The Coming of Cuculain

by Standish O'Grady, 1stworld Library (Editor)

Overview

Cuculain and his friends are historical characters, seen as it were through mists of love and wonder, whom men could not forget, but for centuries continued to celebrate in countless songs and stories. They were not literary phantoms, but actual existences; imaginary and fictitious characters, mere creatures of idle fancy, do not live and flourish so in the world's memory. And as to the gigantic stature and superhuman prowess and achievements of those antique heroes, it must not be forgotten that all art magnifies, as if in obedience to some strong law; and so, even in our own times, Grattan, where he stands in artistic bronze, is twice as great as the real Grattan thundering in the Senate. I will therefore ask the reader, remembering the large manner of the antique literature from which our tale is drawn, to forget for a while that there is such a thing as scientific history, to give his imagination a holiday, and follow with kindly interest the singular story of the boyhood of Cuculain, "battle-prop of the valour and torch of the chivalry of the Ultonians."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421800899
Publisher:	1st World Library
Publication date:	02/08/2006
Pages:	148
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Mark Standish James O'Grady was an Irish author, reporter, and scholar who lived from September 18, 1846, to May 18, 1928. Inspired by Sylvester O'Halloran, O'Grady was a key figure in the Celtic Revival. He published the stories of Irish mythology as the History of Ireland: Heroic Period (1878), claiming that the only stories that came close to the Gaelic tradition were those from Homeric Greece. In his time, O'Grady was a contradiction. He was proud of his Gaelic heritage, but he was also a member of the Church of Ireland and a supporter of aristocratic virtues, especially criticizing bourgeois values and the uprooting cosmopolitanism of modernity. At one point, he wanted the Irish people to take over the British Empire and rename it the Anglo-Irish Empire. Through his writing, O'Grady had an impact on both the Anglo-Irish and Irish-Ireland cultures. The Abbey Theatre set made it clear that he had an impact on people, with Lady Gregory, W. B. Yeats, and George William Russell all saying that he helped them become interested in the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic culture. Some people in the political party Sinn Féin, like Arthur Griffith, who started the party, had good things to say about his work to bring back the Gaelic sense of heroism from the past.