A Celtic Miscellany

Description

Including works from Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Breton and Manx, this Celtic Miscellany offers a rich blend of poetry and prose from the eighth to the nineteenth century, and provides a unique insight into the minds and literature of the Celtic people. It is a literature dominated by a deep sense of wonder, wild inventiveness and a profound sense of the uncanny, in which the natural world and the power of the individual spirit are celebrated with astonishing imaginative force. Skifully arranged by theme, from the hero-tales of Cú Chulainn, Bardic poetry and elegies, to the sensitive and intimate writings of early Celtic Christianity, this anthology provides a fascinating insight into a deeply creative literary tradition.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.A Celtic MiscellanyPreface
Maps:
(i) Ireland
(ii) Wales
Hero-Tale and Adventure
Note
1. How Cú Chulainn Got His Name
2. Cú Chulainn and the Charioteer
3. The Killing of Edarcomhol
4. Cú Chulainn’s Meeting with Findabhair
5. Ceithern’s Blood-transfusion and Death
6. Cú Chulainn in the Valley of the Deaf
7. The Story of Deirdre
8. The Death of Conchobhar
9. How Celtchar Killed the “Brown Mouse”
10. How Cobhthach Contrived his Brother’s Death
11. The Recognition of Ulysses

Nature
Note
12. May-time
13. The Coming of Winter
14. Winter Cold
15. Winter
16. The Four Seasons
17. A Storm at Sea
18. The Hermit’s Hut
19. Arran
20. The Hill of Howth
21. Deirdre Remembers a Scottish Glen
22. The Ivied Tree-Top
23. Suibhne the Wild Man in the Forest
24. Suibhne Praises the Garbh
25. To May and January
26. The Birch-wood Bower
27. The Snow
28. The Mist
29. The Stars
30. The Burial of the Poet, Dead for Love
31. The Poet’s Arbour in the Birch-wood
32. To a Birch-tree Cut Down, and Set Up in the Llanidloes for a Maypole
33. The Mansion of the Woods
34. To the Sun
35. To the New Moon
36. To the Moon
37. The Mountain Stream
38. Winter and Summer

Love
Note
39. The Dream of Oenghus
40. How Trystan Won Esylt
41. Secret Love
42. The Jealous Husband
43. The Seagull
44. In Defence of Women
45. To Her Hair
46. Reconciliation
47. The Lover’s Doubts
48. Do Not Torment Me, Woman
49. The Hidden Love
50. Take Those Lips Away
51. Trust No Man
52. Happy for You, Blind Man!
53. Hate Goes Just as Far as Love
54. The Blackthorn Pin
55. The Indifferent Mistress
56. Parted Lovers
57. The Message of the Eyes
58. She’s the White Flower of the Blackberry
59. How Glad Are the Small Birds
60. Young Lad of the Braided Hair
61. At the Fiddlers’
62. He Whose Hand and Eye Are Gentle
63. The Black-haired Lad
64. The Laundress’s Sweetheart
65. Mary, My Darling
66. Kate of Garnavilla
67. The Ballad of Marivonnik
68. Fhir a’ Bhàta
69. The Slender Lad

Epigram
Note
70. The Wayside Fountain
71. The Blackbird’s Song
72. The Hermit Blackbird
73. The Spring
74. Heather Flowers
75. Mountain Lakes
76. Sliabh gCua
77. Merioneth
78. The Pole Star
79. Night
80. Night and Morning
81. The Wind
82. The Storm
83. Thick Snow
84. The Snowfall
85. Flood-tide
86. Autumn
87. Winter Has Come
88. Women’s Tongues
89. Women’s Hats
90. The Proud Lady
91. The Twig and the Root
92. Love Gives Wings
93. Her Light Step
94. Like the Birch-tree
95. Lovelier than the Sun
96. Red and White Roses
97. Promiscuity
98. Dream and Reality
99. The End of the Day
100. The Boorish Patron
101. Finn’s Generosity
102. Weariness of Body and Weariness of Spirit
103. How Happy Are the Wild Birds
104. Quando Ver Venit Meum?
105. Sorrow
106. Woe Is Me that I Ever Was Born
107. Old Age Comes not Alone
108. Old Age and Death
109. Life’s Uncertainty
110. Thoughts of Death
111. Stealthy Death
112. Not Divided in Death
113. On the Tomb
114. The Lover’s Grave
115. For a Grave at Trawsfynydd
116. Epitaph on a Little Girl
117. Everyman’s Epitaph
118. On Two Shipwrecked Sailors
119. The Praises of God
120. Christ Before Pilate
121. A Vain Pilgrimage
122. The Monk’s Mistress
123. On Mael Mhuru the Poet
124. Dinas Bran
125. Imperial Caesar Dead and Turned to Clay
126. The Court of Ifor Hael

