Sidh: Stories from the Women in Irish Mythology

by Karina Tynan, Kathy Tynan (Illustrator)

A collection of mythic stories retold from the perspectives of the women.

155 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2023

Reviews

[Muriel (The Purple Bookwyrm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

More accurate rating: 5.5-6/10.

I found this to be a pretty underwhelming, and ultimately disappointing collection of Irish mythology 'retellings'. There was next to no range to the kinds of stories the author chose to reinterpret; the female characters she chose to focus on were also almost all, invariably, passive individuals with little – outside of romance and motherhood – to give them pleasure and motivation in life. I would've liked to hear more about the female druids a couple of the stories mentioned in passing...

Outside of that: I wasn't a fan of the collection's opening stories, which mixed in Biblical shenanigans with the 'pagan' stuff, but kinda liked its closing story about Brigid.

The book's accompanying illustrations were... alright, not really my thing.
So yeah: barely worth reading once, and certainly not worth the price I paid for it. 😅

[Jennifer Connolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this after reading, Táin, Tynan’s first collection of mythological retellings a while ago. I thought Sídh was much better executed and I found the points of continuity between the stories kept me engaged. I really love the concept of these collections, mythology and female Irish authors are two of my favourite things to look for in a book so it’s great when they come together. My main criticism for this collection is that the women seemed to mostly exist in the context of the men in their lives, often either as a mother or as a wife. I don’t know enough about the individual tales to know if this is a criticism for how women are represented in Irish mythology in general or specifically this retelling.
I am interested to look further into this but my guess is it’s the former.

[Nuria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was gonna be better than it actually was, but at least I got to learn something new.

[Isa · Rating 3 out of 5]

bought this book from the irish communist party