Baile In Scáil: The Phantom’s Frenzy

Cur síos

Kevin Murray (2004)

180 pp. ISBN 1 870 16658 2

This new edition of the early Irish vision tale, Baile in Scáil, prepared for the Society by Kevin Murray of the Department of Early and Medieval Irish at UCC, provides a modern treatment of a text last edited by the great German scholar, Rudolf Thurneysen, in 1935. Dr Murray’s analysis of the text throws considerable new light on its origins and development. The tale is set on the ramparts of the hill of Tara, which is presented as a gateway to the Otherworld. Here Conn ‘of the hundred battles’ is said to have met the ‘Sovereignty of Ireland’ in the form of a beautiful maiden, and for every drink that she gave him, the god Lug named a future king of Ireland. The text thus bears important, and highly interesting, witness to the early Irish interpretation of kingship.