The Treasure of the Tuatha De Danann: a dual language collection of Irish myth

by Morgan Daimler

This dual language pocket book represents a collection of new translations of several Irish myths. Each story is first presented in the original Old Irish and then in English so that a reader can experience the story as it existed in the original before reading a new translation. Many of the existing translations are around a hundred years old, and often either exclude material or else skew the retelling to fit the mores of a more Victorian audience. The translations included here in stories including Angus's Dream to the Taking of the Sidhe are an attempt to find a balance between a more literal translation that is still enjoyable to an English speaking audience. All material focuses on the stories of the Irish Gods, the Tuatha De Danann.

Genres: Mythology, Irish Literature, Witchcraft, Ireland, Reference, Paganism, Fantasy

94 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 23, 2015

About the author

My name is Morgan Daimler. I have had my poetry and prose published in different places including various anthologies, Circle magazine, Witches and Pagans magazine and Pagan Dawn magazine. I am the author of the urban fantasy series Between the Worlds and (through Cosmic Egg Books) the high fantasy novel Into Shadow. I've written more than a dozen non-fiction works through Moon Books including Fairy Witchcraft, Pagan Portals: the Morrigan, Fairies: A Guide to the Celtic Fair Folk, A New Dictionary of Fairies, and Pagan Portals Aos Sidhe

Reviews

[Don Gerstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read a few of Morgan Daimler’s books and I was not prepared for “The Treasure of the Tuatha De Danaan.” The book’s description informs us that the book will be about the Tuatha De Danaan and an attempt to improve upon the translations from a hundred years ago, many which reflect the mores of a previous generation. Without seeing the previous translations, I assume that the author succeeded on these two points.

The description also said the “…translations included here in …are an attempt to find a balance between a more literal translation that is still enjoyable to an English speaking audience.” I found the translations to be very difficult to follow. Perhaps that is because I am not already familiar with the legends and stories. Even a rereading (sometimes more than one) helped lightly, sometimes not at all.

The author does include a bibliography (and links in the Kindle copy) and explanatory notes on some of the passages.

Overall, I found a few passages that were enjoyable but for the most part, it was very difficult for to understand most of the translations. I believe that Ms. Daimler worked hard to maintain the integrity of the originals which resulted in my struggle. Readers more familiar with the characters may have a different experience. Three stars.

[Ian Slater · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Treasures of the Tuatha De Danann" is a nice selection of short, and very short, Irish mythological tales and traditions, all recorded (like the rest of Irish literature) in Christian times, but regarding the "People of the Goddess Dana," i.e. the gods of the "pagan" Irish, sometimes involving the traditional heroes of the "Sons of Mil" (or "Milesians" -- a term for the legendary ancestors of the Christian Irish, regarded as originally intruders in the Ireland of the Tuatha De Danann).

The Kindle book is arranged with blocks of Irish (i.e., Gaelic) text followed by their English translation: presumably a hard-copy version would have them on facing pages. The Irish texts are all out-of-copyright nineteenth- and early twentieth-century (well, at least no later than 1930 or so) editions from scholarly journals. The translations are new, and supported by a (very few) notes which directly address the manuscript readings or the meanings of words.

I can't comment on the accuracy of the English rendering, but it is readable, if at time noticeably literal. One can get used to the Irish style rather quickly, especially of the idioms are mostly repeated from tale to tale.

There are a couple of oddities. The most notable is that Morgan Daimler has apparently spent a *lot o*f time with the German-language periodicals in which some of the editions appeared, and hasn't always remember to link up their terms with English equivalents. For example, there are several references to a "von Egerton manuscript," which is simply a half-translated way of saying "*from* (the) Egerton manuscript," that is, a manuscript from a collection then in the British Museum, now assigned to the British Library.

I assume that this is (usually, at least), Egerton 1782, which has a large collection of such material, although there are a couple of other relevant manuscripts (at least) in the collection, which was willed to the British Museum with an endowment which has allowed it to be expanded. (One can now check this on Wikipedia, without which I wouldn't have ventured the manuscript number.)

I've been reading translations of Irish mythological material for decades, and this is a very good presentation of some of the "minor" (i.e., short) tales, some of them quite well-known, at least in outline, and some fairly obscure. I won't go into many details, as they would amount to spoilers, but readers familiar with the subject will likely recognize, e.g., the wooing of a woman seen in a dream by the god Aengus Og (various spellings), and the trick by which Aengus received a home of his own from his father, the god Dagda.

