The Medieval Irish Odyssey

The Middle Irish saga Merugud Uilixis meic Leirtis, 'The Wandering of Ulysses Son of Laertes,' composed around 1200, is a showcase for the complex interaction between oral and written tradition, between folk and elite. The short prose saga, which is here translated in full for the first time in over a century, is one of the earliest vernacular adaptations of the Odyssey in medieval Europe and evidence of the Irish elite’s indebtedness to classical literature and learning. Into the framework...