Cath Maige Tuired Review

It’s been a long time since the last ancient myth book I read and reviewed (I think the last one was Volsunga Saga), and it was fun to return to this kind of storytelling. In this case, we have a translation of an Irish myth involving a war between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians, and it has everything you and I have come to enjoy about these sorts of works: talking swords, gods with a profound weakness for porridge, and sorcerous rap battles to determine the fate of the land.

Sometimes, these books can be difficult to get through, whether because they’re long, or the style and language, even in translation, is so opaque and alien to a modern viewpoint, but that wasn’t the case here. Cath Maige Tuired, as translated by Morgan Daimler, is as approachable as any piece of modern fiction, albeit with less defined narrative structure. Still, it manages to have vivid characters, and with each “chapter” being only a paragraph or two, you might find yourself sitting down and reading the entire thing in a single pass.

Like the “northerness” that so inspired Tolkien (and thereby the rest of the fantasy genre), which was on such fine display in Volsunga Saga and other works, Cath Maige Tuired is riddled with elements that will seem familiar to any avid reader of fantasy. “Aes,” for instance,” is an ancient Irish word meaning “people of,” and will be familiar to anyone who has read Wheel of Time. Now, there are no Aes Sedai in this mythology, but it is surely the same root. Similarly, we find magic swords (which monologue their histories and deeds whenever unsheathed), druids, witches, and the most powerful cupbearers in all storytelling. No, really: these cupbearers can deprive enemy armies of every lake, stream, or other body of water so that they die of thirst before coming to battle.

That undermines the druids’ power a bit, since amongst the ability to call storms of fire and leech away valor from their opponents, the druids also have the ability to…stop them from urinating? These are the kinds of strange abilities and details that you don’t find outside of mythic storytelling.

If you thought that the Tuatha Dé Danann were the people of faerie, like I did, this book might not be quite what you expect. I’m still not clear on exactly where they fit into the traditional mythology (or their Formorian opponents, for that matter), but they are neither strictly human. Cath Maige Tuired raised more questions than it answered in that regard, but that might be because I am nothing close to an expert in traditional Irish mythology. All else aside, this was an excellent read, and I think you’ll enjoy it, too. Now I just need to figure out how to incorporate wounded-crane-rapping-wizards into a story.