The Hound of Ulster

by Rosemary Sutcliff

Book Overview

This saga of the Irish Celts is re-told by Rosemary Sutcliff with a magical weaving together of passion and poetry. The boy who takes up the spear and shield of Manhood on this day will become the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000UOK3V2
• Release Date: January 1965
• Publisher: Dutton
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Should be back in print

The Hound of Ulster is a gripping retelling of the Ulster Cycle - the Irish myths about the semi-divine warrior hero Cuchulain and the Cattle Raid of Cooley. The stories apparently date from the bronze age oral tradition, but were finally written down in the 8th century. Sutcliff writes well and vividly. The stories are a mixture of savagery and lyricism, wild fantasy and psychological realism. Cuchulain in his battle frenzy literally metamorphoses into a monster, yet when he mourns the dead he is completely human. The original Ulster Cycle, also known as The Tain, is available in an English translation by Thomas Kinsella, with stunning illustrations by Louis Le Brocquy, from Oxford University Press. But the text is extremely hard to follow: the Hound of Ulster is much more readable for newcomers to the story. And anyone who likes this novel should read the haunting WB Yeats poem, Cuchulain Comforted, about the hero's death. It's full of ambivalence about heroes and men of violence: how do we admire their courage while deploring their deeds?