It tells the story of a great cattleraid, the invasion of ulster by the armies of medb and ailill, queen and king of connacht, and their allies. There are unmistakable signs that this atmosphere is a sophisticated construction of the past, making its historicity a. Tain bo cuailnge from the book of leinster irish literature prose. Light blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine, endnotes and index. The tain bo cuailnge appears alien, primitive, and unimaginably ancient. It tells of a war against ulster by the connacht queen medb and her husband ailill. Because the men of ulster are afflicted by a debilitating curse, the seventeenyearold cuchulain must. Tain bo cuailnge from the book of leinster irish literature prose english and irish edition.
Tain bo cuailnge from the book of leinster irish literature prose english and irish edition cecile orahilly on. The ancient irish epic tale tain bo cualnge, the cualnge cattleraid, now for the first time done entire into english out of the irish of the book of leinster and allied manuscripts by tain bo cuailnge. Tain bo cuailnge recension ii, book of leinster, ed. The cattle raid of cooley, irish tain bo cuailnge, old irish epiclike tale that is the longest of the ulster cycle of hero tales and deals with the conflict between ulster and connaught over possession of the brown bull of cooley. The tain the cattle raid of cooleyas translated by thomas kinsellathe literary work a prose narrative with poetic inserts set in ireland in the first century c. Tain bo cualnge, from the book of leinster cecile o. The book of leinster copy of the tain bo cuailnge ends with a colophon in irish and latin. The project gutenberg ebook of tain bo cualnge, by joseph. The morrigan makes a fair few appearances, as do her sisters. Dublin, dublin institute for advanced studies, 1967 ocolc6195522. The tain bo cuailnge, the cattle raid of cooley, often just called the tain pronounced tawn though there are actually a number of different tain stories as we said lies at the heart of irelands epic storytelling legacy. The problem of classical influence in the book of leinster tain bo.
Together they make a complete tain story, copied over the centuries from book to book. The tain a new translation of the tain bo cuailnge, translated by ciaran carsonthis is the translation that the tain so long has required to unpack its subtle. The tain, a poets translation by thomas kinsella, the dolmen press, oxford unversity press, 1969. Dooley argues that the scribes work is both a transmission and a translation, and that their own changing. The tain has been translated by bryan olooney in a manuscript entitled tain bo cualnge. Synopsis the hero cu chulainn stages a superhuman defense of ulster from the. Like there, the section titles are for the most part taken from the subheadings in cecile orahillys edition of recension i orahilly, c. The ancient irish epic tale tain bo cualnge, the cualnge. The text of the tain is found in whole or in part in the xxxiii facsimile reprints published by the royal irish academy, dublin, 1870 and following. It tells the story of a great cattleraid, the invasion of ulster by the armies of medb and ailill, queen and king of connacht, and their allies, seeking to carry off the great brown bull of cuailnge.
This is the first episode of recension i, described in its concluding statement as being the introductory part titulrad of the tain. Dublin, dublin institute for advanced studies, 1967. The cattleraid of cooley tain bo cualnge is the central epic of the ulster cycle. There are fourteen similes in the book, and the occurrence of the device in the other books of the iliad is of comparable frequency. Cecile orahilly has published academic editionstranslations of both recensions, tain bo cuailnge from the book of leinster 1967 5 and tain bo cuailnge recension 1 1976, 6 as well as an edition of the later stowe version 1984, a variant version of recension 2 in more modern language, with a few extra passages. The majority of the action in the tain bo cuailnge is fights between this boy, and various heroes that medb has to send against him. Dublin institute for advanced studies, 1967 and volume 6 edited by anne osullivan. Cecile orahilly has published academic editionstranslations of both recensions, tain bo cuailnge from the book of leinster 1967 and tain bo cuailnge recension 1 1976, as well as an edition of the later stowe version 1984, a variant version of recension 2 in more modern language with a few extra passages. Vergil, too, employed the device of the homeric simile to create some. The cattle raid of cooley gaelic literature britannica. It would seem from another note in the manuscript that the book of leinster. In the book of leinster there is an interesting scribal colophon at the end of its own peculiar recension of the tain bo cuailnge. The revealing of the tain bo cuailnge there are several legends of how the tain bo cuailnge cattle raid of cooley, the central epic of the ulster cycle, was lost, and had to be recovered or reconstructed. The first of them is preserved in lebhor na huidhre the book of the dun cow, dated circa 1100 ce, and in the yellow book of lecan, a late fourteenthcentury manuscript.