There is also a second volume (for now), "Tales of the Tuatha De Danann," which includes some non-mythological literature, notably the poem "Pangur Ban" (in praise of a white cat), and some incantation and divination texts. I intend to review this one as well, and hope to have more to say (as non-narrative texts don't have a lot of spoilers to worry about).

[K.S. Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently journeyed to Ireland to take part in a Sacred Journey centered around The Morrigan and the Sidhe (The Good Neighbors, The Other Crowd). The trip was planned/co-ordinated by Vyviane Armstrong of Land Sea Sky Travel. http://www.landseaskytravel.com/ It was hosted by Vyvian, Stephanie Woodfield (author of Celtic Lore and Spellcraft of the Dark Goddess), and Morgan Daimler.

Each of the participants was given a gift bag and in it was a copy of this book. How fortunate we are that Morgan has such a tremendous passion for translating Old Irish so that we may enjoy (and benefit from) accurate retellings of the ancient myths.

I found myself wide awake at 5 am and, not wanting to disturb my cabin-mates, I tiptoed out to the living room of our cabin and settled in with this book. I devoured it in one sitting and enjoyed it tremendously. If you are at all interested in Irish myth, this is definitely a must-have for your library.

[Shona (spectralpages) · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection, best read with a relatively extensive knowledge of Irish mythology; mine is pretty basic so I lacked a lot of context and didn't recognize some of the figures mentioned. However, it was a refreshing translation and I prefer it to the more christianised adaptations of the stories I've read in the past. All the more reason for me to read the second volume!

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please read my review at Celtic Scholar's Reviews and Opinions

[Andrew Pixton · Rating 4 out of 5]

One small, compact book for a quick dive. The treasure for me is the Old Irish included, although I have to say the odd writing/punctuation had me wondering if that's the way it's originally written or Daimler's. She did have some occasional minor editing errors in the English part so I'm not sure. But it's beautiful either way, the Irish language is one of the most beautiful on the planet to my mind. If I had any complaint, it'd be that not only are the stories small but also broken up. Some are just short to begin with, others give us a second half. I get that we're dealing with incomplete records, so I don't hold it against the book and love how objective she is in presentation.

[Meredith Piniella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frustrating to read

I had to skim over the Gaelic versions to read the English translations. I did find the Gaelic interesting to look at, but the English was also somewhat difficult for me, as punctuation was very poor, often having to re-read certain sentences, trying to figure out where commas should have been for clarification. The words its and it's are often used improperly; "its" being the possessive and the other a contraction for "it is". Also, one of the last stories used the word "where" when should've used "were".
If these kinds of things bother you as they do me, it's a very frustrating read
.

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book has various stories and legends in both old or middle Irish and in English. Some of these include The Cattle Raid of Regamna and a variety of others. Some of the things I found most interrsting was someone who supposedly had three hearts, the requiements for a king (no lying, no perjury, no deciet and no unjust soveringty -which leaves out a whole lot of our politicians), the four treasures of the Tuatha De Danana and lot of of other interesting material.

There's also a biography.

Looking at the old Irish words to me they seem that they would be very hard to pronounce.

[Gille Liath · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dodgy!
Does this New Age witchy woman really know Old Irish? Because what I strongly suspect is that she has simply re-worded other translations. That would explain why the two languages are not presented in parallel, as is usual.

Re-telling is okay, but you need to be honest about it.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Above my head

I don't know much about Irish Mythology, so I was hoping to learn a bit. This is mostly scholarly snippets, that are not obviously tied together for the lay person. No doubt helpful and informative for the more serious Irish, or pagan scholar.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Treasure of the Tuatha De Danann

This is a wonderful dual language collection of Irish myths. Morgan Daimler's translations are enjoyable and include tales of The Morrigan and The Dagda.
Highly recommended to anyone interested in the myths of Ireland.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult read. I believe it is due to the translation. Perhaps if I could read Gaelic, I'd like it. Unfortunately, the way it was translated-apparently quite literally and without much modernization- made it challenging to read.

[Stray Sojourner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elegant in its Simplicity

A small but solid collection of Irish Pagan tales.
Seeing the original text along side the translation
is something neat as well.

[William Bloomingdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treasure indeed

I always enjoy Daimler’s translations and their academic approach to relaying all possible meanings to their readers. - Kat Bloomingdale

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous translation. A quick read when you are only reading the english text, but well worth your time.

[Erica Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

great translation

Easy to understand and consume. Really appreciate the translation and work put into this release among all the others of Morgan’s.