Myles Dillon (1900–1972)

What ages would I recommend it too? – Thirteen and up.

Length? – A week plus.

Characters? – Non.

Setting? – The Celtic Realms

Written approximately? – 2003.

Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – Confused.

Any issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? Yes. With so many unusual names, there need to be maps depicting where these places are. I can't figure out how to pronounce them, or figure out where they are in relation to each other.

Another major issues, is time passage. For pages, it'll go on that "x" is the way to do things. Then suddenly, talking abut the same things, only "y" is the way to do them. It's as if the time passage headings were lost. So, perhaps one set of pages depicts 21100 ASD, and the jump to 300 AD is not clear to the reader.

Short storyline: Unsure.

Notes for the reader: You need maps, a dictionary, and more to comprehend this history resource. Best to study it while very young, when such things are easy to remember.… (más)

Irish Sagas is a collection of twelve essays, each by a different Irish scholar, each discussing a different traditional Irish tale. The essays were originally broadcast as radio lectures on Radio Éireann (in, I'm presuming, the 1950's and 1960's), which means that they are aimed at a general audience, albeit one that is presumed to have some basic knowledge of Irish literature, rather than at a scholarly audience. This makes the essays surprisingly readable, even today, and that, combined with the frequent use of phrases such as "a play which you have probably seen performed at the Abbey Theatre" and "as you probably remember learning in school", gives the essays a friendly, charming feel. These are not in-depth analyses of the tales, but they do provide a basic introduction to the manuscripts in which the tales are written, the possible origins of the tales, their relationships with other tales, and the ways in which the tales were taken up by later generations of Irish storytellers. Most of the essays do provide a brief synopsis of the tales being discussed, but a basic familiarity with Irish literature, particularly with the Mythological Cycle and the Ulster Cycle, is recommended. Many of the essays also touch a bit on the deeper meanings of the tales, and the ways in which certain elements within them may represent survivals from pagan times, but again, this is not in-depth. Overall, although Irish Sagas may be a bit dated, it still provides a decent introduction to traditional Irish literature, in a readable, non-scholarly format.… (más)