Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish

Amergin the Bard probably existed in pre-Christian Ireland; there are works attributed to him. This is Morgan Llywelyn's account of Amergin's life, and how the Gaels might have arrived in Ireland on a journey lost in the mists of time. The book is very well done, rich with complex characters,

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villainy, heroism, tragedy and all that one might expect in this sort of epic. If you are at all interested in pre-Christian Ireland, it's well worth a read.

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Bloody, violent clan and tribal migration from Spain/Portugal to Ireland. Beautiful and lyrical at times, but a mirror the violent times.

Compelling, half-mythical story of the voyage of the Gaels to Ireland, circa 300 BCE.

Llywelyn is a master of the big canvas, and she effortlessly pot-boils up an array of interesting characters and powerful conflicts, centered on the large family of the "Sons of Mil."

The protagonist is Amergin, a

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semi-historical bard whose attributed poetry stands at the wellspring of European literature. A central theme is the contrasted loves of beauty and war, eros and thanatos, that stand at the core of the Irish soul.

Llywelyn also does the strongest job I've seen of imagining the daily life of the prehistoric Celts. Less convincing is her treatment of the Tuatha De Danaan, the mythical fairy folk, who in the story (and the myths) are displaced by the Gaels and retreat into the Otherworld. Imagining them into an otherwise realistic tale is a stretch, which detracts especially from the last 1/4 of the book.

Still, it's easy to forgive this talented and ambitious author for overreaching a bit when dealing with such epic and lofty material.

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