Early Irish Literature

Myles Dillon

An incandescent vision, a wildness of imagination, sensibility to sound and colour and form … human passion, love, sorrow and anger’. Thus Myles Dillon describes the enduring qualities of the literature of early modern Ireland. In Early Irish Literature, Dillon summarises and presents the historical, mythological and poetry legacy of ancient and medieval Ireland, spanning more than a millennium.

Here is a diverse multitude of tales from a tradition to rival Homer or the Arabian Nights – the tales of kings, chieftains, outcasts and visionaries. Here are the heroic exploits of Cú Chulainn, champion of the Ulstermen; the madness of King Suibhne; the Otherworld voyage of Mael Dúin; the visions of Adamnán and Mac Con Glinne; the elopement of Diarmuid with Grainne, pursued by the jealous Fionn.

Dillon has selected the best and most important of the tales and poems of early Ireland and has rendered them in a vibrant English translation, which preserves their inherent beauty and resonance. This book will be a valuable introduction to its topic for student and general reader alike.

Myles Dillon (1900–72) taught in Paris, Dublin, Chicago, Wisconsin, Edinburgh and Oxford. A pioneer in the fields of comparative philology and Celtic studies, he was President of the Royal Irish Academy and director of the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies.