When I learned that China Mieville had appropriated the title "The Tain" for one of his little apocalypto-dystopic excursions back in 2002, my reaction was something like this: BACK OFF, MIEVILLE, YOU PLUNDERING, PLAGIARIZING SASSENACH GIT! THAT TITLE'S ALREADY TAKEN.Because, as every cultured person knows, "The Tain" (pronunciation "Thoyne") is the name given to the most important story in ancient Irish literature, the collection of tales also referred to as "The Ulster Cycle", or "The Cattle R...

The Tain is epic. In fact it is Epic - at least as Epic as more famous Epics, such as the Iliad. In fact, the number of correspondences between the Cattle Raid of Cooley and the story of Achilles' rage is remarkable. (It must be - I just remarked it.) Wanna know what they are (at least some of them, anyway)? Oi - you at the back! stop saying, "No."here we go:Illiad: Achilles only vulnerable on one heel.Tain: CuChulain's foster brother only vulnerable to a gae bolga shoved where the sun doesn't s...

The Táin or 'An Táin' (Irish), or complete as 'The Cattle Raid of Cooley' (Táin Bó Cúailnge). Let me just say I have some questions about this translation, and about the original transcribers who more than likely put their own spin on this story. What's more there are multiple modern translations that differ in transliteration and literary style and I'd like to understand the differences. All aside this is a tale that begins with a trivial quarrel of a queen and her lover which escalates to the

The Tain, sortof a bizarro Irish epic - like all the other Irish epics - was one of my favorite works in college. The definitive translation is by Kinsella (1969), but there's this newish one by Ciaran Carson (2007), which I've finally gotten around to judging.Here's the spoiler-free gist of the Tain: the Irish king Ailill and his wife Medb argue in bed over who's richer, and on the spot they insist on having every item they each own brought to them so they can tally it up - herds and all. They

I love these myths and legends with all my heart ❤ Much of early Irish literature has been lost and anything that does survive, has been translated from mostly flawed and mutilated manuscripts. Irish literature is thought to have had an strong oral existence before it received any literary shape.Unfortunately, the monastic scribes that sought to record these legends inadvertently (or prehaps so) added a few traces of Christian colouring to these legends. How much of the information that has been...

Ireland's rather quirky answer to The Iliad. The Tain as a name sounds somewhat serious and ominous, a misleading impression -- the alternative title The Cattle-Raid of Cooley perhaps better captures the tone of the story. This is a tale that is at root about a woman wanting to win an argument with her new husband (or rather, that's the gloss, he very actively supports her in the raid). In essence, she desires a loan of a famous Ulster bull, to contrast with her husband's famous bull, and since

When I came across an actual copy of this book during my visit to Chicago, I was almost afraid to buy it. I had to buy it, of course--it's not often I find real evidence of Celtic Studies works showing up in bookstores, and when I do find titles that fit the bill, I always buy them. Bookstores need to be supported and congratulated for stocking things that are outside of the mainstream.I was afraid to read the book because I was convinced that Thomas Kinsella's translation, graced by Louis le Br...

Imagine someone took you for a walk from the North to the South of the USA, from New England across the Mason-Dixon line and onward to Georgia, all the while using cues from the landscape to narrate the Civil War. The Táin does this, guiding the reader through an interactive map where the story and the landscape are inseparable. While undeniably a "classic" epic, the unity of place, narrative, and heritage gives The Táin the feel of classic Indian epics, like the Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana, couc...

It's fascinating to read texts like this, because it's ALMOST like reading about what militant secularists wish were the case: a world with NO religion. In this pre-Christian epic, we see how people make meaning of their lives without their perspective being "muddled" by ideas about God, heaven, hell, right and wrong. What would it be like? Much to the chagrin of an atheist/secularist/anti-Christian activist, life is hell-ish without religion.Take sex. Secularists say Christianity spoils sex for...

I just read this book for the third time, and finished teaching it this morning. I always kind of forget how very, very weird the Irish were. We just spent 30 minutes in each section talking about sex, and then 20 on whether this is a credible source or not for the 1st century. Cuchulainn kills people in the most interesting ways. Anyway, I love this book - it just is such a reminder that people think about the world differently. Kinsella's translation is also interesting - no notes marked in th...

Giving this stars seems kind of ridiculous. But I will, anyway.It is a minor embarrassment that I had not read The Táin until last week. When my sister found out she made me, which is fair enough. We are quite immersed in many of the stories surrounding the Ulster cycle during our education: the young Cúchulainn, Medb and Ailill. We are even told a vastly simplified version of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, mostly focusing on the two bulls and not the war going on around them.My first shock was how blood...

I haven't read much Irish mythology at all, so it was high time I got round to reading The Táin. It's an epic based around the feats of Cù Chulainn, as he defends the land of Ulster from the armies of Ailell and Medb. It's (here's one of my favourite words again) hyperbolic and, well, it's an epic, what do you expect? There's verse and one-on-one combats and ridiculous feats of arms involving throwing spears through boulders and so on. I was actually surprised by how little I knew about The Tain...

