Ancient Irish Tales

by Tom Peete Cross (Editor), Clark Harris Slover (Editor)

Ancient Irish Tales [hardcover] Tom Peete Cross,Clark Harris Slover [Oct 01, 1996]

Genres: Mythology, Ireland, Fiction, Academic, Irish Literature, Folklore, Medieval

617 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm reading this volume to fill out the stories not in translations by Jeffrey Gantz, Elizabeth Grey (Second Battle of Moytura), Thomas Kinsella (Tain), John Koch and John Carey (Celtic Heroic Age), Ann Dooley (Tales of the Elders of Ireland). It has a good selection of stories about Finn mac Cumhaill and about the Irish kings. The translations are all by the greats of the past (e.g., Whitley Stokes, Kuno Meyer) and are classics in their own right.

[Nick H · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s unfortunate that so many of these stories have weird and arbitrary omissions. As an example, I had read Kinsella’s translation of The Táin previously and was sad to see that this volume only contains a selection from it. There are also many pieces (especially during verse portions) where the translators give up and simply add “etc” to a speech and skip ahead.

But as a more broad top-down look at ancient Irish mythology and stories while still keeping it an authentic translation (not a modern retelling for example) this was very useful and entertaining. I learned about a lot of concepts, characters and sagas that I had not heard of before. It’ll give me a good base to know which specific areas to explore later.

色んな省略されたところは残念。クーリーの牛戦いはこのバージョン読んだの前読んだことある(キンセラの翻訳)でこのバージョンは１つだけの部分あった。後他の色んなところはなんかフルな詩を翻訳よりただの「etc」が書いてある。けどもっと大きなスケールのアイルランドの物語わかるのためこれはよかった。僕は色んな伝説とかコンセプトとかキャラクターについて教えてくれた。それはよかった。

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely useful book for anyone wishing to simply read English translations of Irish mythological texts. It contains a good cross section of stories from all four cycles: Mythological, Ulster, Fenian, and Historical/Kings. The language is a little dated, and better, newer translations of some of the material exist, but for all but the Ulster cycle that material is scattered through hard-t0-find publications which are time-consuming to track down.

This is a big collection, and contains more than enough material to get you started reading Irish mythology as it occurs in the great Medieval texts. I'm not aware of a more comprehensive collection.

[Autumn Kearney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contained stories and a glossary.

[Mary Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great because it is free of the typical interrupting academic analysis and gives the myths without interruption. Hard because the language is archaic and difficult to work through at times. A romanticized writing but still worth the read.

[Sandra Bassett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has some very interesting post-Christian stories. If you read pre-Christian Celtic stories you will likely be interested in how the heroes of the Celts become the heroes of Christianity.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A huge collection of Irish medieval epics and sagas. Contains the Mythological, Ulster, Kings and Fenian cycles.