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The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge
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444 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1000
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 13, 2020
This translation seemed good to me from the original Gaelic. It was a long (epic) story, but I'm glad I didn't choose the anglicized version. It would have been easier to read, but would have lost some of the original meaning of the Gaelic.
The story itself is uniquely Irish. They don't just tell a tale, they take their time getting around to the action in the story. There were several portions where it got frustrating, like describing in great detail each person as they arrived for battle to build up the tension. But, in the end that's what makes this story special and you have to appreciate it for what it is. The ending is so perfect as well, it gives a just end to all parties involved. And how a huge war can start from a discussion the king and queen have in bed one night is so fitting. Probably still happens to this day.
I'm glad I read it, but I'm also glad I finished it, and can move onto something a little less difficult.
The story itself is uniquely Irish. They don't just tell a tale, they take their time getting around to the action in the story. There were several portions where it got frustrating, like describing in great detail each person as they arrived for battle to build up the tension. But, in the end that's what makes this story special and you have to appreciate it for what it is. The ending is so perfect as well, it gives a just end to all parties involved. And how a huge war can start from a discussion the king and queen have in bed one night is so fitting. Probably still happens to this day.
I'm glad I read it, but I'm also glad I finished it, and can move onto something a little less difficult.
dnf
January 11, 2020I was hoping for an epic hero or two, but it’s just a queen who’s way too concerned with status causing trouble for no good reason.
May 4, 2016
I put out a call on Facebook for suggestions on Gaelic mythology to read. This was the top suggestion.
This strongly reminded me of Norse and Saxon epics. All account for the names of places by describing the battles undertaken there. Each is more fantastic than the next.
This one follows Cúchulainn, the Hound of Ulster. He battles against the armies of queen Medb. He can stun dozens of swans with a single throw of a stone. Or use thrown spears as stepping stones. You know... The kind of stuff one would see in an ancient China martial arts movie such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Which reminds me, there MUST be a movie about this epic, right?
This strongly reminded me of Norse and Saxon epics. All account for the names of places by describing the battles undertaken there. Each is more fantastic than the next.
This one follows Cúchulainn, the Hound of Ulster. He battles against the armies of queen Medb. He can stun dozens of swans with a single throw of a stone. Or use thrown spears as stepping stones. You know... The kind of stuff one would see in an ancient China martial arts movie such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Which reminds me, there MUST be a movie about this epic, right?
February 22, 2021
Leave it to an early 20th Century Englishman to translate an Irish epic and make it just as unintelligible in English.
April 13, 2025
Um yeah, this is actually SICK
March 14, 2019
‘Ask Cuchulainn about letting you go out of this place, for you will not come beyond
him by force, because his flame of valour has sprung.’
For it was customary with him, when his flame of valour sprang in him, that his feet
would go round behind him, and his hams before; and the balls of his calves on his shins,
and one eye in his head and the other out of his head; a man’s head could have gone into
his mouth. Every hair on him was as sharp as a thorn of hawthorn, and a drop of blood on
each hair... then came the first contortion on Cuchulainn, so that it made him horrible,
many-shaped, wonderful, strange. His shanks shook like a tree before the stream, or like a
rush against the stream, every limb and every joint and every end and every member of
him from head to foot... Then he made a red bowl of his face and of his visage on him;
He drew the cheek from the jawbone, so
that his gullet was visible. His lungs and his lights came so that they were flying in his
mouth and in his throat. He struck a blow of the —— of a lion with his upper palate on
the roof of his skull, so that every flake of fire that came into his mouth from his throat
was as large as a wether’s skin. His heart was heard light-striking (?) against his ribs like
the roaring of a bloodhound at its food, or like a lion going through bears. There were
seen the palls of the Badb, and the rain-clouds of poison, and the sparks of fire very red in
clouds and in vapours over his head, with the boiling of fierce rage, that rose over him.
As high, as
thick, as strong, as powerful, as long, as the mast of a great ship, was the straight stream
of dark blood that rose straight up from the very top of his head, so that it made a dark
smoke of wizardry like the smoke of a palace when the king comes to equip himself in
the evening of a wintry day.
