Táin Bó Cúailnge (“TOYN boh KOOL-nyuh”), “The Cattle-Raid of Cooley,” frequently referred to as the Táin, is one of the most important works of medieval Irish literature and has been called the national epic of Ireland. The Táin tells how Queen Maeve of Connacht, the western province of Ireland, leads an invasion of Ulster, the northern province, in order to capture an extraordinary brown bull, and how her invasion is almost single-handedly opposed by Ulster’s foremost hero, the demigod Cú Chulainn. As it narrates the ensuing war, the Táin both exemplifies and probes the limits of some of the central values and institutions of early Irish society.This new, judiciously abridged translation renders the text of the Táin in an approachable and even colloquial style, particularly aimed at university students and non-academic readers in North America, that nevertheless maintains enough accuracy to support close reading. This edition also contextualizes the Táin itself with more selections from the rest of the so-called Ulster Cycle—the related body of legends about the characters of the Táin, including accounts of their origins and their deaths—than any competing edition of the epic.
Matthieu Boyd is Professor of Literature and Chair of the School of the Humanities at Fairleigh Dickinson University. His previous medieval literature translations include The Four Branches of the Mabinogi (Broadview Press).
