Customer Reviews

Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan & of the Fianna of Ireland (Coole Edition of Lady Gregory's Works; V. 3)

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Gods and Fighting Men is an excellent resource because it preserves the lore from the Book of Invasions as well as other sources -- the legends of the earliest inhabitants of Ireland, the coming of the Tuatha De Danaan (The People of Dana) and the stories of Finn MacCumhail.

What is portrayed as "Early Irish Mythology" 99% of the time actually isn't -- the dozens of translations of The Tain, albeit worthy reading, are actually the lore of Ulster, a single Irish province. This makes it Ulster Mythology (regional) more than Irish Mythology (national).

The legends of the Tuatha De Danaan are essential for a comprehensive understanding of Irish mythology, actually comprising the majority of the Mythological Cycle, and deal with the initial settling of all of Ireland.

Unfortunately, it seems to be modern New Age reconstructions of the Mythological Cycle rather than the native stories that seem to be infusing themselves into the mainstream, and that is sad.

In my mind, the Mythological Cycle is the most important cycle in Irish mythology, because it sets up the scenario for all that is to follow. The Fenian Cycle (legends of Finn MacCumhail and his warband) are fascinating not only for their strong associations with Nature, but also for the fact that the stories are well-known both in Ireland and in the Scottish Highlands. The Gods still walked and resided on (or in) the Earth and interacted often with mortals. Magic was all around.

The Tain, on the other hand, is more a time of towns and forts and war-chariots; a time when magic was less present and people were less intertwined with Nature than in the Golden Age. The Gods had already departed our realm and only made brief cameos in the stories.

In summary, Gods and Fighting Men is the actual collection of Irish Mythology from the earliest legends. It affects all of Ireland and the stories are fairly widespread throughout the Gaelic world. Lady Gregory wrote these translations with a view to retain the native Irish sense of story-telling; this she achieved remarkably well.

My one concern is that it would have been nice for Lady Gregory to have cited her sources for each story. I know that in many cases she blended versions from several sources to produce what she saw as the purest form of the story, but a simple listing of these would have been fantastic from an academic standpoint.

Overall this is probably the greatest collection of Irish Mythology I have found so far, albeit Lady Gregory's focus was primarily as storyteller rather than academic (this is not a bad thing -- dry, stale translations of Irish lore would have been extremely anti-Irish in themselves).

This should probably be the FIRST book one reads of Irish Mythology. I highly recommend this book and the fact that it is value-priced definitely doesn't hurt, either. This book is definitely worth several times its cost.

Happy Reading!

The works of Lady Gregory are the best way to get a pure taste of the original Irish Myths - unless you are fluent in Gaelic and can get a hold of older copies. Lady Gregory's elequent speech and style breathes life into Ireland's forgotten Heroes and Gods!

Lady Gregory faithfully renders old Irish stories into a form that we clods that only speak English can understand. She does not, however, make them more prosaic, or fix them into what we normally find as our story format! They are true to the original structures of the genre, and are much more lively and fun for that. My wife places them firmly in the nature of Irish legend, which she calls "We went over there and stole their cow!" (Tain Bo Cuailnge is basically a story of a cow theft, and is one of the most famous stories of Irish legend). I love the split style, and it does give the reader a good understanding of the way stories were related in the old days. A must for those who want to know where some of the ancient Irish names derive!

This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in the Irish revival. Lady Gregory's literary recreation of western Ireland's Anglo-Irish dialect is simply a delight. Some readers complain here that these are not faithful translations of the Old Irish texts. No doubt, but we don't read Lady Gregory for philological accuracy. That said, she had a profound knowledge of many of the older texts.

Readers should beware that the Kessinger Publishing edition is riddled with misprints and mistakes on almost every single page (hence the low rating for this particular edition). The publishers seem to have scanned an original edition and then changed the type to a very boring and ugly text. Unfortunately, their scanner was not very good. "b"s and "h"'s are regularly interchanged (p. 19" "be [read `he') lost his arm") and many of the proper names are mangled beyond recognition (e.g. p. 44: Ild -strange double cross symbol -nach for "Ildanach). I have never seen a more poorly presented text. Shame on Kessinger!

Lady Gregory has written a very precise and easily read translation of some of the best of Irish mythology. Originally written at the turn of the ninetteenth century it still holds today.I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Celtic mythology and lore.

Aside from the fact that this book uses old fashioned language that is not as easy to wade through as a modern novel, the stories are compelling and timeless. Since these stories are a collection of ancient Irish myth and lore, it is a must read for anyone interested in Irish history and cultural development. Whether it is or is not historically accurate is not the point. These stories are archetypes upon which the cultural mentality was formed, or perhaps the stories emerged from the inner life of the culture. Many of them informed the later Arthurian legends which are so popular today.

Though I did not find it to be an easy read, I did enjoy it and feel that it rounded out my understanding of my Irish roots and how they influence the world around me.

I'm glad this book has been kept in publication because it is a kind of historical record, although it would have been nice if Forgotten Books had shown more respect and spent more time keeping the typos down.
It seems the book is a compilation of stories, a bit willy-nilly. The problem I had was the style of story telling and the endless droning effect it had on me. And, the stories themselves were often comprised of various people going about Ireland or the world whacking each other over the head. Even though an occassional nobility of character was mixed in that didn't save the tales from a dreary sameness as to how one interacts with the world.
Gotta give it a 2.

The publisher, Forgotten Books, makes their books available on-line for free. I baught this book because it was so long I needed a copy of it in hand, but the publisher has many other books on the same topic that you can read. They sell all their books on Amazon at cost. This was a very good buy for me.

There are some errors in the spelling in the book, but the book is otherwise wonderful. I've really enjoyed reading it.