The Destruction of the Inn

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A hodgepodge of lusty elves, magical spells and powerful Druids augments this tale of greed and death the fourth installment of the Ulster Cycle translated from the Gaelic by Eickhoff (Fallon's Wake). One of Ireland's treasured legends, it traces the rise and fall of Conaire, king of Erin. Born to the granddaughter of ta n, a princess of the people of the elf-mounds, Conaire is fathered by a bird-man before his mother's marriage to Etersc l, king of Erin. At his mother's request, he is subsequently fostered by a shepherd, two warriors and herself. The benevolent king allows the sons of his most trustworthy warrior to be fostered with the prince as well. Closer than siblings, the four youths fill their days with practical jokes and boyish pursuits. Upon the death of the king, Conaire is called back to the castle by a bird-man messenger and instructed to rule his kingdom peacefully and wisely. When he is proclaimed king above his three foster brothers, jealousy rears its head, and they begin raiding the land until Conaire is forced to act, banishing them from the kingdom. The brothers join with fellow raiders from England and terrorize the countryside, always setting their sights on Conaire. Originally an epic poem passed down orally, the story loses something in the translation into sometimes awkward English prose; its shifting time frames and viewpoints disrupt the flow of the story; and the Old Irish names are too similar and far too numerous to keep track of. While the story will intrigue students of Irish history, it may prove too confusing and scattered for the general reader. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Fourth volume of Eickhoff's Ulster Cycle, begun with The Raid (1997). This installment is an informal translation of the Irish classic Togail Bruidne Dá Derga, now inflated with extra detail, sexual nuances, and booming voices in sometimes bawdy dialogue. Prose passages are often given wings by alternating with Eickhoff's rhymed, clear-spoken modern verse (terrific verse that may remind some of Seamus Heaney's brookwater Anglo-Saxon in his recent Beowulf). These mystical eruptions, which occur during druidic or visionary moments, suggest in the author's view that the inn destroyed is not a real inn but actually belongs in the Otherworld. Sprawling and wonderful, without a single hint of Irish sentimentality. (Notes, appendices, footnotes, and some verse translations side by side with the original eighth-century verse.)