The Táin by Alan Titley and Eoin Coveney

The Great Irish Battle Epic

A new children’s retelling of Ireland’s great epic legend featuring the hero Cúchulainn and the warrior Queen Maeve

This is Irish myth as you haven’t read it before.

Queen Maeve’s army is marching north to steal the great brown bull, the pride of Ulster. But one man stands in their way. Cúchulainn, the Hound of Ulster, vowed in boyhood to protect his homeland – even if it means taking on an invading army himself.

One by one Maeve’s warriors challenge the hero, and one by one they fall. Can Cúchulainn hold out until reinforcements arrive – and how will he fare against the one man in Ireland he doesn’t want to fight?

Ireland’s most important myth is retold in English for children by the great scholar of Old Ireland, Alan Titley. Titley goes back to the source material and his translation sparkles with the wit and humour, as well as the thrill and battle, of the ancient tale. Illustrations by comic artist Eoin Coveney lend a modern feel.

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Every Irish child knows the story of the Brown Bull of Cooley. It's one of the standards, along with the Children of Lir and the Salmon of Knowledge. However, this story goes into a fantastic amount of detail, covering parts of hte story I never heard before and adding to the impact each fight has. 

(Also, I thought it was this fight where Cuchulainn dies, but it isn't! My bad.)

Alan's writing is clear and easy to follow, and Eoin's illustrations are a marvel. They're just beautiful; I could spend hours examining them for different details. The story is exciting and moves along at the right speed. I would have liked a dramatis personae; we meet a lot of people, some with very smiliar names, and I found it tricky remembering them all, but that's a consistent problem with me in every book and the version I was reading was not complete so there may be a list in the finished product.

 (Edit: I have been informed by the publisher that there is a list of characters in the finished book! I jumped the gun a bit there, sorry.)

I can't wait to see this in real life; I'm really excited to be able to study the pictures up close and reread my favourite parts of the story. This is going to be a fantastic read for anyone with an interest in Irish mythology. I hope it leads to many more in this style.

The Táin publishes, very appropriately, on the 17th of March, 2023. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.