himself in several sports.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rousing stuff.

[Jason Barnhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's old, the translation is slightly clumsy, it's an epic poem and trying to jump the gap between oral tradition and written. That's a difficult task. It's less dense and no more difficult to read than the Iliad or the Odyssey and an easy read compared to something like the The Song Of Roland. ...really, it's "ancient" literature, one of those "it's either worth it to you to read or it's not" sort of things. It completes a chunk of my education and at any rate no one should be worse off for reading much of anything.

In the offing, it's something that anyone of Celtic/Irish heritage might read for the sake of cultural literacy and a more complete classical education if nothing more. It's probably on par with Euripides whether Greek scholars would agree or not.