so you read the táin, what next?
táin bó cúailnge is a great starting place if you’re interested in medieval irish lit. it’s famous for a lot of reasons – its length, its quality, the fact that there are good, accessible modern translations available… definitely a go-to if people want to know where to start
but say you’ve read the táin, and maybe you’ve even read the remscéla (fore-tales, prequels), and you know there’s a shitton of other material out there but you have no idea what direction to go in
here are my recommendations for
what medieval irish text should you read next based on which bits of the táin you liked most
a non-exhaustive* and extremely biased list**
*I may or may not make further recommendations at some stage.
**i tried to minimise the ulster cycle content here bc that seems like an obvious jumping off point and you’re probably here for Weird Shit but there’s still some ulster cycle bc i like it
if you were intrigued by the hints of supernatural fuckery going on in the background but still like having some humans around -> togail bruidne da derga (the destruction of da derga’s hostel)
if you have no interest in humans and just want supernatural fuckery all the way down -> cath maige tuired (the second battle of moytura)
if the ríastrad/warp-spasm gets you excited ;) and you want more body horror and weird creatures -> immram curaig mael duin (the voyage of mael duin). or pretty much any voyage text but mael duin has some of the fuckier creatures in it
if you’re like “yeah! medb DID effectively utilise girl power!” and/or just really want to see cú chulainn getting beaten up -> serglige con culainn (the wasting sickness of cú chulainn)
if you’re into the geography of it and how events relate to place names and histories -> this is called ‘dindshenchas’, the lore of place-names, and there are whole collections of just this, but you might also like acallam na senorach (tales of the elders of ireland) which is that but with a frame-story around it, featuring st patrick on a road trip with the last of the fíanna
if you read the mustering of the ulaid and were like “oh hey a big-ass list of names? i LOVE a big-ass list of names! give me all the names!” -> lebor gabala erenn (the book of invasions). alternatively, dindshenchas.
if you cried over the fight with fer diad and generally enjoyed having Feelings -> well, ideally, early modern prose texts (FULL of feelings), but since there are minimal translations of those available, consider longes mac nuislenn, oidheadh chloinne lir, or anything with the word “aided” or “oidheadh” in the title (it means “violent/tragic death”)
if you like the references to classical texts that happen now and again -> merugud uilix meic laertis (the wanderings of ulysses son of laertes), aka the medieval irish retelling of the odyssey, which bears no resemblance to the odyssey; OR togail troí (the destruction of troy), the irish retelling of the trojan war that had a noticeable influence on the táin (togail troí is more relevant, merugud uilix is funnier)
if you like it when people insult/trash-talk each other -> scela mucce meic datho (the story of mac datho’s pig)
if you just really want to know what the fuck is going on with the bulls -> echtra nera (the adventure of nera). this is only one version of the backstory but it has some cool supernatural fuckery in it so what’s not to like
if you want more láeg/cú chulainn content -> tóraigheacht gruaidhe griansholas (the pursuit of gruaidh griansholas), which is a late text featuring excellent láeg moments
this has been: 2am medieval lit recommendations with néide, your host. tune in tomorrow and i might actually give you links to help with finding these. have fun.
edit: now updated with links. where possible i have provided a link to read the text free and legally online. some are pdfs, some are archive.org, some are just text. two exceptions: tales of the elders of ireland is a very recent translation and is not available legally online; link is an affiliate link to amazon, so if you buy it via that link, i get a few pennies. i recommend supporting your local libraries and bookshops if you can tho. dillon’s translation of serglige con culainn is also not available online that i could find; link is to a scan. it was published in the 50s so may not be *quite* out of copyright yet but close enough i hope. (quality is not great as i had to compress it.)
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