Discusses the textual relationship of the various versions of the story concerning the revolt by the aithechthuatha (or ‘vassal peoples’), and analyses the recension known as Bruiden Meic Da Réo (providing comparisons with the alternative recension Scél ar Chairbre Cinn Cait throughout), offering an interpretation of this narrative as a developed exemplum principis in which the conflicting elements of the kingship ideology are scrutinized.
Deals systematically with thirty narrative inconsistencies identified in the text and explains them away as (A) aesthetically trivial, (B) non-existent, or (C) functioning to strengthen the saga’s narrative coherence at some level.
O’Connor (Ralph): The destruction of Da Derga’s hostel: kingship and narrative artistry in a mediaeval Irish saga.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. x + 386 pp.
Rev. by
Matthieu Boyd, in Celtica 28 (2016), pp. 246-249.
T. M. Charles-Edwards, in CMCS 68 (Winter, 2014), pp. 116-118.
David Elton Gay, in Fabula 55/1-2 (2014), pp. 201-202.
Helen Imhoff, in ZCP 62 (2015), pp. 242-247.
Kelly A. Kilpatrick, in Nottingham Medieval Studies 58 (2014), pp. 276-279.
Kevin Murray, in JEGP 114/3 (Jul., 2015), pp. 451-453.
Tomás Ó Cathasaigh, in Speculum 89/1 (Jan., 2014), pp. 225-226.
Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, in Aigne 6 (2014), pp. 37-38.
O’Connor (Ralph): Was classical imitation necessary for the writing of large-scale Irish sagas? Reflections on Táin bó Cúailnge and the ‘watchman device’.
O’Connor (Ralph) (ed.): Classical literature and learning in medieval Irish narrative / edited by Ralph O’Connor.
SCH, 34. Cambridge: Brewer, 2014. viii + 244 pp. (Studies in Celtic history, 34).
Rev. by
Mariamne Briggs, in CMCS 71 (Summer, 2016), pp. 83-85.
John Carey, in International journal of the classical tradition 22/2 (Jun., 2015), pp. 258-262.
Denis Casey, in IHS 39, nº 156 (Nov., 2015), pp. 683-685.
Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, in StC 49 (2015), pp. 202-203.