Irish Myths and Legends

Lady Augusta Gregory's Irish Myths and Legends, or Gods and Fighting Men as it was first titled in 1904, is an essential collection of Irish myths, legends and folk tales gathered by Gregory from Irish oral story tellers at the close of the nineteenth century. These epic tales are divided into two parts: the first charts the coming of the mythic Tuatha De Danaan to Ireland, the lives of Manannan and Lugh, and the tragedy of the Children of Lir. The second part follows the exploits and trials of Finn Mac Cumhal, the Fianna, Oisin, and the love story of Diarmuid and Grania. This is a timeless collection of Irish myths and legends - whimsical, tragic, astounding and ever familiar - borne through the centuries, and an essential part of Ireland's literary heritage.

LADY AUGUSTA GREGORY (1852-1932) was an Irish writer and playwright of the Gaelic Revival who, through her translations of Irish legends, her peasant comedies and fantasies based on folklore, her patronage of other artists and her work for the Abbey Theatre, played an immense part in the late nineteenth-century Irish literary renaissance.