“Celtic Magic”
Note
127. The Adventure of Conle
128. The Story of Lludd and Llefelys
129. Ruadh in the Land Under the Wave
130. The Creation of Blodeuwedd
131. The Magic Gaming-board
132. From The Voyage of Mael Dúin
133. The Magic Pigs of Cruachu
134. The Black and White Sheep and the Blazing Tree
135. From The Voyage of the Uí Chorra
136. The Three Werewolves from the Cave of Cruacha
137. How the Fenians Found the Fairy Hill
138. The Air Ship
139. The Burial of the Priest’s Concubine
140. Drowned Giantesses

Description
Note
141. Froech in the Dark Pool
142. Froech and the Fairy Women
143. Midhir’s Invitation to the Earthly Paradise
144. The Islands of the Earthly Paradise
145. The Arrival at the Earthly Paradise
146. Morning Sun
147. Sunshine Through the Window
148. The Mowers
149. The White Lake of Carra
150. Iubhdhán’s Fairy House
151. Uncomfortable Lodgings
152. The Cliff of Alternan
153. Édaín the Fairy
154. Olwen
155. Gruffudd ap Cynan’s Wife
156. The Reign of Gruffudd ap Cynan
157. From The Misty Corrie
158. From The Song of Summer
159. You Are Whiter than the Swan
160. At the Battle of Magh Mucraimhe
161. The Battle of Ventry
162. The Monster of Scattery Island
163. St. Brendan’s Vision of Hell
164. The Homeward Voyage
165. The Troublesome Gillie

Humour and Satire
Note
166. A Cursed Undutiful Son-in-law
167. Bricriu’s Practical Joke
168. Culhwch’s Arrival at the Court of King Arthur
169. Some of King Arthur’s Wonderful Men
170. “Eating a Mouse Includes Its Tail”
171. The Guest House at the Monastery of Cork
172. The Elders of the End of the World
173. From the Early Welsh Laws
174. The Vanity of Women
175. The Girls of Llanbadarn
176. A Night at an Inn
177. The Magpie’s Advice
178. The Poet and the Grey Friar
179. My Purse, Gramercy to You for This!
180. Welsh Harper and English Bagpiper
181. The Letter of O’Neill to Sir John McCoughleyn
182. “Civil Irish” and “Wild Irish”
183. The Student’s Life
184. A Smart Young Woman
185. The Midwives and the Father
186. Where Are You Going to, my Pretty Maid?
187. Egan O’Rahilly and the Minister
188. On the Murder of David Gleeson, Bailiff

Bardic Poetry
Note
189. Elegy on Llywelyn ap Gruffudd
190. The Battle of Tal Moelfre
191. The Killing of Hywel ab Owein
192. Maguire and MacDermot
193. The Fertile Lands of Cathal Ó Conchobhair
194. Prosperity in the Time of Tadhg Ó Conchobhair
195. The Praise of Fermanagh
196. The Harp of Cnoc Í Chosgair
197. From the Lament for the Four Macdonalds
198. To the Earl of Argyll before the Battle of Flodden
199. Who Will Buy a Poem?
200. On the Death of William Gould
201. To Arouse the Gael in Support of Prince Charles

Elegy
Note
202. From the Gododdin
203. From the Elegy on Cynddylan
204. Eimher’s Keen over Cú Chulainn
205. The Wild Man of the Woods
206. The Wild Man’s Life
207. The Wild Man Comes to the Monastery
208. Deirdre’s Farewell to Scotland
209. Elegy on Druim nDen
210. Senility
211. Elegy on Gruffydd ab Addaf ap Dafydd
212. The Vision
213. The Unquiet Grave
214. Ty’n y Coed
215. Longing
216. The Braes of Glen Broom
217. Elegy on the Ruins of Timoleague Abbey
218. Lament for Reilly
219. Elegy for His Daughter Ellen
220. The Death of Màiri
221. The Lament for Art O’Leary

Religion
Note
222. St. Columba’s Island Heritage
223. The Wish of Manchán of Liath
224. The Hermit
225. St. Brendan and the Harper
226. St. Ide’s Wish
227. I Should Like to Have a Great Ale-Feast
228. The Little Boys Who Went to Heaven
229. A Ghost Story
230. The Resurrection of Bresal Son of Diarmaid
231. From The Vision of Adhamhnán
232. The Tree of Life
233. How St. Scoithin Got His Name
234. St. Mael Anfaidh and the Bird’s Lament for St. Mo Lua
235. St. Columba’s Nettle Broth
236. Mo Chua’s Riches
237. Repentance before Death
238. Damnation
239. Christ’s Bounties
240. The Murder of Abel
241. St. Meriasek Arrives in Cornwall
242. The Best and Worst Nail in the Ark
243. A Prayer to the Virgin
244. A Charm with Yarrow

Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson (1909-1991) began his career as a lecturer in Celtic at Cambridge, before becoming the first chair of the Department of Celtic Language and Literature at Harvard. He undertook war service with the Uncommon Languages section of British censorship and subsequently held professorships at Harvard and Edinburgh.GB

Additional information