Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances, and Folk-loreBrown, Stephen J. M. (Stephen James Meredith)
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Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances, and Folk-lore
Brown, Stephen J. M. (Stephen James Meredith)
English fiction -- Irish authors -- Bibliography; Ireland -- In literature -- Bibliography
The Cuchulain legends woven into an ordered narrative. The
translation for the most part is taken from texts already
published. Lady Gregory has made her own translation from them,
comparing it with translations already published. “I have fused
different versions together and condensed many passages, and I
have left out many.” The narrative is not told in dialect, but
in the idiom of the peasant who speaks in English and thinks
in Gaelic. “I have thought it more natural to tell the stories
in the manner of thatched houses, where I have heard so many
legends of Finn, &c. ... than in the manner of the slated
houses where I have not heard them.” The matter also is often
such as the peasant Seanchuidhe might choose; the clear epic
flow being clogged with garbage of the Jack-the-Giant-killer
type. Fiona MacLeod says very well of the style that it is
“over cold in its strange sameness of emotion, a little chill
with the chill of studious handicraft,” and speaks elsewhere of
its “monotonous passionlessness” and its “lack of virility.”
Yet to the book as a whole he gives high, if qualified, praise.
W. B. Yeats, in his enthusiastic Preface, speaks of it as
perhaps the best book that has ever come out of Ireland. All
these remarks apply also to the following work.
⸺ GODS AND FIGHTING MEN. Pp. 476. (_Murray_). 6_s._ Pref. by W. B. Yeats.
(N.Y.: _Scribner_). 2.00. 1906.
Treats of: Part I. “The Gods” (Tuatha De Danaan, Lugh, The
Coming of the Gael, Angus Og, the Dagda, Fate of Children
of Lir, &c.); II. “The Fianna” (Finn, Oisin, Diarmuid, and
Grania). The Finn Cycle is treated as being wholly legendary.
⸺ A BOOK OF SAINTS AND WONDERS. (_Murray_). 5_s._ 1907.
A series of very short (half page or so) and disconnected
stories of fragmentary anecdotes. Told in language which is
a literal translation from the Irish, and in the manner of
illiterate peasants. First, there are stories of the saints,
all quite fanciful, of course, and usually devoid of definite
meaning. Then there is the Voyage of Maeldune, a strange piece
of fantastic imagination often degenerating into extravagance
and silliness. The book is not suitable for certain readers
owing to naturalistic expressions.
⸺ THE KILTARTAN WONDER-BOOK. Pp. 103. 9 in. + 7. (_Maunsel_). 3_s._ 6_d._
net. Illustr. by Margaret Gregory. Linen cover. 1910.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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