The Raid: A Dramatic Retelling of Ireland's Epic Tale

By Randy Lee Eickhoff

Book Overview

Queen Maeve has declared war upon the province of Ulster in an effort to take possession of the Brown Bull of Cooley. Ultimately, this is an attempt to match the wealth of her husband, King Ailill of Connacht, who owns a magnificent white bull. Only Cuchulainn, a boy warrior, stands between Ulster and certain annihilation. Supported by the Morrigan, the goddess of war, he begins a reign of terror upon the Connacht warriors. In his heroic stand, the reader discovers the genesis of the determination of the Irish people, their will to stand alone against oppression.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312851928
• ISBN13: 9780312851927
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

The Cattle Raid of Cooley!

Eickhoff's works are all very well done. This work is no exception. He has taken the Celtic epic the Tain and dissected the work, giving it a proper and detailed treatment in telling the tales of Cuchullain, the Hound of Ulster, the single most important hero in Irish myth/history. I recommend getting all these books in the Ulster Cycle in hardback form because you will want to keep these and display them, then reread them again in a few years. Excellent work.

One of the great epics of the world

This wonderful book deserves to be on everyone's shelf. The story of the Cattle Raid of Cooley is translated and retold here in novelistic form to great effect. This story ranks up there with The Iliad and Beowulf as one of the great epics of the world.

A solid novelization

Eickhoff manages to transform one of the great epic poems in Western literature into a solidly-written novel. What it loses in poetic form it makes up for in immediacy. Not for the delicate of sensibilities, but a good introduction to the piece for those who have a hard time dealing with poetry in translation.