The Cattle Raid Of Cualnge Tain Bo Cuailnge An Old Irish Prose Epic Translated For The First Time From Leabhar Na H Uidhri And The Yellow Book Of Lecan By L Winifred Faraday

Author : L. Faraday
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781522715313
Total Pages : 164 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (153 download)

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Download or read book The Cattle-Raid of Cualnge (Tain Bo Cuailnge) written by L. Faraday and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-12-11 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At last the public are to have in their hands full translations of the chief Irish Prose-romance, the Táin Bó Cuailnge. Miss Winifred Faraday comes first with her translation of the versions from the Yellow Book of Lecan (Y. B. L.) and the Leabhar na h-Uidhre (L. U.), while we hear from another source that the last sheets of Dr. Windisch's long-promised edition of the Book of Leinster version have passed through the press. Thus, in the course of a few weeks, it will be possible to compare the two main versions of the story side by side. From the purely literary point of view, it is perhaps a pity that the Book of Leinster (L. L.) version has not been published first; it is fuller of detail, more explanatory and more picturesque, and it shows a more poetic sense of the dramatic evolution and sequence of the tale. To give a single example, The Táin or Cattle-raid, which forms the subject of this romance, has been undertaken by Medb, Queen of Connaught, for the purpose of gaining possession of a famous bull owned by a chief of Leinster, and which is coveted by the avaricious Queen. The great number of Irish tales founded on similar themes proves that these romances hail from a period when the country was in a purely pastoral condition, and wealth consisted, not in money or in land, but in cattle and live stock. The acquirement of more cattle was regarded as a fit purpose on which to embark on a lengthy war, and the frequency of these cattle-lifting expeditions must have kept the country in a perpetual state of ferment. Medb (Maive) is represented as a woman of extraordinary vigor and force of character. She openly prides herself on being the better half, both as regards birth, wealth, and fighting qualities, than her spouse, as before her marriage she boasted herself to have been the noblest in her father's house. The interesting "bolster-conversation " which forms the prologue to the Táin in L. L., in which Medb sets forth her attainments and her superior position, is not given in the versions followed by Miss Faraday, and the story thus begins without a sufficient explanation, which this conversation provides, of the cause and meaning of the raid. "As regards wage-giving and largesse, I was the best of them," says Medb; "as regards battle, strife, and combat, I was the best of them. Before me went fifteen hundred royal mercenaries from the ranks of the sons of adventurers, and in the centre an equal number of native chieftains' sons....." Medb is Queen of Connaught in her own right; it is she and not her husband who leads the armies of Ireland, and Ailill has to acquiesce in taking the inferior position of a mere prince-consort to his imperious wife.....