After that contortion wherewith Cuchulainn was contorted,
And he would not recognise comrades or friends. He would strike alike before and
behind. It is from this that the men of Connaught gave Cuchulainn the name Riastartha.
(Camp of the Connaughtmen)
And Findabair (daughter of Medbh and Ailill),shall be put at his right hand, and it shall
be said: “She shall come to you, if you bring us the head of the Riastartha.”’
A messenger used to be sent to every hero on his night, and that used to be told to
him; he continued to kill every man of them in turn. No one could be got by them to meet
him at last.
The translation is a little jarring because it relies too much on footnotes and cross-source examination. I would prefer a version that allows the story to flow as the mighty song of telling that it is, but as a scholarly piece it is very good in its referencing and inter-positions of interpretation and general impressions. However it is certainly not suitable as an introduction to Irish myth for anyone, as there is not much prefaced or explained in matters of context or custom here in this translation. But it does capture the essence of Cuchulainn and the importance of geography and clan, geiss and brutal honour to the ancient Gaels. Highly recommended, but I think only to be read as one of several different translations/versions of the Táin itself.
him by force, because his flame of valour has sprung.’
For it was customary with him, when his flame of valour sprang in him, that his feet
would go round behind him, and his hams before; and the balls of his calves on his shins,
and one eye in his head and the other out of his head; a man’s head could have gone into
his mouth. Every hair on him was as sharp as a thorn of hawthorn, and a drop of blood on
each hair... then came the first contortion on Cuchulainn, so that it made him horrible,
many-shaped, wonderful, strange. His shanks shook like a tree before the stream, or like a
rush against the stream, every limb and every joint and every end and every member of
him from head to foot... Then he made a red bowl of his face and of his visage on him;
He drew the cheek from the jawbone, so
that his gullet was visible. His lungs and his lights came so that they were flying in his
mouth and in his throat. He struck a blow of the —— of a lion with his upper palate on
the roof of his skull, so that every flake of fire that came into his mouth from his throat
was as large as a wether’s skin. His heart was heard light-striking (?) against his ribs like
the roaring of a bloodhound at its food, or like a lion going through bears. There were
seen the palls of the Badb, and the rain-clouds of poison, and the sparks of fire very red in
clouds and in vapours over his head, with the boiling of fierce rage, that rose over him.
As high, as
thick, as strong, as powerful, as long, as the mast of a great ship, was the straight stream
of dark blood that rose straight up from the very top of his head, so that it made a dark
smoke of wizardry like the smoke of a palace when the king comes to equip himself in
the evening of a wintry day.
After that contortion wherewith Cuchulainn was contorted,
And he would not recognise comrades or friends. He would strike alike before and
behind. It is from this that the men of Connaught gave Cuchulainn the name Riastartha.
(Camp of the Connaughtmen)
And Findabair (daughter of Medbh and Ailill),shall be put at his right hand, and it shall
be said: “She shall come to you, if you bring us the head of the Riastartha.”’
A messenger used to be sent to every hero on his night, and that used to be told to
him; he continued to kill every man of them in turn. No one could be got by them to meet
him at last.
The translation is a little jarring because it relies too much on footnotes and cross-source examination. I would prefer a version that allows the story to flow as the mighty song of telling that it is, but as a scholarly piece it is very good in its referencing and inter-positions of interpretation and general impressions. However it is certainly not suitable as an introduction to Irish myth for anyone, as there is not much prefaced or explained in matters of context or custom here in this translation. But it does capture the essence of Cuchulainn and the importance of geography and clan, geiss and brutal honour to the ancient Gaels. Highly recommended, but I think only to be read as one of several different translations/versions of the Táin itself.
August 19, 2021
I don't think there's really any getting around it. Tain Bo Cuailgne is a strange book. The basic matter - a wide scale cattle raid by a mythic queen and king - is literally the stuff of epics and the book was influential. This older translation by Faraday attempts to correlate the various manuscripts (each incomplete in various ways and with varying levels of corruption) into a work.