Dias online book shop tain bo cuailnge from the book of leinster ed. Cecile orahilly published academic editionstranslations of both recensions, tain bo cualnge from the book of leinster 1967, and tain bo cuailnge recension 1 1976, as well as an edition of the later stowe version, the stowe version of tain bo cuailnge 1961. Eventually the men of connacht are repulsed by the ulstermen and their spectacular. Recension i 1976, with significant variants from recension ii, edited in orahilly, c. Cecile orahilly has published academic editionstranslations of both recensions, tain bo cuailnge from the book of leinster 1967 and tain bo cuailnge recension 1 1976, as well as an edition of the later stowe version 1984, a variant version of recension 2 in more modern language, with a few extra passages. They include the lebhor gabala the book of invasions, a narrative on the origin of the irish, the corpus of topographical lore dindshenchas erenn tradition or lore of places within ireland and the heroic epic, tain bo cuailnge the cattle raid of cooley. Jan 04, 2018 in the book of leinster there is an interesting scribal colophon at the end of its own peculiar recension of the tain bo cuailnge.
Cecile orahillys editions of the story as it is preserved in the book of the dun cow 1976 and the book of leinster 1967 are regarded as the most authoritative dublin institute of advanced studies. Vergil, too, employed the device of the homeric simile to create some of his most notable passages. The tain bo cuailnge has come down to us in three recensions. Early irish manuscripts are the oldest remaining extant literary source material in europe, opening a fascinating window to the medieval society in. Cecily orahilly, tain bo cualnge from the book of leinster. Tain bo cualnge from the book of leinster by anonymous. The first has been reconstructed from partial texts contained in lebor na huidre the book of the dun cow, dating from the 11th or 12th century and compiled at the monastery at clonmacnoise and lebor buide lecain the yellow book of lecan, a 14th century.
The manuscript was acquired by the welsh antiquary edward lhuyd 16601709 and. The project gutenberg ebook of tain bo cualnge, by joseph dunn. Dublin institute for advanced studies, 1984, 1967 ocolc608384719. Tain bo cualnge from the book of leinster book, 1984. The similes in the book of leinster tain bo cuailnge. The tale was composed in prose with verse passages in the 7th and 8th centuries. This is a great battle saga tale set around the 1st century ce. Yellow book of lecan project gutenberg selfpublishing. The following is a translation of the book of leinster into english based upon the gaelic diplomatic edition edited by r.
The tain bo cuailnge, centrepiece of the eighthcentury ulster cycle of heroic tales, is irelands nearest approach to a great epic. Tain bo cuailnge is available in various online and print formats. Tain bo cuailnge from the book of leinster irish literature. Book of leinster colophon to the tain bo cuailnge codecs. But i who have copied this history or, more accurately, fable, do not give credence to certain things in this history or fable. The morrigan makes a fair few appearances, as do her sisters, as theres a lot of otherworldly elements to the whole tale, and of course theyd be in the thick of all that. The widely admired and imitated style of the book of leinster version of tain b6. Joseph falaky nagy, heroic destinies in the macgnimrada of finn and cu chulainn, zeitschrift fur celtische philologie 40 1984 2339. It is partially preserved in the book of the dun cow c.
Jan 17, 2018 recension 1 there is a partial text in leabhair na huidre, the book of the dun cow, which is dated to the late s ce, and the rest of this version is found in the yellow book of lecan, dated to the late 0s. Translated from the original vellum manuscript known as the book of leinster, in the library of trinity college, dublin. Tain bo cuailnge the cattle raid of cooley critical essays. Tain bo cualnge, from the book of leinster cecile orahilly. Full text of the cattleraid of cualnge tain bo cuailgne. The first edition of this newly edited version of tain bo cuailnge an epic from early irish literature which is often called the irish iliad, even though, like the icelandic sagas and most other early. The cattle raid of cooley, irish tain bo cuailnge, old irish epiclike tale that is the longest of the ulster. It tells of a war against ulster by the connacht queen medb and her husband ailill, who. This is a study of an early irish heroic tale, the tain bo cuailnge the cattle raid of the cooley. Corpus of electronic texts edition tain bo cualnge from the book of leinster author.
I have given credit for each section and i accept full responsibility for mistakes largely in the ocr process but, especially in volume 6, in my own. Dilts swartz, repetition in the book of leinster tain bo cuailnge and in neoclassical rhetoric, proceedings of the harvard celtic colloquium 5 1984 128146. I have not read the older one but i can vouch that this contemporary english rendering is amazing and so pleasant to read. Background details and bibliographic information the celt edition as a single. Medb weet echter toch donn cuailnge mee naar connacht te nemen, alwaar deze. The translations by thomas kinsella oxford university. Isbn 0851051782 the cattleraid of cooley complete irish with sidebyside english translation by l.
As far as i know there are only two full english translations of the tain bo cuailnge. Cecile orahilly has published academic editionstranslations of both recensions, tain bo cualnge from the book of leinster 1967 and tain bo cuailnge recension 1 1976, as well as an edition of the later stowe version 1984, a variant version of recension 2 in more modern language, with a few extra passages. It examines the role and function of honour, both within the tale and within the society that produced the text. It is the second one in recension ii, after the story of the pillowtalk between medb and ailill, although in the final note, it appears to be distinguished from that preface as being more intrinsically part of the tain proper tairngire.
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