Customer Reviews

The Red Branch Tales

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The thirty stories that make up THE RED BRANCH TALES come from twelfth century Ireland translated into modern English with the beautiful lyrical prose that Dr. Randy Lee Eickhoff has brought to all his previous translations. The tales provide common themes of life among the various clans with the title providing an obvious clue as to what to expect. The stories vary in content with many dealing with heroism, war, and romance.

The anthology is entertaining though like much of medieval literature, formal language is sprinkled with baroque eloquence and comically lewd capers. Also included are "Fragments" of incomplete tales and proverbs. As usual Dr. Eickhoff provides a marvelous collection, that will be of interest to English majors and those readers who recently savored The Canterbury Tales or Beowulf.

Harriet Klausner

More of a retelling rather than a strict translation, this book is nevertheless researched thoroughly by the author. Covering many of the stories of the Ulster Cycle of myths, there are stories here that I actually hadn't heard before, as I am sure will be the case for many other readers. Overall, a great book, and not to be missed by someone interested in Irish and Celtic mythology.

Finally, translations of the corpus of medieval Irish literature are available!!!I have hunted for years to find little bits and pieces of the texts that Eichoff has so brilliantly brought together. I can't wait to get the rest of the series. Good job!