Which brings us to the strangeness. A great deal of the background material and history are simply not in the texts. Some of it survives in other places (I might put together a fun little project of reading through some of these texts) and some of it must be inferred. This alone would make the work hard to follow, but when you add in that there were words for which no translation was known at the time and descriptions and allusions that simply don't land, it gets stranger.
I will probably try to find a retelling of the story so that I can follow it all better.
Which brings us to the strangeness. A great deal of the background material and history are simply not in the texts. Some of it survives in other places (I might put together a fun little project of reading through some of these texts) and some of it must be inferred. This alone would make the work hard to follow, but when you add in that there were words for which no translation was known at the time and descriptions and allusions that simply don't land, it gets stranger.
I will probably try to find a retelling of the story so that I can follow it all better.
June 18, 2013
What can I say? The original story is great...and I was so glad I had been finally enabled to enjoy its account in full and rudimentary, without any modern modifications and abridgements... But, the Faraday's translation does a very little honour to its epicness and loftiness! What a choice of expressions! - he tends to be so much 'faithful' in his translating that he can't get above the level of the literal ('word-to-word') rendition! Often it quite spoils the native charm and atmosphere!
Though, on the other side, how can I really complain when this is (for what I know) the very first attemp to compile the 'Lebhar na h-Uidhri' and the 'Yellow Book of Lecan' and produce a balanced, faithful version of the famous Celtic legend in the proper English...
Though, on the other side, how can I really complain when this is (for what I know) the very first attemp to compile the 'Lebhar na h-Uidhri' and the 'Yellow Book of Lecan' and produce a balanced, faithful version of the famous Celtic legend in the proper English...
July 8, 2013
What can I say? The original story is great...and I was so glad I had been finally enabled to enjoy its account in full and rudimentary, without any modern modifications and abridgements... But, the Faraday's translation does a very little honour to its epicness and loftiness! What a choice of expressions! - he tends to be so much 'faithful' in his translating that he can't get above the level of the literal ('word-to-word') rendition! Often it quite spoils the native charm and atmosphere!
Though, on the other side, how can I really complain when this is (for what I know) the very first attemp to compile the 'Lebhar na h-Uidhri' and the 'Yellow Book of Lecan' and produce a balanced, faithful version of the famous Celtic legend in the proper English...
Though, on the other side, how can I really complain when this is (for what I know) the very first attemp to compile the 'Lebhar na h-Uidhri' and the 'Yellow Book of Lecan' and produce a balanced, faithful version of the famous Celtic legend in the proper English...
July 16, 2013
A complete and heavily annotated edition of the 'Tain Bo Cualnge'. An invaluable resource.
An account of both heroism and infamy. 'The clump-fight of Iliach' is one of the most stirring heroic tales I have ever read. Everyone in the Western world should know these stories.
Difficult to read at times, as it's been presented in very archaic language, primarily for aesthetic effect. This doesn't detract from the recurring patterns in the text, or the poetic sections, however.
A must-read.
An account of both heroism and infamy. 'The clump-fight of Iliach' is one of the most stirring heroic tales I have ever read. Everyone in the Western world should know these stories.
Difficult to read at times, as it's been presented in very archaic language, primarily for aesthetic effect. This doesn't detract from the recurring patterns in the text, or the poetic sections, however.
A must-read.
July 21, 2011
This was an old translation and pretty bad. Still, that wacky Celtic sense of humor comes through, when they describe things like the four different-colored dimples in Cahaulin's cheeks. Did these people take anything seriously? I hope not.
March 17, 2008
My eyes and brain hurt after reading this, but this ancient text is a beautiful taste of those archaic days.
Want to read
December 24, 2012my Kobo locked me out of this book after I downloaded an app to it, so I haven't been able to finish it :-p I will have to restore my Kobo probably to fix it. *sigh*
September 6, 2012
Interesting as all myths are, but the tight translation left it lacking in any sort of gripping story. Still, some good lines lie within.
December 14, 2018
Engaging myth that gets better as you go.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews