The Tain

by Ciaran Carson (Translator)

Paperback

Published January 1, 2009

About the author

Ciaran Gerard Carson was born in 1948 in Belfast and educated at The Queen’s University, Belfast. He knows intimately not only the urban Belfast in which he was raised as a native Irish speaker, but also the traditions of rural Ireland. A traditional musician and a scholar of the Irish oral traditional, Carson was long the Traditional Arts Officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and is a flutist, tinwhistler, and singer. He is Chair of Poetry at the Seamus Heaney Centre for poetry at Queen’s University, Belfast. He is married to fiddle player Deirdre Shannon, and has three children.

He is author of over a dozen volumes of poetry, as well as translations of the Táin and of Dante’s Inferno, and novels, non-fiction, and a guide to traditional Irish music. Carson won an Eric Gregory Award in 1978.

Reviews

[juliette · Rating 5 out of 5]

actually completely loved this & i think that was largely because the translation was so readable while maintaining the key elements of the original writing by the christian monks who put this oral story into writing. cu chulainn is pretty cool & the end is awesome. loved it!!

[Kenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this translation. It helped that I had first read Cuchulainn and the Crow Queen, by Bernard Kelly and listened to The Tain episodes by Candlelit Tales. Between those resources, I felt like I had a general overview for this myth so that I could appreciate the details more fully.

I particularly liked Carson's decision to describe Cuchulainn's famous warp spasm as the Torque, as in the tradition of Celtic twisted metal. He explains this decision, based on historical evidence, in a footnote--apparently there was a Gaulish warrior who contorted himself in a similar way before battle, and the Roman who defeated him took his Torque and became known as the Torqued One. In general, Carson's footnotes are worth reading to better understand the significance of names and places.

[Dave Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know why you have Lord Of The Rings, you need to read this. Those is one of the foundation stones of fantasy literature, a classic fifth century Celtic epic full of journeys, magic, warriors, battle and plenty of Celtic humour.

Brilliantly translated by Ciaran Carson with a cultural nuance every Celtic descendant will recognise, this is a must read.

[Malachy Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting from historical pov, a good translation that is very readable

[Diana M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic translation.

[Mera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for a class on Early Celtic Myths and Legends