THE TAIN; (Táin Bó Cúailnge)

Dublin, Ireland: Dolmen Press, 1969. Limited, [Not Numbered], Edition, (1/1750). Leather-bound. Fine in Very Good Dust Jacket and Very Good Plus Slipcase. Louis le Broquy. Folio. Black boards with white vignette to front board, as well as to spine, along with lettering. Special limited edition, 1 of 1750 copies. Translation from the Irish by Thomas Kinsella, from the Irish Tain Bo Cuailnge. With 131 brush drawings by Louis le Brocquy. Plates and maps. 14 point Pilgrim type with Perpetua and Felix titling. Dust jacket shows two half-inch-wide bands of fading from top to bottom, on either side of the spine. Price clipped from bottom of front dustjacket flap. A wee bit of shelfwear to one of the corners of the slipcase, where the le Brocquy illustration has been affixed by the publisher to the slipcase. 294 [2] pp. "Táin Bó Cúailnge (Modern Irish pronunciation: [ t a n bo ku l ]; 'the driving-off of cows of Cooley'), commonly known as The Cattle Raid of Cooley or The Táin, is an epic from early Irish literature which is often called "The Irish Iliad", even though, like the Icelandic sagas and most other Early Irish literature, the Táin is written in prosimetrum, i.e. prose with periodic additions of verse composed by the characters. The Táin tells of a war against Ulster by Queen Medb of Connacht and her husband King Ailill,[1] who intend to steal the stud bull Donn Cuailnge. Due to a curse upon the King and warriors of Ulster, the invaders are opposed only by teenaged demigod Cú Chulainn.[2] The Táin is traditionally set in the 1st century in a pre-Christian heroic age, and is the central text of a group of tales known as the Ulster Cycle. It survives in three written versions or "recensions" in manuscripts of the 12th century and later, the first a compilation largely written in Old Irish, the second a more consistent work in Middle Irish, and the third an Early Modern Irish version. The Táin has had an enormous influence on Irish literature and culture. It is often considered Ireland's national epic..." (Wikipedia).