Cath Maige Tuired: The Second Battle of Mag Tuired

Description

Elizabeth A. Gray (foilsithe den chéad uair / first published 1982)

vi + 142 pp. ISBN 1 870 16652 3

This volume, edited for the Society by Elizabeth A. Gray, is the only modern edition of one of the key texts of the mythological cycle of Irish storytelling. The story of the epic battle between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomoire, although written in the Old Irish period, is preserved only in a sixteenth-century manuscript. Set within the framework of early Irish pseudo-history, as contained in the Lebor Gabála Érenn (Vols 34, 35, 39, 41, 44 above) the tale is in fact, as the editor points out, timeless. Moreover, its basic theme of a battle between the gods is often compared with similar stories in Scandinavian and Indic traditions. More than any other Irish tale, therefore, it has attracted the attention of non-Irish specialists in mythology, such as Jan de Vries and Georges Dumézil. Dr Gray’s edition is acoompanied by extensive notes on the various Irish divinities featured in the tale.