Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and of the Fianna of Ireland, Arranged and Put into English by Lady Gregory
1904
Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and of the Fianna of Ireland, Arranged and Put into English by Lady Gregory
1904
Lady Gregory's collection brings Ireland's oldest stories back to vivid life. Written during the Irish Literary Revival in 1904, this was one of the first works to make the ancient sagas accessible to modern English readers without the academic barriers of scholarly translations. The book divides into two sweeping halves: the arrival of the Tuatha De Danaan, the god-like people who brought magic to Ireland and ruled before humans; and the later age of the Fianna, the legendary warrior band led by Finn mac Cool and his son Ossian. These are stories of impossible battles, shape-shifting druids, enchanted objects, and the collision between divine power and human ambition. Gregory's prose has a muscular simplicity that honors the oral tradition from which these tales emerged. For anyone who wants to understand where Western fantasy draws its deepest well of imagery, this is where the well begins.
Editions
X-Ray
“And my desire,' he said, 'is a desire that is as long as a year; but it is love given to an echo, the spending of grief on a wave, a lonely fight with a shadow, that is what my love and my desire have been to me.””
— Lady Gregory
“What is whiter than snow?' he said. 'The truth,' said Grania.'What is the best colour?' said Finn. 'The colour of childhood,' said she.'What is hotter than fire?' 'The face of a hospitable man when he sees a stranger coming in, and the house empty.''What has a taste more bitter than poison?' 'The reproach of an enemy.''What is best for a champion?' 'His doings to be high, and his pride to be low.''What is the best of jewels?' 'A knife.''What is sharper than a sword?' 'The wit of a woman between two men.''What is quicker than the wind?' said Finn then. 'A woman’s mind,' said Grania. And indeed she was telling no lie when she said that.””
— Lady Gregory
“Then the creatures of the high air answered to the battle, foretelling the destruction that would be done that day; and the sea chattered of the losses, and the waves gave heavy shouts keening them, and the water-beasts roared to one another, and the rough hills creaked with the danger of the battle, and the woods trembled mourning the heroes, and the grey stones cried out at their deeds, and the wind sobbed telling them, and the earth shook, foretelling the slaughter; and the cries of the grey armies put a cloak over the sun, and the clouds were dark; and the hounds and the whelps and the crows, and the witches of the valley, and the powers of the air, and the wolves of the forests, howled from every quarter and on every side of the armies, urging them against one another.””
— Lady Gregory
“And while they were in the same place, there came a great mist about them and a darkness, so that they could not know what way they were going, and they heard the noise of a rider coming towards them. 'It would be a great grief to us,' said Conn, 'to be brought away into a strange country.””
— Lady Gregory
“He sat beside me pleasantly and played his sweet music to me, and in the end he foretold things that put drunkenness on my wits.””
— Lady Gregory
