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language: Irish
country: Ireland
year: 2017
form: novel(?)
genre(s): fantasy
dates read: 19.4.23-27.4.23
Darach Ó Scolaí’s Táin Bó Cuailnge is one one level, simply a composite modern Irish translation of recensions 1 and 2 of the Táin, like Kinsella’s or Carson’s English versions. it begins, however, with a prefatory note enjoining readers not to approach it as such, but rather as “síneadh eile lenár dtraidisiún scéalaíochta,” another extension of our storytelling tradition. in the spirit of this, I’m going to approach the text as a 2017 composition rather than a medieval one, because I think this opens interesting avenues of interpretation.
first of all, while the Táin certainly has plenty of homoeroticism, particularly around Cú Chulainn and Ferdiad’s battle, the way I’m given to read homoeroticism in medieval texts is different than how I read it in contemporary ones. passages that I wouldn’t seriously approach as innuendo — like Ceithearn mac Fionntain’s lomnocht + bior iarainn combo — in a medieval context suddenly raise substantial questions when I know they were written by someone in 2017. likewise everything about the “Comhrac Fheardia agus Chú Chulainn” chapter. I also noted previously some of Ó Scolaí’s other linguistic and editorial choices that contribute to this (e.g., the modernization of Brega as Breá, such that Cú Chulainn is visited and served nightly by the Fir Bhreá, the Lovely Men). if the Táin is reasonably homoerotic even for a medieval text, Táin Bó Cuailnge is on an even higher and more wildly homoerotic plane.
the language of the text is challenging as someone whose knowledge of Irish is almost all informally picked up or filtered through Scottish Gaelic, all the more so because Ó Scolaí generally tries to use modern Irish reflexes of the specific Old Irish words where it’s possible for him to do so. even knowing that I was missing things, though, this was an enjoyable read!
moods: adventurous, challenging, wacky