deltasalmon wrote:
For Irish legends or mythology I would recommend Lady Gregory. Her works are in free domain and although the formatting is pretty plain you can read it all right here:
http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/g ... dy-gregoryI wouldn't be a huge fan of Lady Gregory; she had a tendency to colour Irish tradition with her own imagination.
The Ulster Cycle of stories would be a great place to start. I'd recommend:
The Táin by Thomas Kinsella: the book not only provides a reader-friendly translation of the mid-ninth-century tale,
Táin Bó Cúailnge, but also some of the
rémscéla 'prequels', and other stories, that help explain the
Táin itself.
Another good book on Irish Legends is Gantz's
Early Irish Myths and Sagas, which not only touches on the Ulster Cycle, but contains stories related to the Mythological Cycle, such as
'The Wooing of Étaín and 'The Dream of Óengus' etc....
Its difficult to get your hands on translations of Early Finn Cycle material, these are mostly translated in academic journals (some of which are available to read online for free).
However, some of the early Finn Cycle material can be found in Kuno Meyer's
Fíanaigecht, and he directs the reader to other publications in which to find Early Finn material published prior to 1911.
For some contextualisation for these tales, I'd recommend
An Introduction to Early Irish Literature by the late Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin.
Another good resource is
The Celtic Heroic Age by Koch and Carey, where you'll not only find a translation of the earliest account of the 'salmon of knowledge tale', as well as other mythological, historical and hagigographical tales; but also tales associated with medieval Wales; transcriptions from continental Celtic inscriptions; and a collection of descriptions of the Celts from Classical sources.
If you are interested in continental Celtic religion and history, and how the religion manifests itself in the Irish tradition, I would recommend
Celtic Mythology by Prionsias Mac Cana. Its one of my favourite books.
All of these can be found for really cheap online: e.g. abebooks
Unfortunately, most of the Irish legends from Modern Irish are only available in Irish.
Cian
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Is Fearr súil romhainn ná ḋá ṡúil inár ndiaiḋ
(Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin)
Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice
I'm familiar with Munster Irish/ Gaolainn na Mumhan (GM) and the Official Standard/an Caighdeán Oifigiúil (CO)