Hero Tales

(2.5,3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

IRFL 30040 Hero Tales at UCD; This Module will describe the cycles of epical lore which have survived down to recent times in the oral tradition of the Irish language. These include stories belonging to the Mythological Cycle, the Ulster Cycle, the Fianna Cycle, and the King Cycle. They also include a number of romantic tales which derive from texts written from the late Middle Ages down to the 18th century. All of the hero-tales, to a greater or less extent, show the interplay between the literary and oral streams in Irish tradition, and attention will be drawn to the varied tendencies involved in this.