The Táin Bó Cúailnge is known as maybe the greatest epic in Irish heroic age mythology. It’s been called the Irish Iliad, and is considered Ireland’s national epic. It deserves all these accolades, and then some. This is a furious, bloody, grand heroic saga, a celebration of the Ulaid people, one of them in particular, the pinnacle of the Ulster cycle, and an all around intensely inspired legend that floored me with its inventiveness and imagination. It is a myth that was carried through the age...

Note: I compared this translation to Ciaran Carson's here. Tl;dr Kinsella wins.

A really fantastic translation, keeping the pieces that exist of this story in their original formats, which doesn't always go together as smoothly as the modern reader might prefer. The subtle humor in the story is maintained as well, which seems like a small thing, but honestly, it's those small touches that stand to remind us that people have always been people, whether they're raiding for bulls or dining and dashing at a steakhouse. The tragedies are huge, and the losses vast, and the poetry...

3.5/5 This was...interesting.

The Cattle Raid of Cooley, Irish Táin bó Cuailnge, Old Irish epiclike tale that is the longest of the Ulster cycle of hero tales and deals with the conflict between Ulster and Connaught over possession of the brown bull of Cooley. The tale was composed in prose with verse passages in the 7th and 8th centuries. It is partially preserved in The Book of the Dun Cow (c. 1100) and is also found in The Book of Leinster (c. 1160) and The Yellow Book of Lecan (late 14th century). Although it contains pa...

This is a really accessible translation of the main story from the Ulster Cycle of early Irish myths. Except for the purposefully obscure roscata (a feature of Celtic myth consisting of fragmented prose-poetry), it is fairly easy to follow the action and sequence of events in this myth, which is important because sometimes the story depends on seemingly supernatural events or actions.The story itself does a good job of retaining traces of an oral storytelling tradition, like highly stylized desc...

I didn't really care for this even though I wanted to. I had heard it was the Irish legend to read. The part I didn't like was pages and pages of names and places over and over again, it got to where I just skipped over the names and places. I found it monotonous and boring. The core of the story, (the war on Ulster by Queen Maeb, the magic bulls and my favorite champion, Cuchulainn) was good but could have been written better. I'm sure, at the time when this was an oral tradition, it was fantas...

The best epic story ever ! Sometimes it makes me sad to think that 'The Táin' is not as known as Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey ! Even if this is a medieval text, it doesn't look so : there are no priests, no church , no knights in shining armour, no chrisitan strict rules in the hole narrative . So it doesn't matter if you don't like medieval history : you're going to like this story the same way!

To keep it short and sweet this is a must read for anyone interested in Irish history and culture, Celtic Heathenry, Odinism, mythology or general Celtic studies. One of the most essential texts for learning about any of these things but besides that the saga of Cuchulainn is a great entertaining story too.

Another read for my British literature class. I really enjoyed reading this part of early Irish literature/folklore. The translation was easy to understand and made it a quick read. If you enjoy early literature, I suggest putting this one on your TBR pile.

Beautiful.The Táin is a bizarre Irish classic. It's the story of a great cattle raid - and Kinsella's translation is widely considered the best. I'll be reading Ciarán Carson's translation soon, but it seemed prudent to begin with the most widely read version first and I'm glad that I did. This collection includes supplementary stories to fill the necessary backstory for the story at large, as well as plenty of additional notes to explain where the translation was altered, rearranged, etc. The

It seems banal to give something like this a review. It's a wonderful story, but it often makes for strange reading. Improbable tails of Cúchulainn's battles give way to detailed discussions of the placenames of Ireland. More time is spent describing the soldiers in the Ulster army then is spent on the penultimate battle itself.A sea of names fight and die but only a few characters and relationships stand out. Alill ad Medb's relationship is the most intriguing, with Medb's insatiable promiscuit...

Somewhat of a confusing tale, but one of bloodshed and legend, including the intricate detail that was seldom mentioned during childhood. Really brings the story in its entirety full circle. At times, could be confusing with the names, due to attentive issues on my own fault, but also with the sheer volume of names used. However, I feel like, as a whole, having read it, the names play a more serious role than is apparent at the offset .

Two people have the stupidest marital squabble in the history of marital squabbles, they start a war, tens of thousands of people die stupidly, and they decide to call it a draw. It’s like The Iliad without any character development.

briliant translation!

It feels unfair to give a text such as this (or Beowulf, or The Odyssey) a rating at all. Ah yes, this ur-text, this work of elemental power, this millennia-old myth, could have been more cohesive, more compelling. F*ck off, me.But also, three stars.

Re: Coachella and Ferdude"And they were ROOMMATES!"

Irish Queen Medb is pissed. The only thing separating her wealth from her husband Ailill's is a supernatural bull, which should be hers except that he defected to Ailill's herd because he didn't want to be owned by a woman. Very regressive, this is the 8th century already, come on. So she decides to invade the neighboring province of Ulster to steal this other supernatural bull and even the score. Ailill goes along because sure, nothing more fun than a good cattle rustling war. Bolstering their