Research Catalog

Title

Coire Sois, The Cauldron of Knowledge : a Companion to Early Irish Saga / Tomás Ó Cathasaigh ; edited by Matthieu Boyd.

Author

Ó Cathasaigh, Tomás, 1942-

Publication

Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, 2013.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Boyd, Matthieu

Description

xxvii, 618 pages : maps; 24 cm

Summary

"Coire Sois, The Cauldron of Knowledge: A Companion to Early Irish Saga offers thirty-one previously published essays by Tomas Ó Cathasaigh, which together constitute a magisterial survey of early Irish narrative literature in the vernacular. Ó Cathasaigh has been called "the father of early Irish literary criticism," with writings among the most influential in the field. He pioneered the analysis of the classic early Irish tales as literary texts, a breakthrough at a time when they were valued mainly as repositories of grammatical forms, historical data, and mythological debris. All four of the Mythological, Ulster, King, and Finn Cycles are represented here in readings of richness, complexity, and sophistication, supported by absolute philological rigor and yet easy for the non-specialist to follow. The book covers key terms, important characters, recurring themes, rhetorical strategies, and the narrative logic of this literature. It also surveys the work of the many others whose explorations were launched by Ó Cathasaigh's first encounters with the literature. As the most authoritative single volume on the essential texts and themes of early Irish saga, this collection will be an indispensable resource for established scholars, and an ideal introduction for newcomers to one of the richest and most under-studied literatures of medieval Europe. "Tomas Ó Cathasaigh is that rare scholar in Celtic studies whose work has much to say not only to advanced scholars in the field but also to specialists dealing with other literatures, comparative mythologists, and undergraduates. Our understanding of medieval Irish epic and saga is immeasurably enriched by his elegant writing style, his erudition, and his wide-ranging critical eye. It is indeed a bounteous blessing, then, to have collected in this volume Ó Cathasaigh's best, most representative, and most useful work." --Joseph Nagy, University of California, Los Angeles"--

Uniform Title

Project Muse UPCC books

Subject

• To 1550
• Irish literature > To 1100 > History and criticism
• Irish literature > Middle Irish, 1100-1550 > History and criticism
• Epic literature, Irish > History and criticism
• LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval
• HISTORY / Europe / Ireland
• SOCIAL SCIENCE / Folklore & Mythology

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Foreword / by Declan Kiberd -- Preface / by Matthieu Boyd -- Introduction: Irish myths and legends (2005) -- The semantics of síd (1977-79) -- Pagan survivals: the evidence of early Irish narrative (1984) -- The concept of the hero in Irish mythology (1985) -- The sister's son in early Irish literature (1986) -- Curse and satire (1986) -- The threefold death in early Irish sources (1994) -- Early Irish literature and law (2006-7) -- Cath maige tuired as exemplary myth (1983) -- The eponym of Cnogba (1989) -- Knowledge and power in Aislinge Óenguso (1997) -- "The wooing of Étaín" (2008) -- Táin bó cúailnge (2002) -- Mythology in Táin bó cúailnge (1993) -- Táin bó cúailnge and early Irish law (2005) -- Sírrabad súaltaim and the order of speaking among the Ulaid (2005) -- Ailill and Medb: a marriage of equals (2009) -- Cú Chulainn, the poets, and Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe (2005) -- Reflections on Compert conchobuir and Serglige con culainn (1994) -- "The expulsion of the Déisi" (2005) -- On the LU version of "the expulsion of the Déisi" (1976) -- The Déisi and Dyfed (1984) -- The theme of lommrad in Cath maige mucrama (1980-81) -- The theme of ainmne in Scéla cano meic gartnáin (1983) -- The rhetoric of Scéla cano meic gartnáin (1989) -- The rhetoric of Fingal rónáin (1985) -- On the Cín dromma snechta version of Togail brudne uí dergae (1990) -- Gat and díberg in Togail bruidne da derga (1996) -- The oldest story of the Laigin: observations on Orgain denna ríg (2002) -- Sound and sense in Cath almaine (2004) -- Tóraíocht dhiarmada agus ghráinne (1995) -- The pursuit of diarmaid and gráinne (translated by the author, 2011).

ISBN

• 9780268037369 (pbk.)
• 0268037361 (paper)

LCCN

^^2013029855

OCLC

• 841892446
• SCSB-11312043

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library