A collection of legends from early Christian times, in which the author retells the stories with a directness and simplicity which makes them refreshingly modern. The stories have a literary merit and a style and character of their own, not dissimilar to the sophistication of the great tales of ancient Greece. Included in this collection are: The Children of Lir, The Wooing of Etain, Diarmuid and Gráinne, The Combat at the Ford, The Children of Tuireann, The Sickbed of Cuchulain and Deirdre and the Sons of Usna. One of the most significant aspects of Irish myths is that they were recorded at a time before the literature of modern Europe was born and when the literary energy of the classical world was dead. These legends are a connecting link between the two literary traditions and were first recorded in written form in early Christian Ireland, which had not felt the direct influence of Rome. The men who wrote the myths began to emerge as the earliest classic scholars of the modern world.