Coire Sois, The Cauldron of Knowledge: A Companion to Early Irish Saga
offers thirty-one previously published essays by Tomás 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.