Background of the Táin
Inspired by background information in the Kinsella book, along with analysis of the text itself.
- Glossary
Short definitions of the words the text uses and does not explain.
- Customs a reader needs
Geasa, fosterage, single combat at a ford, sureties, satire, hospitality and the other rules the story takes for granted. - How the names work
What mac and Cú and Bó mean, how fathers' names and epithets are handled, how one man ends up with three names, and where Kinsella says the spellings give way. - How the story survives
The three manuscripts, how old the story is, why the text is full of gaps and repeats, and the scribe who did not believe a word of it. - How to say the names
Kinsella's pronunciation guide in full: his rules for consonants and vowels, then his table of persons and of places, in his own notation. - Place-names and the route of the Táin
Why the story keeps stopping to say how a ford got its name, and how the Connacht army's march can be followed on a modern map. - The otherworld, druids and prophecy
The síd and its people, the war goddesses, the druids who read signs, and the poets who see ahead. - The pangs of Ulster
Why the Ulstermen lie helpless for most of the war, how long it lasts, and the scholars' two guesses about what it means. - The tales around the Táin
The pre-tales this book puts first, why they are there, and the later tales that carry the action on. - The Ulster cycle and the world of the story
The four groups of early Irish tales, who and what the Ulster cycle is about, and the provinces, peoples, kings and warriors the Táin moves among. - The verse passages
What the stepped rosc passages are, why they are obscure, and how little Kinsella claims for his versions of them. - Weapons, feats and the warp-spasm
The gae bolga, the named feats, the salmon-leap and what happens to Cúchulainn's body in battle. - What the Táin is
The cattle raid at the centre of the Ulster cycle, what Kinsella claims for it, and how to read a story with no single tone.