One Book Of McCool's

October 18, 2010 8:29 AM

Where can I find a copy of the complete Fenian Cycle that's readable online, and/or what is the best translation of the Cycle, even if not online?

This is mostly a time-saving question, to prevent hours of Googling when I have such smarts at my fingertips here. I'm getting frustrated that when I do a search online all I can find are people who are talking about the Fenian Cycle's history and existence, but not the actual complete stories themselves. I'm sure it's out there, but I know so little about it, and the various names come in so many different spellings, and some Macpherson guy did a translation that is bad but all over the place, etc., etc. I'd rather be reading it than researching it.

So, hopefully there's a bright and knowledgeable expert who can point me in the right direction: I prefer an online version to read, but if there's the Best Version of the Fenian Cycle someplace other than online I'd like to know about it, too.

posted by AzraelBrown to Writing & Language (1 answer total)

Best answer: In its written form, the Fenian Cycle is not a singular text but rather a large and diverse body of work which includes prose, poems, ballads as well various notes and genealogical tidbits written over a period of about 1,000 years. Many of these have been edited and re-edited over the years and appear in different forms.

Within these various texts you can find many variations of the core stories with different chronologies and alternate endings.

Lacking a singular source text, it is not possible for there to be a single "complete" translation.

James Macpherson's Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem in Six Books is not a translation of anything but rather a "a romance of his own composition".

I suspect you might prefer a retelling of these stories in some form of cohesive narrative, but if you are interested in translations of the original source materials, I would reccommend the works of Kuno Meyer.

Here are a few of his translations from CELT:

The Quarrel between Finn and Oisín, ed. and trans. Kuno Meyer, Fianaigecht (Dublin 1910) 22–26.

The Chase of Síd na mBan Finn and the Death of Finn, ed. and trans. Kuno Meyer, Fianaigecht (Dublin 1910) 53–97.

Reicne Fothaid Canainne, ed. and trans. Kuno Meyer, Fianaigecht (Dublin 1910) 5–17.

The Finn episode from Gilla in Chomded húa Cormaic's poem "A Rí richid, réidig dam", ed. and trans. Kuno Meyer, Fianaigecht (Dublin 1910) 47–51.

The Death of Finn Mac Cumaill, ed. and trans. Kuno Meyer, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 1 (1897) 462–465.

Finn and Grainne, ed. and trans. Kuno Meyer, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 1 (1897) 460.

Two Tales about Finn, ed. and trans. Kuno Meyer, Revue Celtique 14 (1893) 242–243; 246–247.
posted by shoesfullofdust at 11:28 AM on November 14, 2010 [1 favorite]